Merry Christmas

It has been a week and a half since my last post. This will be a short post as I have little poker to report. My days have been dedicated to visiting friends and family, eating, drinking, sleeping, and more eating. I think I gained 10 pounds and many of my clothes do not fit anymore. No matter, in a couple of days my typical New Year's resolutions kick in and I will be once again frequenting the gym (usually by February this resolution fizzles).

I have played vitually no internet poker. I was going to play today, but instead got carried away with Guitar Hero. By the time I clicked on stars the Sunday Million and heads up $215 were already underway. I don't mind though as I'm a little tired and the Million is $1050 today so I shouldn't play unless fresh anyway at that price. As well, I need to work on my Guitar Hero so I don't get hustled by my friends (Kathy and I had a party on Friday. Travis waited until I was really drunk before asking to play me Guitar Hero for money.....I lost 50 bucks. Oh, and for those that care, play Wolters for cash he really sucks).

I have played live 3 times, all stud. The first game was 20/40 kill and the other two started as 30/60 but were quickly bumped up to 40/80 kill games. I booked three consecutive wins $775, $1925, and $5,400 respectively. No complaints. FOR THOSE INTERESTED THIS GAME IS NOT RAKED so please don't have the gaming commission waste their time investigating.

Anway, the game seems to be getting bigger. A couple of the colourful characters feel that by juicing up the game to 40/80 it will slow down the chasing. In my humble opinion I think it just means bigger pots. Some of these guys really enjoy playing greek style (coming from behind) and I don't think the size of the bets are going to scare them. Obviously, the bigger the game the better as far as I'm concerned, but in the end I go with the flow and be happy that I get to play. I cannot list who regularily plays but I will say that each of them are either businessmen or professionals, all of whom love to gamble and talk trash (the only exception is Todd, but his stud game is still a work in progress so the threat is minimal...hehe). None of them play for a living and I feel I have a very good read on each of them.

Reinacting stud hands is a little more complicated than in holdem but I do want to talk about 2 hands in particular. These two were chosen because I think they are interesting and because they ended happily by me raking in sizeable pots.

Hand #1:

It's 40/80 and I limp in first position with 932 all clubs. In our game we have big blind / small blind with no low card bring in or ante - a bit unconvential, but so is the tempo of this game. There was no point in raising to isolate at this point because it was getting late, people were stuck, and bluffing was very unlikely if I couldn't make a hand. Anyway, Mike calls, Rosie calls, Larry calls, and Nick checks big blind (I will refrain from using last names). Next card out for me is the 4 of clubs so I have a three straight and four flush (92 of clubs showing). However, Rosie shows JJ, Larry shows KQ, and Nick shows 83 (and each player has two cards buried). With a pair showing Rosie fires out $80, Larry raises, and Nick reraises to $240 and action is to me. I know Rosie has only a pair of jacks because he raises almost any pair on 3rd street. I know Larry hit the Q on 4th and raises because he can beat the jacks, a good raise. But Nick in the big blind reraises with 83 showing? I think he may have two pair 8s and 3s, but he is also capable of raising with one pair here to isolate trying to get heads up with Larry. As well, he may be a little on tilt at this point because he lost a few big pots in a row. So, knowing Rosie and Larry are going to call I feel I'm getting good equity on calling against at worst Nick's two pair. One final piece of information is that I have not seen any 5s, 6s, or Aces which means I am more likely to back into a straight and I have only seen 1 other club out so with 8 clubs left I can easily make a flush. Anway, next card I get a 9, Rosie gets a 4, Larry gets a 4, and Nick gets a 3. Checked to Nick he bets. This is tricky now because if Nick had 8s and 3s he now has a fullhouse which means I'm drawing so thin. I have a 3 in the hole though so I'm not convinced he has a fullhouse, and with a pair of 9s now I have additional outs to beat him if he has two pair. So, I call and see what comes next. Rosie and Larry also call, but I'm not afraid of them at this point because if either of them hit jacks up or queens up they would have bet into Nick. On 6th, Rosie gets a 6, Larry gets a 7, Nick gets a 10 and I get a 2. Checked to Nick he bets. Now, I'm a little concerned because he is betting into my hand showing 9922, however I have invested a lot and the pot is big and I have outs even if he has a full house with two 9s remaining. Both Rosie and Larry call, with Rosie stating 'I shouldn't call but there's too much money in there', so I'm not too worried about either of their hands. On 7th I get the a of clubs making an ace high flush. Nick bets out. I was hoping he would slow down on 7th, but his bet made me feel like I was donating to a full house. However, after calling and Rosie and Larry both folding (neither had 2 pair or would have called) Nick shows aces and 3s, two pair, he slow played the aces. Lucky river me, however I had a lot of outs against that hand. Nick proceeds to call me a hack for calling three bets cold on 4th with a flush draw, however, mathematically it was a good call and in fact I would take my hand over any of theirs on 4th 8 times a week.

Hand #2

Same day about an hour later. Nick raised on 3rd and only Rosie and I called. I have 10s in the hole with a 4 up. Rosie has a J and Nick has an 8. I was going to three bet but with Rosie already calling one bet I knew he was going nowhere and Nick was in steamroll mode so I thought I would disguise my strength (I do this sometimes with wired pairs to mix it up. I fast play much more often with split pairs because there is little inherent deception). Fourth, Nick gets a 3 Rosie gets a 5, and I get an A. Nick bets, we both call. My plan is if neither of them get a scare card on fifth I'm gonna raise Nick to get rid of Rosie. On fifth Rosie gets a
K of diamonds and bets out. Rosie's door card J was a diamond as well so I knew he was either betting a pair of kings or a flush draw. Nick calls after getting a 10, I just call getting a Q. On sixth, Rosie gets a dud I think a 2 and Nick gets what I think is a dud 4. I get a nothing card as well, 7. So showing Rosie has J5K2, Nick has 83104, and I have 4AQ7. Rosie bets out and Nick raises. At first glance it looks like an auto-pass because Rosie likely has a pair of kings and Nick must have backed into something. However, after a little deliberation I put Rosie on a flush draw as I think I heard him mumble after being raised 'ok Nick, I got outs' and I think Nick is steamrolling a backdoor draw (he picked up 2 spades - his 8 and 4, remember his door card was the 8 of spades and he could easily have raised on 3rd with three spades, possibly 8a2 of spades, which would also give him a gut straight draw). A lot of times I just pass, but I was rushing and felt I had the best even know my hand was extremely vulnerable. On 7th I don't improve, Nick bets and I see Rosie is dissapointed about missing his draw so I call. Nick says I'm good, I show him a measly pair of 10s and he snaps. He proceeds to lecture Rosie about folding his hand (or showing he is going to fold) before the action gets to him. In reality, I don't think it matters because I can usually tell if Rosie likes his hand so unless I sense strength from him I was going to call Nick down. Why else would I call 2 bets on 6th? Certainly not to see if I can improve to 2 pair. Just the same, Nick has a valid complaint.

Unfortunately all my good decisions do not translate into pots won, however I am happy that I am guessing right. Both of those situations were tough spots, but after playing with these guys so many times I have been able to dissect betting patterns. This stud game is wild and unlike any other I have ever played. 4-5 guys usually call to at least 5th street and it is not uncommon to have 3-4 players going to 7th street. This kind of game forces you to play close attention to each card that falls as opposed to traditional stud where you pound a big pair to 7th street and hope you win. In this game, you could be the better on 5th and folding on 6th.

I think we are going to play again January 2 so good luck to me. Also, I do hope we can organize another nl game soon. It seems to be drying up a little. Heaven forbid, I don't want to rely on the club regent slash fest for my weekly fix of holdem. As for Internet, I'll probably start grinding after New Years with tournaments and Sit-n-gos (taking a break from cash games as I'm running bad online).

Hope everyone has a great New Year's and you'll here from me soon.

Cheers,

Joe