(this post dedicated to the creative stylings of Matt G who did not write nor endorse this post)
Dusk was nearly upon them. Their horses were thirsty and tired. The trod along slowly, taking in the scenery. It had been another long, lonely day roaming the plains of the mighty Cuyahoga, herding and protecting their charges.
Ole Grayday stopped and gazed at the spot where a fence was being erected. He heaved a long sigh. He was a grizzled old veteran, his skin sunbleached and weathered like the leather hat that sat haphazardly on his head. He looked over at his partner.
"Damn shame, that is..." he said, motioning toward the fence.
"Yup. Remember when you couldn't have put a fence there 'cause there was so many cashalo around here? It'd be trampled near instantly".
His partner Matt G was younger but just as battle weary. He had a scar on his face from his first week on the job, a large and unwieldy cashalo charged him and bashed him up pretty bad. He had considered quitting right there but Ole Grayday convinced him otherwise. He shifted his weight on his horse.
"C'mon, let's take this old war horses over to McCarthy's Creek and wet 'em down" said Matt.
"Whatever".
They steered their horses over to the creek and gazed out at Nautica Ranch. Once, years ago, the ranch had been teeming with cashalo (Cash Buffalo). There were so many wandering around you couldn't keep track. Then the hunters came, killing more and more cashalo without letting any of them recover or letting them reproduce. After years of non stop killing, the cashalo had all but vanished. The few that remained were not very desirable. They were tough to kill and there wasn't much meat on them. The hunters had started turning on each other, fighting over the few cashalo that were worth killing.
Ole Grayday mused out loud.
"I remember when this place was PACKED. ALL cashalo, as far as you could see. We could eat like kings for days courtesy of one large cashalo. We'd take our time, make sure we did it gently. We'd spend hours cooking the meat and storing it away. Now they strip them like pirhana. Savages..."
Work was drying up for professional cashalo rustlers like Matt and Ole Grayday.
"Hey Grayday, you ever think of heading over to one of the tuffalo ranches?" Tuffalo (Tournament Buffalo) were looked down upon by the cashalo hunters. Tuffalo tended to be much smaller, harder to strip clean. It took forever to deplete a tuffalo. Cashalo hunters wanted big game and large hauls, not small packets.
"Fuck that" he said. "I'll go to fuckin' Rivers first".
Rivers was the last of the golden hunting grounds that was anywhere near where they were. Matt and Grayday often spent weeks up there chasing game. Even there the hunting was getting tough and the scores getting smaller.
The tuffalo ranches were thriving though. They had plenty of meat, it was just smaller and less filling. You had to slaughter a lot more tuffalo to eat the same as you could have before. Matt wished the hunters had been more patient, had taken the time to help young cashalo grow and prosper rather then slather them with steak sauce as soon as they got big enough. No one wanted to nuture a cashalo. Even other cashalo hated their young. Whenever a calf would wander too close to the big game they would be beaten or shocked into running away.
The horses finished drinking and the two old sage ranchers looked at each other.
"Want to head over to Myers Ranch?" asked Ole Grayday.
"I guess."
The two horses trotted off toward Ridge Road. The faint voices of the two veterans could be heard on the breeze as they swapped stories of days gone by.
"That fuckin' bull hit a two outer on me!"
Friday, December 02, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Adventures In Civic Duty
SPOILER: There is NO poker content in this blog post. It also a very long post about my jury duty experience. If you're easily bored then I suggest heading over to Grayday's blog for a bit.
So, as most of you are aware I was pressed into jury service a couple of weeks ago. I've been called before for various municipalities but never even had to show up before. I blew it off once, taking a 90 day postponement because I had to work and summer is busy time. Since I was "between jobs" I decided not to postpone again and just showed up. I had heard that I'd likely get cut loose by Wednesday since it probably wouldn't be busy.
For those of you that have never had the pleasure, anyone who is a licensed driver OR registered voter is a potential juror for the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. They tell you on the summons that service is minimum 5 days. I had no idea whatsoever what I was getting into, so I showed up day one with 209 other upstanding residents of our county with only my iPod and $5 in my pocket. We got hustled into a room where we had to scan our summons in, show ID, and get our pamphlet explaining just how much bullshit you were in for. Then you get herded across the hall into the jury holding pen (AKA "The Pit"). You're allowed to roam and graze but you cannot leave the penned in area lest you be poached.
After a half hour of sitting around we were treated to a badly shot video from the late 80's about how jury service works. We also got to talk to an actual judge (who came down from up on high to speak to us common folk in our own language - how quaint!). I decided that it was a mistake not to have a book, iPhone charger, newspaper, etc to keep me entertained. After an hour of drudgery they began calling names. The process is pretty simple - they call roughly double the jurors they need and march you up to the courtroom's jury deliberation room. You wait there until they muster you and march you into the courtroom. Sometimes the cases settle and you just sit there until they release you back to The Pit. Lucky me, our case was a go. Luckier me, I was in the first 12. This meant I got to sit in the jury box and not the gallery.
Our group got marched into the courtroom of Judge McGinty and were seated in the box. The next step in the process is the "voir dire (french for 'speak the truth')" . During voir dire, the lawyers for the prosecution and defense list their witnesses and go over the charges, and they ask the jury questions to make sure you don't know anyone involved in the case. Our case turned out to be a pretty big one. The defendant was a 49 year old guy from Lakewood who met a 17 year old mentally handicapped girl online and ended up inviting himself over to her house repeatedly and coercing her into sex. I was pretty sure I would get excused from the jury, as I mentioned during the questioning that I knew someone who is currently serving time for something similar. The judge brought up that we would be shown videos that the defendant made of the encounters he had with the girl. A few people were visibly rattled by this, one kid was excused after saying he thought the defendant was disgusting. Several of the women waffled on being able to watch the videos but the judge was reluctant to excuse people. The defense and prosecutors took turns excusing jurors until we got a break around 4PM. During the break, one of the alternates decided he was done and left. When we got back up the courtroom he got called and wasn't there. They couldn't skip over him, so the judge excused us for the night. Instead of getting jury selection done in one day we had to come back. We were all admonished not to dicuss details with anyone and then we were cut loose.
Day two I decided to bring some stuff to amuse me since I was expecting to be excused. I had my phone, charger, a deck of cards, newspaper, etc. We were supposed to be there by 9AM to be called up to finish jury selection. We were called up at 9 and had to wait until 10 to get into the courtroom. The lawyers excused all the alternates we had, so 6 more people were called up. (We originally had 22 people to fill 15 seats - 12 jurors and three alternates). We cycled through all of them until the lawyers ran out of challenges and we were down to 15. Oddly, I made the jury. After lunch we were given notebooks and the prosection opened. Trial is nothing like on TV. The courtroom was surprisingly small and stuffy and the testimony was droll. Questions were asked over and over, the amount of repetition is mind numbing.
The first witness we saw was the victim. She was definitely "off", you could tell something wasn't right with her. She broke down crying at one point and we had to take a break. The crux of the case was that she was too impaired to understand she was being taken advantage of. The defense cross was very weak, they didn't want to attack her and make the defendant look like more of a scumbag. After a few more witnesses we got excused for the day again. Day 3 was probably the most boring of all. We had to listen to cop after cop testify to the same exact things - where they served the search warrant, what they seized, what their training was, etc etc. I was so bored I had to drink copious amounts of coffee to stay awake.
Day 4 was the most "controversial" day of all. That was the day we got the meat of the testimony from the main detective on the case. They showed us a power point presentation listing the videos the idiot defendant had made of himself. Each video was broken down for us and we were only shown key points. The judge and lawyers had decided not to make us sit through all 90 minutes of it and instead we got "bullet points". Then we were treated to the defendant's wedding video (he forced the victim to marry him when the cops got involved because he thought she wouldn't be able to testify against him at trial). We also got to see a video of his police interview where he babbled on and on about how he knew she was hanicapped but he didn't think he was doing anything wrong. There was an expert witness that testified as to how the girl was exceedingly naive and vulnerable to control. I made a point of paying little attention to the videos. I knew the other jurors were taking a ton of notes and I felt it was more important to watch the reactions of the defendant, the witnesses, etc as the videos played. People give you their most honest reactions when they don't feel like they are being watched and every set of eyes except mine was on the video presentations. The defendant at time rolled his eyes, had a smirk on his face, or was otherwise not reacting like someone who believed he was in some serious shit. After the dog and pony show we were released for the night. The judge promised us we would have the case by Friday to start deliberating.
Day 5 (Friday) was supposed to go quick. The defense was not planning on actually putting on a defense, so we should've been getting the closing arguments fairly quickly. Instead we sat around until almost noon waiting to be called in. When we finally were marched in, we sat down and the defense rested it's case. Then we were immediately dismissed for lunch. We were in the courtroom less than 5 minutes in four hours. After lunch the closings began. The prosecution got to do the first and last closings. They opened with one prosecutor basically babbling for five minutes and resting. This was a dodge on their part - they gave the defense nothing good to rebut in their presentation. The defense was relatively short - they were gambling that the state simply hadn't proved it's case well enough. The defense rested and the final prosecution presentation started. This was much more polished, with another power point display and some theatrics on the part of the attorney. Finally we got to jury instructions, which was two and a half hours of the judge reading all 45 charges and the applicable laws and definitions to us. At 5 we were sent to pick a foreman before they would let us leave. Everyone wanted the school teacher on our panel to do it since she had been on a jury before but she refused. I finally volunteered and we broke for the night. Monday was a holiday so we had to come back Tuesday to deliberate.
On Tuesday I expected this to go quick. We all agreed on about half the charges - child porn (he had clearly made videos while she was underaged), tampering with evidence (when the police arrived to serve the warrant the criminal mastermind pried his hard drive out with a screwdriver and threw it out the window), and endangering a child (goes with the child porn). The sticking point turned out to be the rape and imposition charges - in order for him to be guilty we had to all agree the girl was too impaired to realize what she was doing. 10 of us agreed, 2 did not. One guy felt she wasn't that impaired and had "lured" the guy in. One of them was so spaced out she wasn't sure who did what and was confused about everything. We finally decided as a group to watch every video all the way through to see how she acted the whole time. After doing so the other two were convinced and we convicted him on all 45 counts. Once the verdict was read in court we were told we had to return for one more day but we weren't told why.
On Wednesday (Day 8) we arrived at 1PM and got called in. Since we had convicted the defendant was had to now decide if he was a violent sexual predator. We finally got told his criminal history - he had previous felony convictions for molesting an 8 year old boy, had dozens of arrests for indecent exposure, etc. We deliberated less than an hour and decided he was. Once everything was decided we were excused and got to meet the judge in his office. He told us about why the trial had been delayed and thanked us all for our service. We left confident we had done the right thing.
A week later the defendant was sentenced to 100 years to life in prison.
So, as most of you are aware I was pressed into jury service a couple of weeks ago. I've been called before for various municipalities but never even had to show up before. I blew it off once, taking a 90 day postponement because I had to work and summer is busy time. Since I was "between jobs" I decided not to postpone again and just showed up. I had heard that I'd likely get cut loose by Wednesday since it probably wouldn't be busy.
For those of you that have never had the pleasure, anyone who is a licensed driver OR registered voter is a potential juror for the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. They tell you on the summons that service is minimum 5 days. I had no idea whatsoever what I was getting into, so I showed up day one with 209 other upstanding residents of our county with only my iPod and $5 in my pocket. We got hustled into a room where we had to scan our summons in, show ID, and get our pamphlet explaining just how much bullshit you were in for. Then you get herded across the hall into the jury holding pen (AKA "The Pit"). You're allowed to roam and graze but you cannot leave the penned in area lest you be poached.
After a half hour of sitting around we were treated to a badly shot video from the late 80's about how jury service works. We also got to talk to an actual judge (who came down from up on high to speak to us common folk in our own language - how quaint!). I decided that it was a mistake not to have a book, iPhone charger, newspaper, etc to keep me entertained. After an hour of drudgery they began calling names. The process is pretty simple - they call roughly double the jurors they need and march you up to the courtroom's jury deliberation room. You wait there until they muster you and march you into the courtroom. Sometimes the cases settle and you just sit there until they release you back to The Pit. Lucky me, our case was a go. Luckier me, I was in the first 12. This meant I got to sit in the jury box and not the gallery.
Our group got marched into the courtroom of Judge McGinty and were seated in the box. The next step in the process is the "voir dire (french for 'speak the truth')" . During voir dire, the lawyers for the prosecution and defense list their witnesses and go over the charges, and they ask the jury questions to make sure you don't know anyone involved in the case. Our case turned out to be a pretty big one. The defendant was a 49 year old guy from Lakewood who met a 17 year old mentally handicapped girl online and ended up inviting himself over to her house repeatedly and coercing her into sex. I was pretty sure I would get excused from the jury, as I mentioned during the questioning that I knew someone who is currently serving time for something similar. The judge brought up that we would be shown videos that the defendant made of the encounters he had with the girl. A few people were visibly rattled by this, one kid was excused after saying he thought the defendant was disgusting. Several of the women waffled on being able to watch the videos but the judge was reluctant to excuse people. The defense and prosecutors took turns excusing jurors until we got a break around 4PM. During the break, one of the alternates decided he was done and left. When we got back up the courtroom he got called and wasn't there. They couldn't skip over him, so the judge excused us for the night. Instead of getting jury selection done in one day we had to come back. We were all admonished not to dicuss details with anyone and then we were cut loose.
Day two I decided to bring some stuff to amuse me since I was expecting to be excused. I had my phone, charger, a deck of cards, newspaper, etc. We were supposed to be there by 9AM to be called up to finish jury selection. We were called up at 9 and had to wait until 10 to get into the courtroom. The lawyers excused all the alternates we had, so 6 more people were called up. (We originally had 22 people to fill 15 seats - 12 jurors and three alternates). We cycled through all of them until the lawyers ran out of challenges and we were down to 15. Oddly, I made the jury. After lunch we were given notebooks and the prosection opened. Trial is nothing like on TV. The courtroom was surprisingly small and stuffy and the testimony was droll. Questions were asked over and over, the amount of repetition is mind numbing.
The first witness we saw was the victim. She was definitely "off", you could tell something wasn't right with her. She broke down crying at one point and we had to take a break. The crux of the case was that she was too impaired to understand she was being taken advantage of. The defense cross was very weak, they didn't want to attack her and make the defendant look like more of a scumbag. After a few more witnesses we got excused for the day again. Day 3 was probably the most boring of all. We had to listen to cop after cop testify to the same exact things - where they served the search warrant, what they seized, what their training was, etc etc. I was so bored I had to drink copious amounts of coffee to stay awake.
Day 4 was the most "controversial" day of all. That was the day we got the meat of the testimony from the main detective on the case. They showed us a power point presentation listing the videos the idiot defendant had made of himself. Each video was broken down for us and we were only shown key points. The judge and lawyers had decided not to make us sit through all 90 minutes of it and instead we got "bullet points". Then we were treated to the defendant's wedding video (he forced the victim to marry him when the cops got involved because he thought she wouldn't be able to testify against him at trial). We also got to see a video of his police interview where he babbled on and on about how he knew she was hanicapped but he didn't think he was doing anything wrong. There was an expert witness that testified as to how the girl was exceedingly naive and vulnerable to control. I made a point of paying little attention to the videos. I knew the other jurors were taking a ton of notes and I felt it was more important to watch the reactions of the defendant, the witnesses, etc as the videos played. People give you their most honest reactions when they don't feel like they are being watched and every set of eyes except mine was on the video presentations. The defendant at time rolled his eyes, had a smirk on his face, or was otherwise not reacting like someone who believed he was in some serious shit. After the dog and pony show we were released for the night. The judge promised us we would have the case by Friday to start deliberating.
Day 5 (Friday) was supposed to go quick. The defense was not planning on actually putting on a defense, so we should've been getting the closing arguments fairly quickly. Instead we sat around until almost noon waiting to be called in. When we finally were marched in, we sat down and the defense rested it's case. Then we were immediately dismissed for lunch. We were in the courtroom less than 5 minutes in four hours. After lunch the closings began. The prosecution got to do the first and last closings. They opened with one prosecutor basically babbling for five minutes and resting. This was a dodge on their part - they gave the defense nothing good to rebut in their presentation. The defense was relatively short - they were gambling that the state simply hadn't proved it's case well enough. The defense rested and the final prosecution presentation started. This was much more polished, with another power point display and some theatrics on the part of the attorney. Finally we got to jury instructions, which was two and a half hours of the judge reading all 45 charges and the applicable laws and definitions to us. At 5 we were sent to pick a foreman before they would let us leave. Everyone wanted the school teacher on our panel to do it since she had been on a jury before but she refused. I finally volunteered and we broke for the night. Monday was a holiday so we had to come back Tuesday to deliberate.
On Tuesday I expected this to go quick. We all agreed on about half the charges - child porn (he had clearly made videos while she was underaged), tampering with evidence (when the police arrived to serve the warrant the criminal mastermind pried his hard drive out with a screwdriver and threw it out the window), and endangering a child (goes with the child porn). The sticking point turned out to be the rape and imposition charges - in order for him to be guilty we had to all agree the girl was too impaired to realize what she was doing. 10 of us agreed, 2 did not. One guy felt she wasn't that impaired and had "lured" the guy in. One of them was so spaced out she wasn't sure who did what and was confused about everything. We finally decided as a group to watch every video all the way through to see how she acted the whole time. After doing so the other two were convinced and we convicted him on all 45 counts. Once the verdict was read in court we were told we had to return for one more day but we weren't told why.
On Wednesday (Day 8) we arrived at 1PM and got called in. Since we had convicted the defendant was had to now decide if he was a violent sexual predator. We finally got told his criminal history - he had previous felony convictions for molesting an 8 year old boy, had dozens of arrests for indecent exposure, etc. We deliberated less than an hour and decided he was. Once everything was decided we were excused and got to meet the judge in his office. He told us about why the trial had been delayed and thanked us all for our service. We left confident we had done the right thing.
A week later the defendant was sentenced to 100 years to life in prison.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
"For a guy like DP, taking a shot is playing the $1/1 at Terry's because he's been hitting" - Colin (at Adam's $4/8 O8 game).
Ego.
It's a poker player's worst enemy. Ego causes more bad poker decisions than reading Harrington on Hold'em. A year ago, that comment by Colin would've pissed me off. A year ago I was still clinging to the delusion that I could play as good as anyone else in the group. I thought that when I was sharp I could outplay anyone else. I mean, you have to believe that, right? Why the fuck would anyone sit at a cash table knowing they were going to get owned? Yet, I did it over and over and over. For years.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks in my poker development has been my generous ego. Win a few pots off Colin or Brian and I feel like Mike McD in Rounders, ready to go blow my load on Teddy KGB. Then I'd go and get crushed a few times and curse my bad luck. After all, I couldn't have been outplayed right? I wasn't outmatched was I? Of course not! Oh, wait, yes I was.
It takes a lot out of a poker player to admit that he simply sucks at a game. For me, that part of poker that I am terrible at is NLHE cash games. I've told myself every excuse available to soothe my damaged ego. Look back into the past two years of my blog, they're all in there. I had convinced myself that I simply ran bad for three years. How is that even possible? I was sure it was because I was at times severely under bankrolled for games. The problem with that excuse is that I played equally bad when I was flush with bankroll. I just didn't notice all the losses until they tapped me. One of the things that has helped me with my cash game decisions is the Poker Journal app for the iPhone. After installing it, I was finally able to see just how fucking horrible I was. Not only that, but PJ breaks down for me what games I am getting trounced at. Guess which ones? Yes, NLHE cash. I would play NL for a while, sometimes bank a few wins, then spew it all off. Then I'd crawl back to LHE and grind up a roll and do it all over again. My only profitable games are the ones that most everyone agrees I am best at - Limit HE and mix games.
So, why don't I just play the games I'm best at? Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? From a strictly statistical point of view, that's the smartest thing to do. An investor on Wall Street wouldn't continue to dump money into a stock that he KNEW was a long term loser. So, why would I dump money in such a manner? I used to marvel at John (Mr. Data) and the discipline he showed by never playing NLHE cash with us. He knew it wasn't a profitable game for him, and simply wouldn't play it. Instead of marveling at him, I should've taken the hint.
Ego.
I wanted to beat the better guys. I wanted to be the one doing the owning. Over the course of the past few months, I have reached a turning point. I am very serious about pursuing poker as not just a leisure but a source of income. I just need to overcome my ego. I have to be able to admit that I am not (by a longshot) the best NLHE cash player in the group. In fact, I am probably one of the worst. I always thought that given a large enough roll I could outplay anyone else. There's been a few things that have happened that have convinced me of how wrong I was.
First, I read a book. This particular book expounded at length about how willing stupid people are to sit and get cleaned out by "pro" players. The author was amazed that otherwise smart people would volunteer to sit with pros and lose money to them happily just to say they played with someone that good. I realized that part of the reason I continued to play with the best players we have is just to maintain that illusion that I was as good as them. They'd all invite me to games first because I was easy money to them. The second thing was my lack of bankroll in the past few months. I'd had to dip into it to clear bills, buy things for the kids, and pay my own expenses. It was left pretty decimated. This actually forced my hand - with a bankroll of only a few hundred dollars I simply CAN'T play any NLHE cash games. I can't afford it. I had to play limit games - and suddenly I was grinding out a profit. Consistently. Add some mix games (except for my bad weekend two weeks ago where I had no business even playing) and I'm actually turning my Poker Journal needle around.
I'm one of the few people in the group that can admit that I am a losing player. Not that it's a secret, mind you. I am down overall for the past two years. 90% of it is NLHE cash. Ask any five people from our group, and all five will tell you they're ahead for the year. I know a few people (I won't mention names but if you play regularly you can fill in the blanks) who seem to never have a losing session. They are never down. They always manage to dig back out when they are stuck. Every time I ask how they did I hear them say they're up (even when other people at the table agree they were massively stuck). I understand it though. No one wants to say they're a loser. No one wants to face the idea of being a bad player. It's like the guy who never makes a bad play or never makes a bad call. Everyone else knows he's full of shit, but he feels like he has to justify his stupid call or he'll lose face. What more of image do I have to lose? Everyone agrees (usually behind my back but lately even to my face) that I am a bad player. So, what will be saved by me continuing to delude myself? Nothing.
So, I am refocusing. With my personal situation changing, I have more freedom than ever before in my life. I am able to take off when I feel like it and go play. I can take the car and point it at Rivers when the mood strikes me to and play $4/8 all weekend. I can sniff out the good mix games and festivals and grind them out. Will I make $1000 at a sitting playing low limit? No. Will I finally get my shit together and become a winning player? I hope so.
Otherwise, what's the point in playing? Ego?
Ego.
It's a poker player's worst enemy. Ego causes more bad poker decisions than reading Harrington on Hold'em. A year ago, that comment by Colin would've pissed me off. A year ago I was still clinging to the delusion that I could play as good as anyone else in the group. I thought that when I was sharp I could outplay anyone else. I mean, you have to believe that, right? Why the fuck would anyone sit at a cash table knowing they were going to get owned? Yet, I did it over and over and over. For years.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks in my poker development has been my generous ego. Win a few pots off Colin or Brian and I feel like Mike McD in Rounders, ready to go blow my load on Teddy KGB. Then I'd go and get crushed a few times and curse my bad luck. After all, I couldn't have been outplayed right? I wasn't outmatched was I? Of course not! Oh, wait, yes I was.
It takes a lot out of a poker player to admit that he simply sucks at a game. For me, that part of poker that I am terrible at is NLHE cash games. I've told myself every excuse available to soothe my damaged ego. Look back into the past two years of my blog, they're all in there. I had convinced myself that I simply ran bad for three years. How is that even possible? I was sure it was because I was at times severely under bankrolled for games. The problem with that excuse is that I played equally bad when I was flush with bankroll. I just didn't notice all the losses until they tapped me. One of the things that has helped me with my cash game decisions is the Poker Journal app for the iPhone. After installing it, I was finally able to see just how fucking horrible I was. Not only that, but PJ breaks down for me what games I am getting trounced at. Guess which ones? Yes, NLHE cash. I would play NL for a while, sometimes bank a few wins, then spew it all off. Then I'd crawl back to LHE and grind up a roll and do it all over again. My only profitable games are the ones that most everyone agrees I am best at - Limit HE and mix games.
So, why don't I just play the games I'm best at? Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? From a strictly statistical point of view, that's the smartest thing to do. An investor on Wall Street wouldn't continue to dump money into a stock that he KNEW was a long term loser. So, why would I dump money in such a manner? I used to marvel at John (Mr. Data) and the discipline he showed by never playing NLHE cash with us. He knew it wasn't a profitable game for him, and simply wouldn't play it. Instead of marveling at him, I should've taken the hint.
Ego.
I wanted to beat the better guys. I wanted to be the one doing the owning. Over the course of the past few months, I have reached a turning point. I am very serious about pursuing poker as not just a leisure but a source of income. I just need to overcome my ego. I have to be able to admit that I am not (by a longshot) the best NLHE cash player in the group. In fact, I am probably one of the worst. I always thought that given a large enough roll I could outplay anyone else. There's been a few things that have happened that have convinced me of how wrong I was.
First, I read a book. This particular book expounded at length about how willing stupid people are to sit and get cleaned out by "pro" players. The author was amazed that otherwise smart people would volunteer to sit with pros and lose money to them happily just to say they played with someone that good. I realized that part of the reason I continued to play with the best players we have is just to maintain that illusion that I was as good as them. They'd all invite me to games first because I was easy money to them. The second thing was my lack of bankroll in the past few months. I'd had to dip into it to clear bills, buy things for the kids, and pay my own expenses. It was left pretty decimated. This actually forced my hand - with a bankroll of only a few hundred dollars I simply CAN'T play any NLHE cash games. I can't afford it. I had to play limit games - and suddenly I was grinding out a profit. Consistently. Add some mix games (except for my bad weekend two weeks ago where I had no business even playing) and I'm actually turning my Poker Journal needle around.
I'm one of the few people in the group that can admit that I am a losing player. Not that it's a secret, mind you. I am down overall for the past two years. 90% of it is NLHE cash. Ask any five people from our group, and all five will tell you they're ahead for the year. I know a few people (I won't mention names but if you play regularly you can fill in the blanks) who seem to never have a losing session. They are never down. They always manage to dig back out when they are stuck. Every time I ask how they did I hear them say they're up (even when other people at the table agree they were massively stuck). I understand it though. No one wants to say they're a loser. No one wants to face the idea of being a bad player. It's like the guy who never makes a bad play or never makes a bad call. Everyone else knows he's full of shit, but he feels like he has to justify his stupid call or he'll lose face. What more of image do I have to lose? Everyone agrees (usually behind my back but lately even to my face) that I am a bad player. So, what will be saved by me continuing to delude myself? Nothing.
So, I am refocusing. With my personal situation changing, I have more freedom than ever before in my life. I am able to take off when I feel like it and go play. I can take the car and point it at Rivers when the mood strikes me to and play $4/8 all weekend. I can sniff out the good mix games and festivals and grind them out. Will I make $1000 at a sitting playing low limit? No. Will I finally get my shit together and become a winning player? I hope so.
Otherwise, what's the point in playing? Ego?
The Poker Player's Christmas
So, everyone in our area that enjoys poker LOVES Labor Day weekend. It's an extra day off to play poker, AND the area is jammed with local church festivals that have poker games going. I had a full weekend of poker booked, starting with Data's Poker After Dark. The day of the game (around 2PM) he lets me know the A/C doesn't work. So, me being an A/C mechanic, I head there after the game and get it running. I buy in and leave, running home for a shower and wardrobe change. I should've stayed home.
The first hand I play is AA. It folds to the SB (to my right, a new guy named John I think). He limps, I raise. He calls. Flop Q-10-2. He checks, I bet, he quickly calls. Q on the turn. Ruh roh. He checks, and I decide to see where I'm at. I bet and he quickly calls again. Shit, he has a Q. River is a brick and he checks a third time. I roll over AA and he slaps QJ down and scoops the pot. After last weekend's horrible run I seriously consider just leaving at that point. I can see I'm going to be running bad and I'm already demoralized and stuck. I stick around for another couple hours, winning only a few small pots. I finally bleed down to nearly nothing and shove 7BB with pocket 3's. Colin calls with A8 and I am drawing dead preflop. Sure enough, A on the flop. Ugh.
Saturday I had decided I wasn't going to play, until Ryan Rufe (proprietor of Rufebert's Poker Room) decided to host a single table $40 SNG. I headed over and we ended up 8 handed. Jack had asked if we could do a single emergency rebuy and Ryan agreed if you busted before the first break. I was running bad early and kept raising into better hands or getting trapped. I reshipped my stack with A5h against Jimmy's 10's and he reluctantly called, busting me. I rebought and went on a heater. I began making hands and good reads. I busted Yosh and his friend and built up the #2 stack at the table. Jack went out on the bubble and it was me vs. Jimmy heads up. I doubled up early with Q2 against his 99 (Q on flop). I started chipping away at him until I had a slight lead, then I finished him. I shoved preflop (blinds at this point had me with 15BB and chip lead) with 78c. He snap calls with AA, and I flop a straight and flush draw. River 6 locks it up for me and I win.
With that win (and a bankroll again) I decided to hit the St. Elias charity festival. Most of my CPMG friends were heading to St. Rocco's to play NL because their games were notoriously soft. I wanted to play limit, and from what I heard it was a zoo trying to get in at St. Rocco's so I went to Brooklyn instead. I bought in at $3/6 and got sat at a table of absolute morons. There were only two other people who knew how to play and we took turns beating up the fish. I ground out a $175 profit (at $3/6 this is a huge win) and left. I was up, I left with a profit, and fuck it all I felt good! I stopped at the main tent while I was waiting for the rain to die down and watched the arab girls belly dancing.
Sunday I decided to go make another withdrawal at St. Elias. I got there at 1:05 (doors open at 1) and got waitlisted for $3/6. I was about to sit at $1/2 when someone got up to move to $1/2. I took the limit seat and was steady grinding for a few hours. I was up $110 when the cards turned on me. I got rivered in a few big pots. I made a few iffy calls and they didn't work out. I was back to about dead even when I went on the sickest low limit run I've had in over a year. First I get dealt 33 in a kill pot (the limits are doubled for one hand). I flop 3's full and get paid. Then I win the next pot with 96 off from the button (flopped a 6, turned trips and cracked AA). Kill again. I get A-10, raise and get one callers. Flop A-4-5 get called all the way by QQ. Kill again. (These are consecutive hands). Get dealt 8-6 off and get into the biggest hand of the day at the table. One limper for $6, guy at other end makes it $12. Three callers to me. I already have $6 in or I wouldn't but fuck it, right? I call and lady behind me calls. Flop K-10-8 two clubs. From nowhere the lady inexplicably leads for $6 into the raiser. call-call-call to me. Hmph. I call. Turn, 6h. Bink! She leads for $12, call-call-fold to me. I bump it to $24. She snap calls, as does original raiser. Angry arab guy who had been tagging along gets mad and slams hand into the muck. River 2d. Check check to me. I lead for $12 as I am sure I have the best hand. Call-call. Angry arab who folded is having convulsions. Lady shows A-10 for a pair of 10's, original raiser has QQ for Q's, and I show my two pair and scoop a monstrous pot. Arab guy explodes, calling me horrible for raising him off his pocket 2's that would've won. Aw, sorry. I scoop it and post another kill which I take down by raising to $12 with 67d and getting no callers. Finally I post one last kill and fold 4-8 preflop to a raise. In that short span I went from even to +$402. I take a pic and send it to Kirsten who pleads with me to get up and leave. Data (who was on the rail) agrees I should leave. I play one more orbit, folding to the blinds again before getting up and banking my win. I mean, how much more can I reasonably expect to make?
Excited and happy, I walk out +$577 for two days work at $3/6. Sometimes, I really love this game.
So, everyone in our area that enjoys poker LOVES Labor Day weekend. It's an extra day off to play poker, AND the area is jammed with local church festivals that have poker games going. I had a full weekend of poker booked, starting with Data's Poker After Dark. The day of the game (around 2PM) he lets me know the A/C doesn't work. So, me being an A/C mechanic, I head there after the game and get it running. I buy in and leave, running home for a shower and wardrobe change. I should've stayed home.
The first hand I play is AA. It folds to the SB (to my right, a new guy named John I think). He limps, I raise. He calls. Flop Q-10-2. He checks, I bet, he quickly calls. Q on the turn. Ruh roh. He checks, and I decide to see where I'm at. I bet and he quickly calls again. Shit, he has a Q. River is a brick and he checks a third time. I roll over AA and he slaps QJ down and scoops the pot. After last weekend's horrible run I seriously consider just leaving at that point. I can see I'm going to be running bad and I'm already demoralized and stuck. I stick around for another couple hours, winning only a few small pots. I finally bleed down to nearly nothing and shove 7BB with pocket 3's. Colin calls with A8 and I am drawing dead preflop. Sure enough, A on the flop. Ugh.
Saturday I had decided I wasn't going to play, until Ryan Rufe (proprietor of Rufebert's Poker Room) decided to host a single table $40 SNG. I headed over and we ended up 8 handed. Jack had asked if we could do a single emergency rebuy and Ryan agreed if you busted before the first break. I was running bad early and kept raising into better hands or getting trapped. I reshipped my stack with A5h against Jimmy's 10's and he reluctantly called, busting me. I rebought and went on a heater. I began making hands and good reads. I busted Yosh and his friend and built up the #2 stack at the table. Jack went out on the bubble and it was me vs. Jimmy heads up. I doubled up early with Q2 against his 99 (Q on flop). I started chipping away at him until I had a slight lead, then I finished him. I shoved preflop (blinds at this point had me with 15BB and chip lead) with 78c. He snap calls with AA, and I flop a straight and flush draw. River 6 locks it up for me and I win.
With that win (and a bankroll again) I decided to hit the St. Elias charity festival. Most of my CPMG friends were heading to St. Rocco's to play NL because their games were notoriously soft. I wanted to play limit, and from what I heard it was a zoo trying to get in at St. Rocco's so I went to Brooklyn instead. I bought in at $3/6 and got sat at a table of absolute morons. There were only two other people who knew how to play and we took turns beating up the fish. I ground out a $175 profit (at $3/6 this is a huge win) and left. I was up, I left with a profit, and fuck it all I felt good! I stopped at the main tent while I was waiting for the rain to die down and watched the arab girls belly dancing.
Sunday I decided to go make another withdrawal at St. Elias. I got there at 1:05 (doors open at 1) and got waitlisted for $3/6. I was about to sit at $1/2 when someone got up to move to $1/2. I took the limit seat and was steady grinding for a few hours. I was up $110 when the cards turned on me. I got rivered in a few big pots. I made a few iffy calls and they didn't work out. I was back to about dead even when I went on the sickest low limit run I've had in over a year. First I get dealt 33 in a kill pot (the limits are doubled for one hand). I flop 3's full and get paid. Then I win the next pot with 96 off from the button (flopped a 6, turned trips and cracked AA). Kill again. I get A-10, raise and get one callers. Flop A-4-5 get called all the way by QQ. Kill again. (These are consecutive hands). Get dealt 8-6 off and get into the biggest hand of the day at the table. One limper for $6, guy at other end makes it $12. Three callers to me. I already have $6 in or I wouldn't but fuck it, right? I call and lady behind me calls. Flop K-10-8 two clubs. From nowhere the lady inexplicably leads for $6 into the raiser. call-call-call to me. Hmph. I call. Turn, 6h. Bink! She leads for $12, call-call-fold to me. I bump it to $24. She snap calls, as does original raiser. Angry arab guy who had been tagging along gets mad and slams hand into the muck. River 2d. Check check to me. I lead for $12 as I am sure I have the best hand. Call-call. Angry arab who folded is having convulsions. Lady shows A-10 for a pair of 10's, original raiser has QQ for Q's, and I show my two pair and scoop a monstrous pot. Arab guy explodes, calling me horrible for raising him off his pocket 2's that would've won. Aw, sorry. I scoop it and post another kill which I take down by raising to $12 with 67d and getting no callers. Finally I post one last kill and fold 4-8 preflop to a raise. In that short span I went from even to +$402. I take a pic and send it to Kirsten who pleads with me to get up and leave. Data (who was on the rail) agrees I should leave. I play one more orbit, folding to the blinds again before getting up and banking my win. I mean, how much more can I reasonably expect to make?
Excited and happy, I walk out +$577 for two days work at $3/6. Sometimes, I really love this game.
I Run Bad (My tardy "Weekend of 8-27/28 report")
So, as you might have noticed, my blog about two weeks ago is conspicuously absent. "Why didn't he post about his trip to PA?" you might be asking. More likely you are asking "Why do I keep reading this shit blog?". Probably to see if I'm going to trash anyone from the group.
Anyway, so I went to Rivers last Saturday to play more $4/8. I had been invited to play $3/6 HORSE+Triple Draw at Colin's but the guest list included someone who I personally despise and did not want to be around, so I decided to go to PA. Rivers has sent me a set of free parking passes for the entire football season. I know enough to know I don't want to get there late on a football day, so we leave at 3:30 knowing the game is at 7. Well, fuck. From the bottom of the off ramp to the parking garage at Rivers (normally 30 seconds) takes almost an hour. We were re-routed around the casino and around a highway detour and back. Note to self: Go early or don't go.
Inside I sat at $4/8. There was only one table and it wasn't full. I figured it would fill out after the game so I wasn't worried. I bought in $400 and proceeded to play awful for the next 10 or so hours. I was stuck $120 early merely from calling and bricking flops and missing draws. At one point I switched seats because there's a blind guy (no shit, he's 94% blind as he will tell you repeatedly) sitting to my right who gets up and leans over me every hand to see the board. He's a nice guy but it drives me nuts so I move. I go on a heater, winning three pots and am actually UP $3. Sad as it is, I consider leaving as I am feeling impatient and tired and am not hitting hands. Instead of doing the smart thing I stay too long and end up spewing off $200. I decided to get up when the table started breaking and sat down at a $1/3NL. I received 0 playable hands for almost 2 hours before going broke on a draw heavy board that I bricked twice. Tired, pissed off, and fairly broke I decided to shuffle back to Cleveland. That two hour drive home seems like 10 hours when you're stuck. Fortunately, I learned a long time ago to leave gas, toll, and food money in the car in case the session doesn't go well.
The next day I wanted to play the $4/8 O8 at Adam's but was having a liquidity problem with my cash flow (the well ran dry). I tapped another player for a buy-in and sat in the game. I ran really well for a while, building the $150 up to $270 before I had to leave for 45 minutes to run an errand. Upon my return I proceeded to miss everything, play too many hands, and spew off the stack. I borrowed another $100 which I managed to run myself almost back to even with, but Adam called the game before I could get completely unstuck. I ended up -$30 and embarrassed that I didn't leave when I was +$120.
The lesson to be learned here is: Stop playing when I'm so tired, and get up when I get up.
So, as you might have noticed, my blog about two weeks ago is conspicuously absent. "Why didn't he post about his trip to PA?" you might be asking. More likely you are asking "Why do I keep reading this shit blog?". Probably to see if I'm going to trash anyone from the group.
Anyway, so I went to Rivers last Saturday to play more $4/8. I had been invited to play $3/6 HORSE+Triple Draw at Colin's but the guest list included someone who I personally despise and did not want to be around, so I decided to go to PA. Rivers has sent me a set of free parking passes for the entire football season. I know enough to know I don't want to get there late on a football day, so we leave at 3:30 knowing the game is at 7. Well, fuck. From the bottom of the off ramp to the parking garage at Rivers (normally 30 seconds) takes almost an hour. We were re-routed around the casino and around a highway detour and back. Note to self: Go early or don't go.
Inside I sat at $4/8. There was only one table and it wasn't full. I figured it would fill out after the game so I wasn't worried. I bought in $400 and proceeded to play awful for the next 10 or so hours. I was stuck $120 early merely from calling and bricking flops and missing draws. At one point I switched seats because there's a blind guy (no shit, he's 94% blind as he will tell you repeatedly) sitting to my right who gets up and leans over me every hand to see the board. He's a nice guy but it drives me nuts so I move. I go on a heater, winning three pots and am actually UP $3. Sad as it is, I consider leaving as I am feeling impatient and tired and am not hitting hands. Instead of doing the smart thing I stay too long and end up spewing off $200. I decided to get up when the table started breaking and sat down at a $1/3NL. I received 0 playable hands for almost 2 hours before going broke on a draw heavy board that I bricked twice. Tired, pissed off, and fairly broke I decided to shuffle back to Cleveland. That two hour drive home seems like 10 hours when you're stuck. Fortunately, I learned a long time ago to leave gas, toll, and food money in the car in case the session doesn't go well.
The next day I wanted to play the $4/8 O8 at Adam's but was having a liquidity problem with my cash flow (the well ran dry). I tapped another player for a buy-in and sat in the game. I ran really well for a while, building the $150 up to $270 before I had to leave for 45 minutes to run an errand. Upon my return I proceeded to miss everything, play too many hands, and spew off the stack. I borrowed another $100 which I managed to run myself almost back to even with, but Adam called the game before I could get completely unstuck. I ended up -$30 and embarrassed that I didn't leave when I was +$120.
The lesson to be learned here is: Stop playing when I'm so tired, and get up when I get up.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Common Mistakes I See At Limit Hold'em Tables (Or, it's slow at work and I'm bored so here's a bonus blog entry)
I play a lot of Limit Hold'em. I do this for several reasons. First, most LHE players in casinos are AWFUL. They are inexperienced, they have the most obvious tells, and generally are easy to read and control. Second, LHE offers me a chance to limit my variance by being able to control pot size and betting. It's virtually impossible to get stacked in LHE on one hand, someone with a lot of experience can make a decent profit by grinding. LHE offers me a chance to build my bankroll without the risk of losing my entire stack to a two outer on the river. True, you don't generally make as much as you would playing NL but you also don't generally lose as much.
Most LHE players make the same mistakes over and over again, and they generally won't learn from the failures or don't understand them. I present to you a small list of common mistakes I see and how you can avoid doing the same and also capitalize on them yourself. In these examples I am referencing $4/8 limit but it applies to whatever you're playing.
1.) Buying In Too Short
This is the most common mistake I see. People often buy in to a limit table for the minimum or close to it. I don't understand why I see people put $100 on the table, lose it, and buy another $100 over and over. Why not just buy $200-$300? You simply cannot focus on playing good poker when you're this low. At NL short stacking is popular, but at limit it's just dumb. At limit tables I like to buy for a MINIMUM of 50BB (so, if you're playing $4/8 with $2/4 blinds, that'd be $200). I personally prefer to have closer to 100BB when I sit down. This gives me plenty of room to make mistakes and tight calls and still have enough chips to avoid feeling pressure.
2.) Checking Down Too Many Hands
I can't tell you how aggravating it is to see people check monstrous hands like full houses, flushes, etc on the river. WHY? If I have a full house and you're check/calling me I will let you go up to the window and get more chips to put in. I know a lot of locals at the table will try to play "friendly" with other locals and check down big hands, but I often see people check bottom full house because they are scared of quads or something stupid like this. You absolutely MUST squeeze every bet you can out of the suckers in the hand with you, ESPECIALLY at lower limits. If you miss 10 value river bets a night you're giving up $80 in profit at $4/8. That's retarded! Am I sometimes betting into quads? Sure, but if you're any good you should be able to limit the damage in spots like this.
3.) Calling People Too Light
Idiot: "I thought he was bluffing!"
Me: "At $4/8? That's a suicide run."
Idiot: "He done bluffed me once in 1956 with four aces on the board"
Me: "It's $4/8...you know what, nevermind. Good call with 22 on a board of AKQJJ."
Nothing drains your stack quicker than bottom pair/no kicker in limit. People think "Ah, it's just a couple of bets" to run someone down and see what they had. Why? I can sometimes justify a call on the flop if you're in position and no one's going to raise. If you don't turn help (like two pair or trips) the hand should be jettisoned. Bleeding $4 at a time adds up over a night. 10 saved flop bets is still $40. I would like $40. Give it to me and I'll slap you. Same idea.
4.) Playing Too Passively/Not Raising
People (often broke NL players trying to rebuild their stacks) will whine that you can't protect your hand at limit hold'em. Sure you can. I played 6-1/2 hours of $4/8 at Rivers last weekend and there were exactly two times the betting was three bet preflop and both times it was me needling a bad player (see last week's blogisodes). This is unacceptable. In late position with anything mildly playable I am raising. Even if only one idiot folds I am still bettering my odds. True, people WILL run you down in limit more often than NL. You need to adjust your game for this though. If I raise with AK (which I do every time) and the flop is 4-5-7 and the guy across from me wets his pants then I can check. Oh well, lost two bets. Ask yourself this - if it's limped to me, would I call two bets with this hand? If the answer is yes, RAISE. Maybe you miss (and you often will) but you will build a bigger pot and win more if you continue to raise. Playing too passively alerts people when you DO have a big hand because if you're a nit you never raise otherwise. Nits at LHE are doomed to be perpetual losers. If I see a table full of nits limping I will pound them to loosen it up. Just be sure you can take your foot off the gas if you're missing too many flops or getting run down a lot.
Hope you've learned a few things. Limit hold'em can be a gold mine for players like us. The people are easy to read, hands easy to figure out, and the money can be good if your hands hold up. Be prepared to take a ton of beats (limit is like paying $4 a hand to be kicked in the balls) but the pots you do win will make up for it. Control your emotion, exploit theirs.
Full weekend report will be posted Monday(ish).
I play a lot of Limit Hold'em. I do this for several reasons. First, most LHE players in casinos are AWFUL. They are inexperienced, they have the most obvious tells, and generally are easy to read and control. Second, LHE offers me a chance to limit my variance by being able to control pot size and betting. It's virtually impossible to get stacked in LHE on one hand, someone with a lot of experience can make a decent profit by grinding. LHE offers me a chance to build my bankroll without the risk of losing my entire stack to a two outer on the river. True, you don't generally make as much as you would playing NL but you also don't generally lose as much.
Most LHE players make the same mistakes over and over again, and they generally won't learn from the failures or don't understand them. I present to you a small list of common mistakes I see and how you can avoid doing the same and also capitalize on them yourself. In these examples I am referencing $4/8 limit but it applies to whatever you're playing.
1.) Buying In Too Short
This is the most common mistake I see. People often buy in to a limit table for the minimum or close to it. I don't understand why I see people put $100 on the table, lose it, and buy another $100 over and over. Why not just buy $200-$300? You simply cannot focus on playing good poker when you're this low. At NL short stacking is popular, but at limit it's just dumb. At limit tables I like to buy for a MINIMUM of 50BB (so, if you're playing $4/8 with $2/4 blinds, that'd be $200). I personally prefer to have closer to 100BB when I sit down. This gives me plenty of room to make mistakes and tight calls and still have enough chips to avoid feeling pressure.
2.) Checking Down Too Many Hands
I can't tell you how aggravating it is to see people check monstrous hands like full houses, flushes, etc on the river. WHY? If I have a full house and you're check/calling me I will let you go up to the window and get more chips to put in. I know a lot of locals at the table will try to play "friendly" with other locals and check down big hands, but I often see people check bottom full house because they are scared of quads or something stupid like this. You absolutely MUST squeeze every bet you can out of the suckers in the hand with you, ESPECIALLY at lower limits. If you miss 10 value river bets a night you're giving up $80 in profit at $4/8. That's retarded! Am I sometimes betting into quads? Sure, but if you're any good you should be able to limit the damage in spots like this.
3.) Calling People Too Light
Idiot: "I thought he was bluffing!"
Me: "At $4/8? That's a suicide run."
Idiot: "He done bluffed me once in 1956 with four aces on the board"
Me: "It's $4/8...you know what, nevermind. Good call with 22 on a board of AKQJJ."
Nothing drains your stack quicker than bottom pair/no kicker in limit. People think "Ah, it's just a couple of bets" to run someone down and see what they had. Why? I can sometimes justify a call on the flop if you're in position and no one's going to raise. If you don't turn help (like two pair or trips) the hand should be jettisoned. Bleeding $4 at a time adds up over a night. 10 saved flop bets is still $40. I would like $40. Give it to me and I'll slap you. Same idea.
4.) Playing Too Passively/Not Raising
People (often broke NL players trying to rebuild their stacks) will whine that you can't protect your hand at limit hold'em. Sure you can. I played 6-1/2 hours of $4/8 at Rivers last weekend and there were exactly two times the betting was three bet preflop and both times it was me needling a bad player (see last week's blogisodes). This is unacceptable. In late position with anything mildly playable I am raising. Even if only one idiot folds I am still bettering my odds. True, people WILL run you down in limit more often than NL. You need to adjust your game for this though. If I raise with AK (which I do every time) and the flop is 4-5-7 and the guy across from me wets his pants then I can check. Oh well, lost two bets. Ask yourself this - if it's limped to me, would I call two bets with this hand? If the answer is yes, RAISE. Maybe you miss (and you often will) but you will build a bigger pot and win more if you continue to raise. Playing too passively alerts people when you DO have a big hand because if you're a nit you never raise otherwise. Nits at LHE are doomed to be perpetual losers. If I see a table full of nits limping I will pound them to loosen it up. Just be sure you can take your foot off the gas if you're missing too many flops or getting run down a lot.
Hope you've learned a few things. Limit hold'em can be a gold mine for players like us. The people are easy to read, hands easy to figure out, and the money can be good if your hands hold up. Be prepared to take a ton of beats (limit is like paying $4 a hand to be kicked in the balls) but the pots you do win will make up for it. Control your emotion, exploit theirs.
Full weekend report will be posted Monday(ish).
Monday, August 22, 2011
Poker Is A Game Of Skill, Or Is It?
(Part II of my special two part "you probably are getting sick of the length of my blog posts" series - make sure you read Part I below first)
Remember how I felt good and poker liked me back? Yeah, that didn't last. I was all jazzed up about playing at Terry's. Up to this point the weekend had been going well and I felt like I could win. I bought into the $100 deepstack and decided to snug up my play. I have been adjusting my tournament play including keeping a journal with notes on my play, strategy against certain players, tells, etc. I started off slow and it got even slower. I received precious few playable starting hands and the ones I did play either missed completely or won me small pots. I couldn't get a stack going and never once was above my starting amount. I folded round after round of Q3, J2, K3, etc etc. I was literally blinding to death. I finally got down low and open raised with AJ. Data shipped it in from the button. Caveman anguishes and folds JJ, and Data shows 99. After I busted I got a seat in the cash game. I was hesitant to play this game for two reasons: (a) this was a $1/1 but I knew it would play like a $2/5 or worse, and (b) these guys typically eat me alive. They're all overly aggressive and I have trouble beating them. I thought since I had been hitting it would be OK to take a shot. My first buy I was down $50 just from blinds and calling small raises and missing flops. I ended up stacking off to Ang when I flopped a set and she turned a straight. I didn't even see the straight, which should've been my signal to leave. Instead I lit fire to another buy-in. I got dealt aces and decided to slow play it. On a flop of Q-8-7 two diamonds I get my stack all-in against Krazy Mike who promptly turns a one out Q to get the rest. At that point I couldn't justify another buy-in, it wasn't likely I would make it back and the max buy was too low to chase. Instead I left.
Sunday I decided to take a trip to Pittsburgh and play some $4/8 at Rivers. I could've went to Nautica, but the limit tables there are so rife with cheating and angle shooters that I'd rather drive two hours away to play. I bought in and started playing and on hand three turned quad 5's with my 35h. I made about $30 that hand and spent the next five and half hours swinging up and down. I was up $40, then stuck $110. I would get ahead and then lose to some calling station who couldn't let go of a draw. Fortunately, there was a guy at the table whom I've played with before and he's AWFUL. He looks (and plays) like a former CPMGer who has trouble keeping track of the bank. When I got there he was running the table over, raising every bet and pushing. When he would get called he would refuse to table his hand until he saw yours. I knew immediately I wanted this guy in every hand with me. Every time I got stuck, he would come through and try to run me over. He had $300 in front him when I sat down, after an hour he was rebuying. I counted six rebuys at $100 each (why he didn't just put a few hundred on the table at once I don't understand). At one point, he took a break after a beat and left to go smoke. When he returned he was calm and started playing better. I couldn't have that, so I decided to needle him. I started raising every time he was a blind. About the 3rd time I did it I had AJc and he was getting steamed. He three bet me and I capped him immediately. The flop came K-K-J. He immediately leads and I raise, he three bets and I cap. On the turn he fires again and I consider the outside chance he has a K. I just call the turn and the river is another J. He bets, I raise and he calls. I flip over the AJ and he is MAD. He starts whining about how lucky I got. I tell him "Look, you don't seem to get it. I am never, ever folding a hand to you". After that, the table caught on to him and began calling him down with ace high and bottom pair (all of which were good). He spewed off another couple hundred and left. In the last hour I caught fire. I made a diamond flush to take a good pot, then bet on the come with a spade flush draw against two people who had flopped straights. My spade came on the turn and I dragged a monstrous pot (almost $300 in a $4/8!) I finished way up and decided to leave at 10:30.
So, despite my awful outing at Terry's my weekend finished off on an UP note. Next weekend is a plethora of CPMG limit mix games (my specialty) so I will hopefully be posting another positive blog entry next weekend. BTW, if you have the chance to play Terry's house I recommend it. He has a wonderful place and he and wife are awesome hosts.
(Part II of my special two part "you probably are getting sick of the length of my blog posts" series - make sure you read Part I below first)
Remember how I felt good and poker liked me back? Yeah, that didn't last. I was all jazzed up about playing at Terry's. Up to this point the weekend had been going well and I felt like I could win. I bought into the $100 deepstack and decided to snug up my play. I have been adjusting my tournament play including keeping a journal with notes on my play, strategy against certain players, tells, etc. I started off slow and it got even slower. I received precious few playable starting hands and the ones I did play either missed completely or won me small pots. I couldn't get a stack going and never once was above my starting amount. I folded round after round of Q3, J2, K3, etc etc. I was literally blinding to death. I finally got down low and open raised with AJ. Data shipped it in from the button. Caveman anguishes and folds JJ, and Data shows 99. After I busted I got a seat in the cash game. I was hesitant to play this game for two reasons: (a) this was a $1/1 but I knew it would play like a $2/5 or worse, and (b) these guys typically eat me alive. They're all overly aggressive and I have trouble beating them. I thought since I had been hitting it would be OK to take a shot. My first buy I was down $50 just from blinds and calling small raises and missing flops. I ended up stacking off to Ang when I flopped a set and she turned a straight. I didn't even see the straight, which should've been my signal to leave. Instead I lit fire to another buy-in. I got dealt aces and decided to slow play it. On a flop of Q-8-7 two diamonds I get my stack all-in against Krazy Mike who promptly turns a one out Q to get the rest. At that point I couldn't justify another buy-in, it wasn't likely I would make it back and the max buy was too low to chase. Instead I left.
Sunday I decided to take a trip to Pittsburgh and play some $4/8 at Rivers. I could've went to Nautica, but the limit tables there are so rife with cheating and angle shooters that I'd rather drive two hours away to play. I bought in and started playing and on hand three turned quad 5's with my 35h. I made about $30 that hand and spent the next five and half hours swinging up and down. I was up $40, then stuck $110. I would get ahead and then lose to some calling station who couldn't let go of a draw. Fortunately, there was a guy at the table whom I've played with before and he's AWFUL. He looks (and plays) like a former CPMGer who has trouble keeping track of the bank. When I got there he was running the table over, raising every bet and pushing. When he would get called he would refuse to table his hand until he saw yours. I knew immediately I wanted this guy in every hand with me. Every time I got stuck, he would come through and try to run me over. He had $300 in front him when I sat down, after an hour he was rebuying. I counted six rebuys at $100 each (why he didn't just put a few hundred on the table at once I don't understand). At one point, he took a break after a beat and left to go smoke. When he returned he was calm and started playing better. I couldn't have that, so I decided to needle him. I started raising every time he was a blind. About the 3rd time I did it I had AJc and he was getting steamed. He three bet me and I capped him immediately. The flop came K-K-J. He immediately leads and I raise, he three bets and I cap. On the turn he fires again and I consider the outside chance he has a K. I just call the turn and the river is another J. He bets, I raise and he calls. I flip over the AJ and he is MAD. He starts whining about how lucky I got. I tell him "Look, you don't seem to get it. I am never, ever folding a hand to you". After that, the table caught on to him and began calling him down with ace high and bottom pair (all of which were good). He spewed off another couple hundred and left. In the last hour I caught fire. I made a diamond flush to take a good pot, then bet on the come with a spade flush draw against two people who had flopped straights. My spade came on the turn and I dragged a monstrous pot (almost $300 in a $4/8!) I finished way up and decided to leave at 10:30.
So, despite my awful outing at Terry's my weekend finished off on an UP note. Next weekend is a plethora of CPMG limit mix games (my specialty) so I will hopefully be posting another positive blog entry next weekend. BTW, if you have the chance to play Terry's house I recommend it. He has a wonderful place and he and wife are awesome hosts.
Poker Is A Game Of Skill. Or Is It?
(Part I of a special two part blogisode since it would've been way to much to digest as one long post)
I started this poker weekend with a much better outlook. After last week's seizure inducing chip vomiting I knew I had to improve my concentration, get my frustration under control, and stop making stupid calls. I played at Pyxis' $40 Friday tournament first. Only once was I above my starting stack of $10k. The first hand I played was QQ from the SB. Randy limped for $50, I raised to $150, Jamie reluctantly calls and so does Randy. Flop is 5-6-7 two diamonds. Guess which Q I don't have? I lead for $450, two calls. Turn is a 3. I fire barrel #2 hoping shitty two pair would go away, but it calls and then Randy raises. Awesome, he has to have a 4. I show Tuttle my QQ and fold. Jamie folds his 6-7 and Randy shows A4. Nice hand sir. A few hands later I raise from the cutoff with 88. Pyxis and Randy call. Flop A-4-7. They check, I bet. She hesitates and calls, Randy folds. I put her on diamonds. Turn 4. She checks, I fire out half my stack. She tanks and finally folds an A. Whew! Only hand I played well all night. I gave most of it back to her a round later when I raised from the button with 45h. Flop 3-4-T. She checks, I bet, she calls. Turn Qh putting flush draw out. She shoves. Damn, I didn't see how short she was. I call, she has JJ and I brick. First hand after the break I get AK and raise. Randy three bets me and I shove. He snap calls and rolls over AA. Ooops. I am out.
From there I decided it was too early to go home so I headed down to Nautica. The limit list was insane so I took a $1/2 seat and bought in for $160. First orbit I get 67h in the cutoff and make it $10. Three callers. Flop is J-6-3 two diamonds. Checks to me, I fire $40. Aggro guy shoves all in over the top. It's $127 back to me, I decide he's on a flush draw and call. Two bricks come out, he says "You got me" and shows K9d. I show the 6 and everyone is muttering about my call. Fuck it, I have to show these kids I'm not afraid to stack off to their retarded bets. After that the avoid me like the plague, only three betting or pushing with made hands. One of the super tight players raises preflop, I call in position with J7c. Flop K-9-2 two clubs. I check/call him. Turn 3c. Bink! I open/shove. I was sure he would call, but he tanks. Finally he shows a set of kings and folds. I laugh and tell him I had K9 and thought he was bluffing. He was pretty rattled after that. My stack is around $300 when the table starts breaking and it's close to closing time. I get dealt A5d on the button. I limp, guy on my left just lost a huge pot and is spewing. He makes it $15 to go. Lady to my right calls, I call. Flop 9-7-2 two diamonds. I check, Spewy fires off $25, lady calls. I raise to $80, Spewy angrily folds, lady calls for less and shows me a 9. Turn brick, river A. Ship it! I cash out $388 total. Not bad at all.
Emboldened (and hitting) I return Saturday at opening time for more Nautica. I buy in $200 and in the first hand get AA. No callers. Up $3, tempted to book a win. All of a sudden I remember how to play. I am reading people awesome, making good calls, hands are holding up. For a minute, I felt like Colin. I couldn't miss. People were paying me off. I hit three different gutters, two flushses, two sets, and got a LAG-tard to overplay AJ against my KK for his stack. I roll out of there with $480, and am freerolling for TK's $100 tournament tonight. For once, I felt like I enjoyed the game and the game liked me back a little and might want to meet after school to fool around.
(Part I of a special two part blogisode since it would've been way to much to digest as one long post)
I started this poker weekend with a much better outlook. After last week's seizure inducing chip vomiting I knew I had to improve my concentration, get my frustration under control, and stop making stupid calls. I played at Pyxis' $40 Friday tournament first. Only once was I above my starting stack of $10k. The first hand I played was QQ from the SB. Randy limped for $50, I raised to $150, Jamie reluctantly calls and so does Randy. Flop is 5-6-7 two diamonds. Guess which Q I don't have? I lead for $450, two calls. Turn is a 3. I fire barrel #2 hoping shitty two pair would go away, but it calls and then Randy raises. Awesome, he has to have a 4. I show Tuttle my QQ and fold. Jamie folds his 6-7 and Randy shows A4. Nice hand sir. A few hands later I raise from the cutoff with 88. Pyxis and Randy call. Flop A-4-7. They check, I bet. She hesitates and calls, Randy folds. I put her on diamonds. Turn 4. She checks, I fire out half my stack. She tanks and finally folds an A. Whew! Only hand I played well all night. I gave most of it back to her a round later when I raised from the button with 45h. Flop 3-4-T. She checks, I bet, she calls. Turn Qh putting flush draw out. She shoves. Damn, I didn't see how short she was. I call, she has JJ and I brick. First hand after the break I get AK and raise. Randy three bets me and I shove. He snap calls and rolls over AA. Ooops. I am out.
From there I decided it was too early to go home so I headed down to Nautica. The limit list was insane so I took a $1/2 seat and bought in for $160. First orbit I get 67h in the cutoff and make it $10. Three callers. Flop is J-6-3 two diamonds. Checks to me, I fire $40. Aggro guy shoves all in over the top. It's $127 back to me, I decide he's on a flush draw and call. Two bricks come out, he says "You got me" and shows K9d. I show the 6 and everyone is muttering about my call. Fuck it, I have to show these kids I'm not afraid to stack off to their retarded bets. After that the avoid me like the plague, only three betting or pushing with made hands. One of the super tight players raises preflop, I call in position with J7c. Flop K-9-2 two clubs. I check/call him. Turn 3c. Bink! I open/shove. I was sure he would call, but he tanks. Finally he shows a set of kings and folds. I laugh and tell him I had K9 and thought he was bluffing. He was pretty rattled after that. My stack is around $300 when the table starts breaking and it's close to closing time. I get dealt A5d on the button. I limp, guy on my left just lost a huge pot and is spewing. He makes it $15 to go. Lady to my right calls, I call. Flop 9-7-2 two diamonds. I check, Spewy fires off $25, lady calls. I raise to $80, Spewy angrily folds, lady calls for less and shows me a 9. Turn brick, river A. Ship it! I cash out $388 total. Not bad at all.
Emboldened (and hitting) I return Saturday at opening time for more Nautica. I buy in $200 and in the first hand get AA. No callers. Up $3, tempted to book a win. All of a sudden I remember how to play. I am reading people awesome, making good calls, hands are holding up. For a minute, I felt like Colin. I couldn't miss. People were paying me off. I hit three different gutters, two flushses, two sets, and got a LAG-tard to overplay AJ against my KK for his stack. I roll out of there with $480, and am freerolling for TK's $100 tournament tonight. For once, I felt like I enjoyed the game and the game liked me back a little and might want to meet after school to fool around.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
A Self Inflicted Poker Wounding
This past weekend was not a good one for me. I played two tournaments and three cash games and failed to win a single dollar. Not one. Did not leave with a single $1 bill in profit. In fact, I rather unintentionally donated a bunch of dollars to a bunch of other people.
First I went to Data's single table deepstack tournament. I felt good before this game, felt sharp. I started off well (as what usually happens) and in the first few orbits had made AK, a set, and a flush to put me ahead. I was hitting, I was smooth. Then, as what usually happens, the wheels came off. The first major mistake I made was raising from mid position with K5h. I was attempting to steal (in actuality, my first steal attempt. Previous raises had all been with real hands). My table was playing very tight/nitty and I felt like I should be taking more hands preflop. Unfortunately, I picked the exact time that the new kid at the table (a) had a real hand, and (b) was tired of being manhandled. He shoved over the top of my raise and without even considering it I snap called. He had AQ, I lost over 1/3 of my stack. It was so idiotic I couldn't believe I had done it. I was irritated at the large re-raise and was determined to catch him on a bluff/re-steal or some other retarded reasoning that didn't make sense. I had, in fact, shot myself in the foot. The next hour and a half or so was a combination of me getting zero cards preflop and missing the few flops I took. I blinded off until I was short stacked and managed a near triple up through the new kid but it was all for nought. I blinded down to about 10BB when I was dealt an A. I immediately shoved before getting the second card. I did this to convey that I did indeed have an A and probably the best hand. Unfortunately, I didn't have the best hand by far. Immediately to my left Data had QQ and shoved over the top of me. After that hand I had time to go get something to eat whilst Kirsten was still in. When I left she was short stacked, when I returned she was playing Linda heads up for the money. She finished second, which is remarkable because she hasn't played many tournaments this year.
After that stellar performance I went to Linda's Saturday night tournament. Again I started off well, doubling up my stack by turning a flush and crippling Randy. Less than a round later I gave it right back on yet another dumb call. Preflop I made it $700 in the $100-200 round with AQ. Adam called as did Linda. The flop was A-J-3. It checked to me and I bet out $2k. Adam snap raised me to $5k and Linda folded. I tanked for a minute. I couldn't put him on AK because every time he had it preflop he was three betting. I didn't think he would slam it with AJ when I was betting out. I decided he either had A3 or he was crushed. I re-raised him all in and he snap called. His hand? A3 of course. Insult 3 on the river and he got over 1/2 my stack. It was a horrendous call on my part but again I was irritated by the check raise. I had convinced myself he was just pushing with a shit ace because he felt I was c-betting and had missed the flop. It nagged at me because I know I should've folded it but I didn't. After that I couldn't hit he broad side of a barn. I missed flops and blinded down a lot. There was no stealing with Adam at the table, he was hitting everything and made a point of check raising every hand I raised after that. I finally got it in good against Mr. Data when he shoved light with Q-10. I called from the button with A5h and he proceeded to flop a Q high straight. Down to crumbs I shoved into Jack's AJ with my A3 and had time to kill before the cash game started. I wandered down to Nautica and sat at a $1/2 with Brad for about 3 orbits. I had two playable hands, both of which I had to fold post flop when I missed and other people were betting and raising.
I came back to Linda's for the triple pot limit cash game. I played a high variance game with a VPIP of nearly 100% and it cost me. I was in damn near every hand and I was getting pummelled. I made two bad calls that cost me most of my stack. The final blow was raising in the PLO round with AA26. The flop came 2-7-8 off. Data check-raised me all-in and instead of immediately folding I paid to see his monstrous wrap which he immediately hit on the turn.
I was looking forward to the mix game on Sunday. I had been having a shitty weekend so far (mostly due to my own impatience) and wanted to play a few games where I felt I had an edge. I played 7 hours or so of mix game and had absolutely no edge. When I wasn't being horribly outdrawn by a table full of people who refused to fold I was making bad decisions and getting my money in bad. I let Meat rattle me after a hand of Razz where he ran me down despite having two pair showing and jamming the whole way. After that I got spewy, playing too many hands and letting myself get behind. I finally left when the game broke having lost my buy-in, a rebuy, and $8 of a marker. I would get into specific hands, but I frankly don't remember most of them plus I'm confident most of it was my fault.
I played undiscipled, shitty poker this past weekend and the results were what you'd expect in that case. I need to get my shit together if I want to have any chance of cashing at this weekend's tournaments.
This past weekend was not a good one for me. I played two tournaments and three cash games and failed to win a single dollar. Not one. Did not leave with a single $1 bill in profit. In fact, I rather unintentionally donated a bunch of dollars to a bunch of other people.
First I went to Data's single table deepstack tournament. I felt good before this game, felt sharp. I started off well (as what usually happens) and in the first few orbits had made AK, a set, and a flush to put me ahead. I was hitting, I was smooth. Then, as what usually happens, the wheels came off. The first major mistake I made was raising from mid position with K5h. I was attempting to steal (in actuality, my first steal attempt. Previous raises had all been with real hands). My table was playing very tight/nitty and I felt like I should be taking more hands preflop. Unfortunately, I picked the exact time that the new kid at the table (a) had a real hand, and (b) was tired of being manhandled. He shoved over the top of my raise and without even considering it I snap called. He had AQ, I lost over 1/3 of my stack. It was so idiotic I couldn't believe I had done it. I was irritated at the large re-raise and was determined to catch him on a bluff/re-steal or some other retarded reasoning that didn't make sense. I had, in fact, shot myself in the foot. The next hour and a half or so was a combination of me getting zero cards preflop and missing the few flops I took. I blinded off until I was short stacked and managed a near triple up through the new kid but it was all for nought. I blinded down to about 10BB when I was dealt an A. I immediately shoved before getting the second card. I did this to convey that I did indeed have an A and probably the best hand. Unfortunately, I didn't have the best hand by far. Immediately to my left Data had QQ and shoved over the top of me. After that hand I had time to go get something to eat whilst Kirsten was still in. When I left she was short stacked, when I returned she was playing Linda heads up for the money. She finished second, which is remarkable because she hasn't played many tournaments this year.
After that stellar performance I went to Linda's Saturday night tournament. Again I started off well, doubling up my stack by turning a flush and crippling Randy. Less than a round later I gave it right back on yet another dumb call. Preflop I made it $700 in the $100-200 round with AQ. Adam called as did Linda. The flop was A-J-3. It checked to me and I bet out $2k. Adam snap raised me to $5k and Linda folded. I tanked for a minute. I couldn't put him on AK because every time he had it preflop he was three betting. I didn't think he would slam it with AJ when I was betting out. I decided he either had A3 or he was crushed. I re-raised him all in and he snap called. His hand? A3 of course. Insult 3 on the river and he got over 1/2 my stack. It was a horrendous call on my part but again I was irritated by the check raise. I had convinced myself he was just pushing with a shit ace because he felt I was c-betting and had missed the flop. It nagged at me because I know I should've folded it but I didn't. After that I couldn't hit he broad side of a barn. I missed flops and blinded down a lot. There was no stealing with Adam at the table, he was hitting everything and made a point of check raising every hand I raised after that. I finally got it in good against Mr. Data when he shoved light with Q-10. I called from the button with A5h and he proceeded to flop a Q high straight. Down to crumbs I shoved into Jack's AJ with my A3 and had time to kill before the cash game started. I wandered down to Nautica and sat at a $1/2 with Brad for about 3 orbits. I had two playable hands, both of which I had to fold post flop when I missed and other people were betting and raising.
I came back to Linda's for the triple pot limit cash game. I played a high variance game with a VPIP of nearly 100% and it cost me. I was in damn near every hand and I was getting pummelled. I made two bad calls that cost me most of my stack. The final blow was raising in the PLO round with AA26. The flop came 2-7-8 off. Data check-raised me all-in and instead of immediately folding I paid to see his monstrous wrap which he immediately hit on the turn.
I was looking forward to the mix game on Sunday. I had been having a shitty weekend so far (mostly due to my own impatience) and wanted to play a few games where I felt I had an edge. I played 7 hours or so of mix game and had absolutely no edge. When I wasn't being horribly outdrawn by a table full of people who refused to fold I was making bad decisions and getting my money in bad. I let Meat rattle me after a hand of Razz where he ran me down despite having two pair showing and jamming the whole way. After that I got spewy, playing too many hands and letting myself get behind. I finally left when the game broke having lost my buy-in, a rebuy, and $8 of a marker. I would get into specific hands, but I frankly don't remember most of them plus I'm confident most of it was my fault.
I played undiscipled, shitty poker this past weekend and the results were what you'd expect in that case. I need to get my shit together if I want to have any chance of cashing at this weekend's tournaments.
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Consistency and I Need to Make Up.
Before I start, for those of you haven't read it, check out Grayday's Poker Blog. It's an unintentionally hilarious look into the mind of one of the CPMG's most beloved cash players.
I played the CPMG Heads Up tournament last weekend and didn't do too well. I know this comes as a surprise to a lot of you. I drew Nautica Brian as my first opponent which meant I was going to have to plan an overly agressive game. As predicted, he raised every button and got in a bunch of three bets as well. He stabbed me early when he bet a flush draw and got there and I paid him off. I had two pair and wasn't 100% if he had a big pair or made his draw. I battled back, raising preflop and flopping trip J's. He shoved on a gutter and missed. I had to do a lot of three betting and donk betting to try and keep him from running over me. I finally slow played myself out of the tournament. He limped with K3 off, I had AA and checked in instead of raising. Flop came K-8-3. He check raised me and I shoved, he snaps and I am out. I think I did well, if the cards had held up I'm pretty sure I would've beaten him.
After that (while waiting for cash) I decide to go to Nautica. I sit at a new $1/2 table with $160. The first hand I decide to play is 97 off. I am in the cutoff, early raiser makes it $15. Three people call before me. Well, fuck. I call. Flop is J-10-8 offsuit. First guy bets $50. Two folds. Guy to my right shoves in $110. I shove over the top. First guy tanks and finally calls. They both show J-10. Turn brick, river is a J and I watch two people hit a two out miracle and split my stack. I decided not to bother rebuying and headed home until the cash game at Linda's started. The cash game at Linda's went very well, and I recovered $91 of my previous losses.
That Saturday I decided to hit Rivers Casino with Special K. We had all weekend to kill so I could play unrushed poker. I sat in on a $1/3 whilst waiting for a $4/8 to open. I opened weak, raising several pots preflop and being bet off my hands on the flop. I was down $100 when I hit a streak. I flopped a couple sets and big two pair hands and got paid. After three hours I was +$500. They were just opening a $1/3 HA table ($500 max) so I decided to go take a shot with my profits. Whoops. I got eaten alive. I flopped a straight flush draw, turned to pair, and lost $300 when the wrong card paired on the river and the guy who had grossly overplayed AAxx made a better two pair. I floundered for a while and gave up, taking my last $200 in profit and heading back to $1/3. I sat at a new table and stacked off in the first orbit. I was sitting with a guy who was making it $40 preflop every hand. I finally called a preflop raise in position with QJd. Flop comes 10-9-2 off. He throws a hundred at it, I shove on him, guy behind me calls and so does he. Q on the turn and river a brick. He shows J-10, but the idiot between us had called $40 preflop with 9-2 and flopped two pair. Disgusted, I left. I fidgeted around at $4/8 for a while until a $5/10 limit O8 game opened. I sat in there and ran my $215 stack back up to about $500. We had a drunk guy at the table with a VPIP of 100%. He called everything and didn't care if he won or lost. I also witnessed the worst live beat I've seen at Rivers. It would've won the Bad Beat Jackpot had it been hold'em. Guy to my right flops quad 6's and jams, betting the whole way. Drunk guy runs him down on the river with a gutshot straight flush (neither makes a low) and drunk guy scoops a monster.
K and I decided to take this weekend off of poker. I have quite a few games going the next couple weekends (including TK's $100 deepstack) so I guess I could use a weekend to get my head straight. I'm not really mad about my play in either game, I think I'm playing decent enough to win. I just keep running into people who are getting horribly lucky. If I can figure out how to dodge one and two out miracles I'd be OK.
Before I start, for those of you haven't read it, check out Grayday's Poker Blog. It's an unintentionally hilarious look into the mind of one of the CPMG's most beloved cash players.
I played the CPMG Heads Up tournament last weekend and didn't do too well. I know this comes as a surprise to a lot of you. I drew Nautica Brian as my first opponent which meant I was going to have to plan an overly agressive game. As predicted, he raised every button and got in a bunch of three bets as well. He stabbed me early when he bet a flush draw and got there and I paid him off. I had two pair and wasn't 100% if he had a big pair or made his draw. I battled back, raising preflop and flopping trip J's. He shoved on a gutter and missed. I had to do a lot of three betting and donk betting to try and keep him from running over me. I finally slow played myself out of the tournament. He limped with K3 off, I had AA and checked in instead of raising. Flop came K-8-3. He check raised me and I shoved, he snaps and I am out. I think I did well, if the cards had held up I'm pretty sure I would've beaten him.
After that (while waiting for cash) I decide to go to Nautica. I sit at a new $1/2 table with $160. The first hand I decide to play is 97 off. I am in the cutoff, early raiser makes it $15. Three people call before me. Well, fuck. I call. Flop is J-10-8 offsuit. First guy bets $50. Two folds. Guy to my right shoves in $110. I shove over the top. First guy tanks and finally calls. They both show J-10. Turn brick, river is a J and I watch two people hit a two out miracle and split my stack. I decided not to bother rebuying and headed home until the cash game at Linda's started. The cash game at Linda's went very well, and I recovered $91 of my previous losses.
That Saturday I decided to hit Rivers Casino with Special K. We had all weekend to kill so I could play unrushed poker. I sat in on a $1/3 whilst waiting for a $4/8 to open. I opened weak, raising several pots preflop and being bet off my hands on the flop. I was down $100 when I hit a streak. I flopped a couple sets and big two pair hands and got paid. After three hours I was +$500. They were just opening a $1/3 HA table ($500 max) so I decided to go take a shot with my profits. Whoops. I got eaten alive. I flopped a straight flush draw, turned to pair, and lost $300 when the wrong card paired on the river and the guy who had grossly overplayed AAxx made a better two pair. I floundered for a while and gave up, taking my last $200 in profit and heading back to $1/3. I sat at a new table and stacked off in the first orbit. I was sitting with a guy who was making it $40 preflop every hand. I finally called a preflop raise in position with QJd. Flop comes 10-9-2 off. He throws a hundred at it, I shove on him, guy behind me calls and so does he. Q on the turn and river a brick. He shows J-10, but the idiot between us had called $40 preflop with 9-2 and flopped two pair. Disgusted, I left. I fidgeted around at $4/8 for a while until a $5/10 limit O8 game opened. I sat in there and ran my $215 stack back up to about $500. We had a drunk guy at the table with a VPIP of 100%. He called everything and didn't care if he won or lost. I also witnessed the worst live beat I've seen at Rivers. It would've won the Bad Beat Jackpot had it been hold'em. Guy to my right flops quad 6's and jams, betting the whole way. Drunk guy runs him down on the river with a gutshot straight flush (neither makes a low) and drunk guy scoops a monster.
K and I decided to take this weekend off of poker. I have quite a few games going the next couple weekends (including TK's $100 deepstack) so I guess I could use a weekend to get my head straight. I'm not really mad about my play in either game, I think I'm playing decent enough to win. I just keep running into people who are getting horribly lucky. If I can figure out how to dodge one and two out miracles I'd be OK.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Better Lucky Than Good, I Guess
I've been playing tournaments exclusively for a few weeks. This is due to a variety of factors, notably a lack of good limit games in Cleveland and my recent tournament game has been decent. I played the $60 bounty at Adam's house. I was swingy all game, up and down and back up. I made the final table and the final 6 before I shipped it preflop with KKxx and ran into Linda's AAxx. It's always bad to ship and have Linda snap call before you even get your stack out. Oh well. In the cash game I was running awesome. Some of Adam's friends were there and they all wanted to play PLO. I was up around $100 (in a .50/.50 game) before Adam himself sat in. Within three hands I was felted. The guy simply could not miss. First I turned a full house and ran into his bigger full house. Then a few hands later it was set over set. Finally he crippled me when we both flopped trip 9's and he had me on kicker. Luckily I had purchased a horse in the tournament and actually ended up breaking even for the day. Beats losing, I guess.
I also played Linda's triple pot limit tournament last weekend. I never really got any traction going there. I was up a little, lost it back on a monstrous combo draw, won some back on a few hands, then ran into Patty and got stacked. Malcolm raised preflop with AA46. I called with KK46 and Patty called with KKT9. Flop was J-5-7 two diamonds. Patty bet out, Malcolm called off his stack for less, and I called. Turn was an 8. I open/shipped with my straight and she snap called with her better straight and stacked us both. Whoops. Afterwards I managed to nurse a $50 stack in 3 and 4 handed PLO (.50/.50) until about 2AM when I flopped trip 6's with an A and ran into Data's rolled up boat.
I was a little stung from the night before but I decided to go to TK's poker tournament after the golf outing. I figured the golfers would all be tired from being out in the 100º heat all day and they'd all be piss drunk so I'd have an advantage. The game that followed was an absolute ZOO.
I got seated with one of Hiphop's friends who was completely hammered. He wasn't even sure what game he was playing. On hand #2 I get QQ. Cheryl raises, guy re-raises, I flat. She flats. Flop comes all unders. He leads out for the pot, I call, Cheryl folds. Turn another under, he bets again and I call. River same deal and I am plus 5k when he shows KJ for nothing. He doubled through another player and a few hands later I got AQd. Malcolm raises, I call, guy re-pops it again. Malcolm calls, I call. Flop three unders and two diamonds. We check to him, he bets, Malcolm folds and I call. Turn a brick that pairs the board. Check-call. River same thing, I check and he bets. I make hero call with A high and he shows 6 high and ships me another 5k. I piddled around for a while before getting dealt AA on the button. Brad raises from middle position and I three bet him. He calls. Flop comes A-K-2 two hearts. He checks, I lead for about 3/4 the pot. He snap shoves all in and I call before he can finish his sentence. He shows A8 of hearts and I fade the flush and bust him.
After the break I hit a stride and take a bunch of pots. They move some seats around and we end up with Meat at our table. I get into a monstrous four way all-in pot. Chasity raises to around 4k (about half her stack). Malcolm shoves in for 10k. I look around and see that Pete is ready to put his last 4k in and Chas will likely call. I decide to gamble 1/3 of my stack and potentially bust three people with my T8s. I call, Pete shoves for less and Chas calls. Chas has QQ, Malcolm AQs, Pete 98h. The board runs out and Chas wins the main pot, Pete is busted, and Malcolm takes the side pot. After that hand I start playing a little fast. I'm a little steamed from that pot plus I am getting impatient. Meats raises from mid position and I call from the BB with T9c. Flop comes T-7-2 one club. I check, Meat bets, and I shove on him. He snap calls and rolls over KK. Whoops. Turn Ac. River Qc and my flush busts him. After jubilant celebration I turn my attention back to the game and start running over the table.
I got into another multi-way clusterfuck when I got dealt K2s in the BB. Cheryl limps in, someone in the middle limps, Krazy Mike raises to 3k. I call, Cheryl calls, mid calls. Flop 2-2-6. Mike open/shoves his stack in. I call. Everyone else abandons ship. Mike tables 10-10 and bricks twice, then gets up and has to go outside to blow off steam. I don't like Mike's shove here, he's only going to get called by a hand that has him destroyed. I think a half pot bet would've been better, I would've flatted and when the board paired 6's on the turn he could've gotten away from his hand. Last hand before the break I doubled up Linda. She shoves her last 6k with AQ and I call with QJ. Then, first hand after break I get AA on the button. She limps, I raise, she shoves and I snap call. After Linda busts we get to the final table. I snapped off Randy when he shoved with KQ and I called with AQ.
The final table played impossibly slow. Grayday was hammered and taking forever to make any decisions. TK also was inexplicably slow, causing me to get impatient again as we weren't getting nearly as many HPH as we should've been even with Mike dealing for us. Grayday is also getting distracted by the cash players taunting him. I get up and walk away a couple of times trying to get myself focused. Finally Grayday shoves his stack in and I decide to make a bad call with J8h. He shows 88. J on the flop and he's gone. After he left it was the bubble which went on for a very long time. Finally Mike's friend Luke busted and we were all in the money. TK busted next in a hand that I couldn't understand. He raises preflop and Hacker calls. Flop comes J-9-9 two spades. Hacker bets into him. He raises. Hacker three bets. TK shoves and Hacker snap calls and rolls over 69c for trips. TK shows 77 and busts out. Three handed was over quick. I got AJ on the button and shoved my last 11 blinds in. Hacker snap calls and rolls over AK and I get third.
I played this tournament very poorly, and I know it. Despite cashing I should've been out a whole lot sooner. Several times I found myself getting impatient and I made some poor decisions because of it. I was getting good cards and hitting a lot, and I let my hand selection slide because of it. I made a lot of marginal calls in spots where I know I shouldn't have. I need to work on this.
I'm planning on hitting Rivers this weekend and crushing the $4/8 game. Report will follow.
I've been playing tournaments exclusively for a few weeks. This is due to a variety of factors, notably a lack of good limit games in Cleveland and my recent tournament game has been decent. I played the $60 bounty at Adam's house. I was swingy all game, up and down and back up. I made the final table and the final 6 before I shipped it preflop with KKxx and ran into Linda's AAxx. It's always bad to ship and have Linda snap call before you even get your stack out. Oh well. In the cash game I was running awesome. Some of Adam's friends were there and they all wanted to play PLO. I was up around $100 (in a .50/.50 game) before Adam himself sat in. Within three hands I was felted. The guy simply could not miss. First I turned a full house and ran into his bigger full house. Then a few hands later it was set over set. Finally he crippled me when we both flopped trip 9's and he had me on kicker. Luckily I had purchased a horse in the tournament and actually ended up breaking even for the day. Beats losing, I guess.
I also played Linda's triple pot limit tournament last weekend. I never really got any traction going there. I was up a little, lost it back on a monstrous combo draw, won some back on a few hands, then ran into Patty and got stacked. Malcolm raised preflop with AA46. I called with KK46 and Patty called with KKT9. Flop was J-5-7 two diamonds. Patty bet out, Malcolm called off his stack for less, and I called. Turn was an 8. I open/shipped with my straight and she snap called with her better straight and stacked us both. Whoops. Afterwards I managed to nurse a $50 stack in 3 and 4 handed PLO (.50/.50) until about 2AM when I flopped trip 6's with an A and ran into Data's rolled up boat.
I was a little stung from the night before but I decided to go to TK's poker tournament after the golf outing. I figured the golfers would all be tired from being out in the 100º heat all day and they'd all be piss drunk so I'd have an advantage. The game that followed was an absolute ZOO.
I got seated with one of Hiphop's friends who was completely hammered. He wasn't even sure what game he was playing. On hand #2 I get QQ. Cheryl raises, guy re-raises, I flat. She flats. Flop comes all unders. He leads out for the pot, I call, Cheryl folds. Turn another under, he bets again and I call. River same deal and I am plus 5k when he shows KJ for nothing. He doubled through another player and a few hands later I got AQd. Malcolm raises, I call, guy re-pops it again. Malcolm calls, I call. Flop three unders and two diamonds. We check to him, he bets, Malcolm folds and I call. Turn a brick that pairs the board. Check-call. River same thing, I check and he bets. I make hero call with A high and he shows 6 high and ships me another 5k. I piddled around for a while before getting dealt AA on the button. Brad raises from middle position and I three bet him. He calls. Flop comes A-K-2 two hearts. He checks, I lead for about 3/4 the pot. He snap shoves all in and I call before he can finish his sentence. He shows A8 of hearts and I fade the flush and bust him.
After the break I hit a stride and take a bunch of pots. They move some seats around and we end up with Meat at our table. I get into a monstrous four way all-in pot. Chasity raises to around 4k (about half her stack). Malcolm shoves in for 10k. I look around and see that Pete is ready to put his last 4k in and Chas will likely call. I decide to gamble 1/3 of my stack and potentially bust three people with my T8s. I call, Pete shoves for less and Chas calls. Chas has QQ, Malcolm AQs, Pete 98h. The board runs out and Chas wins the main pot, Pete is busted, and Malcolm takes the side pot. After that hand I start playing a little fast. I'm a little steamed from that pot plus I am getting impatient. Meats raises from mid position and I call from the BB with T9c. Flop comes T-7-2 one club. I check, Meat bets, and I shove on him. He snap calls and rolls over KK. Whoops. Turn Ac. River Qc and my flush busts him. After jubilant celebration I turn my attention back to the game and start running over the table.
I got into another multi-way clusterfuck when I got dealt K2s in the BB. Cheryl limps in, someone in the middle limps, Krazy Mike raises to 3k. I call, Cheryl calls, mid calls. Flop 2-2-6. Mike open/shoves his stack in. I call. Everyone else abandons ship. Mike tables 10-10 and bricks twice, then gets up and has to go outside to blow off steam. I don't like Mike's shove here, he's only going to get called by a hand that has him destroyed. I think a half pot bet would've been better, I would've flatted and when the board paired 6's on the turn he could've gotten away from his hand. Last hand before the break I doubled up Linda. She shoves her last 6k with AQ and I call with QJ. Then, first hand after break I get AA on the button. She limps, I raise, she shoves and I snap call. After Linda busts we get to the final table. I snapped off Randy when he shoved with KQ and I called with AQ.
The final table played impossibly slow. Grayday was hammered and taking forever to make any decisions. TK also was inexplicably slow, causing me to get impatient again as we weren't getting nearly as many HPH as we should've been even with Mike dealing for us. Grayday is also getting distracted by the cash players taunting him. I get up and walk away a couple of times trying to get myself focused. Finally Grayday shoves his stack in and I decide to make a bad call with J8h. He shows 88. J on the flop and he's gone. After he left it was the bubble which went on for a very long time. Finally Mike's friend Luke busted and we were all in the money. TK busted next in a hand that I couldn't understand. He raises preflop and Hacker calls. Flop comes J-9-9 two spades. Hacker bets into him. He raises. Hacker three bets. TK shoves and Hacker snap calls and rolls over 69c for trips. TK shows 77 and busts out. Three handed was over quick. I got AJ on the button and shoved my last 11 blinds in. Hacker snap calls and rolls over AK and I get third.
I played this tournament very poorly, and I know it. Despite cashing I should've been out a whole lot sooner. Several times I found myself getting impatient and I made some poor decisions because of it. I was getting good cards and hitting a lot, and I let my hand selection slide because of it. I made a lot of marginal calls in spots where I know I shouldn't have. I need to work on this.
I'm planning on hitting Rivers this weekend and crushing the $4/8 game. Report will follow.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Poker and I Make Up (A Little)
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Summer is usually busy time for me, and with everything going on I haven't been playing much poker. I had to cancel my Vegas trip after the dismal spring we had kept me from amassing anything that resembled a playable bankroll. Vegas is depressing when you only have a few hundred to play off.
I have only played a few tournaments in the past couple months. I went to Pyxis' game a few weeks ago. 13 players, I felt good (for a change) and things went well. I won a bunch of small pots early, then went on a heater. I busted Cindy and another guy when I flopped three Aces. Guy raised preflop, we're short handed so I call with A-10. Cindy calls. Flop A-3-A. He open/shoves. Cindy tanks and calls. I can't fold, so I call. He has KK, Cindy has a flush draw and bricks. After that hand I had a pretty good command on the table. I did make one hero fold I shouldn't have. I got AK from UTG and limped. Papa Z was short stacked and shoved (as I had anticipated). All of a sudden Jamie shoves over the top of him. Jamie had me covered and I knew I was behind now so I folded. He showed QQ to Papa Z's 44 and won. The turn was a K, I would've scooped a pretty massive pot. The final table went pretty quick. I snapped a hand off in Pyxis that should've won me the tournament. Folds to me, I limp from SB with 58c. She checks. Flop 5-7-9 one club. I lead out and bet, she raises me. I am trying to decide if she has 68 from the BB and flopped the joint. I just call. Turn is the Qc. I check, she bets a little over half my stack. I now have a pair, gutter, and flush draw. I call. River is a club and I open/shove. The pot is so massive she has to call and I table my flush. She shows KK and curses me. That pot pushed me over and I made it to heads up where I donked off to a new kid who got hit with the deck. Every time I tried to take a pot from him he woke up with a monster. I finally dumped my stack when I shoved from the button with 4-6 on a steal and he snap called with A6. Ooops. Second was still OK.
I have been playing a little bit of $2/4 and $3/6 hold'em at Nautica. That place is a trip, playing limit poker there is an exercise in patience and attention. If you're not hitting, you're screwed. There's no bluffing at these limits, so you have to show down a hand. I sat down with a hundred and lost half my stack on hand #1 when I flopped top set J's and turned a full house. I lost to a two out K's full on the river. FIVE PEOPLE played that hand all the way down to capped betting. It was sick. I did see the most ridiculous attempt at cheating that I've ever witnessed at a live game before. We're playing $3/6 and it's close to closing time. A kid sits down with a rack of white chips and plays a few hands. He gets dealt into a hand when I am the button. He limps, I fold and the blind raises to $6. A few people including the kid call. Flop comes J-6-6. The initial raiser bets, two people call. I look over at the kid and his cards are gone. The dealer puts out a 4 on the turn. Raiser bets again, again two calls, again kid sitting there and no cards. River is a K. Raiser bets again, someone in between raises him. Back to the inital bettor who calls. The three people who've been betting all table ragged J's for a three way chop. All of a sudden, the kid jumps up and says "I win" and throws AK down on the table. Everyone looks at him like he's got a lobster on his head. He reaches over to scoop the pot and the other guys all stop him. Arguing ensues as kid never put any money in post-flop and no one could see his cards (he took them off the table). He starts arguing it's his pot, then when everyone including me and the dealer point out he never put any money in or said anything he gets defensive. He tried to argue they skipped him but he never said a word and no one saw his cards. Finally the dealer calls for the floor and security, and the kid jumps up, grabs his rack and cashes out before anyone can come talk to him.
For the week at Nautica I was plus $18, not bad I guess. I can never seem to consistently win there, and the NL tables are getting tougher.
I went to Data's mix game last Saturday. I could only stay a few hours since I had to go back to work, but I made the most of it. I decided to tighten up my hand selection (especially in stud games) and it paid off. I only won a few pots but they were all good size. I got lucky, too. I had rolled up sixes twice (and won both), and turned a gutshot Broadway straight in Stud 8 whilst inbewteen competing low hands. I only lost a few hands, and I think I only played one hand bad (I stayed in a stud hand with pocket 7's despite Adam folding a 7 in the door and I ended up making two pair and paying off a better two pair. Other than that hand I think I did well and finished up $160. I took a video of a hand of Stud 8, it had been boring until fifth street when it got capped four ways. This is my first attempt at filming a live hand so bear with me on it:
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. Summer is usually busy time for me, and with everything going on I haven't been playing much poker. I had to cancel my Vegas trip after the dismal spring we had kept me from amassing anything that resembled a playable bankroll. Vegas is depressing when you only have a few hundred to play off.
I have only played a few tournaments in the past couple months. I went to Pyxis' game a few weeks ago. 13 players, I felt good (for a change) and things went well. I won a bunch of small pots early, then went on a heater. I busted Cindy and another guy when I flopped three Aces. Guy raised preflop, we're short handed so I call with A-10. Cindy calls. Flop A-3-A. He open/shoves. Cindy tanks and calls. I can't fold, so I call. He has KK, Cindy has a flush draw and bricks. After that hand I had a pretty good command on the table. I did make one hero fold I shouldn't have. I got AK from UTG and limped. Papa Z was short stacked and shoved (as I had anticipated). All of a sudden Jamie shoves over the top of him. Jamie had me covered and I knew I was behind now so I folded. He showed QQ to Papa Z's 44 and won. The turn was a K, I would've scooped a pretty massive pot. The final table went pretty quick. I snapped a hand off in Pyxis that should've won me the tournament. Folds to me, I limp from SB with 58c. She checks. Flop 5-7-9 one club. I lead out and bet, she raises me. I am trying to decide if she has 68 from the BB and flopped the joint. I just call. Turn is the Qc. I check, she bets a little over half my stack. I now have a pair, gutter, and flush draw. I call. River is a club and I open/shove. The pot is so massive she has to call and I table my flush. She shows KK and curses me. That pot pushed me over and I made it to heads up where I donked off to a new kid who got hit with the deck. Every time I tried to take a pot from him he woke up with a monster. I finally dumped my stack when I shoved from the button with 4-6 on a steal and he snap called with A6. Ooops. Second was still OK.
I have been playing a little bit of $2/4 and $3/6 hold'em at Nautica. That place is a trip, playing limit poker there is an exercise in patience and attention. If you're not hitting, you're screwed. There's no bluffing at these limits, so you have to show down a hand. I sat down with a hundred and lost half my stack on hand #1 when I flopped top set J's and turned a full house. I lost to a two out K's full on the river. FIVE PEOPLE played that hand all the way down to capped betting. It was sick. I did see the most ridiculous attempt at cheating that I've ever witnessed at a live game before. We're playing $3/6 and it's close to closing time. A kid sits down with a rack of white chips and plays a few hands. He gets dealt into a hand when I am the button. He limps, I fold and the blind raises to $6. A few people including the kid call. Flop comes J-6-6. The initial raiser bets, two people call. I look over at the kid and his cards are gone. The dealer puts out a 4 on the turn. Raiser bets again, again two calls, again kid sitting there and no cards. River is a K. Raiser bets again, someone in between raises him. Back to the inital bettor who calls. The three people who've been betting all table ragged J's for a three way chop. All of a sudden, the kid jumps up and says "I win" and throws AK down on the table. Everyone looks at him like he's got a lobster on his head. He reaches over to scoop the pot and the other guys all stop him. Arguing ensues as kid never put any money in post-flop and no one could see his cards (he took them off the table). He starts arguing it's his pot, then when everyone including me and the dealer point out he never put any money in or said anything he gets defensive. He tried to argue they skipped him but he never said a word and no one saw his cards. Finally the dealer calls for the floor and security, and the kid jumps up, grabs his rack and cashes out before anyone can come talk to him.
For the week at Nautica I was plus $18, not bad I guess. I can never seem to consistently win there, and the NL tables are getting tougher.
I went to Data's mix game last Saturday. I could only stay a few hours since I had to go back to work, but I made the most of it. I decided to tighten up my hand selection (especially in stud games) and it paid off. I only won a few pots but they were all good size. I got lucky, too. I had rolled up sixes twice (and won both), and turned a gutshot Broadway straight in Stud 8 whilst inbewteen competing low hands. I only lost a few hands, and I think I only played one hand bad (I stayed in a stud hand with pocket 7's despite Adam folding a 7 in the door and I ended up making two pair and paying off a better two pair. Other than that hand I think I did well and finished up $160. I took a video of a hand of Stud 8, it had been boring until fifth street when it got capped four ways. This is my first attempt at filming a live hand so bear with me on it:
Sunday, June 19, 2011
The Poker Summer So Far
I haven't been playing much lately (hence the lack of posts) so this one post ought to catch you all up.
I played the $40 PLO tournament at Adam's house last weekend. Started off grinding, built up a stack and dusted off most of the profit. I was up and down for a while but I felt good and was playing well. There were two spots where I used the ole Stop-N-Go with much success (got Adam and Con both to lay down flush draws on the turn - both would've hit if they stayed in). Made the final table pretty easy, there were only 15 runners. I got into one hand where I made my patented DP Idiot Call™ in a three way hand. I got dealt AQd99. I limped in and Lakewood Josh potted himself all in for 3x the blind (I want to say 2500ish). Data repots over the top of him and all in. I hear the little voice in my head say call, so I do. I end up making the nut flush on the river and stacking both. After that I turned a gutshot straight flush and stacked Con. At the beginning of three handed play (in the money) it was me, Adam, and RR Dave. I had 100k in the chips, the other two 25k a piece. We played three handed for a long time before Dave finally stacked off to Adam. Heads up was all me until my AAxx got cracked and Adam went on a tear, winning a few races and finally crippling me. I ended up second, which bothered me because I felt I played better than 2nd place but what can I do when a guy gets hit with the deck heads up?
Played a bit at Nautica this week with little success. The $2/4 and $3/6 limit games are turning into a circus sideshow. The cheating/angle shooting is so obvious it's ridiculous. It's clear no one at Nautica gives a shit what happens at these tables. I was playing $2/4 with three guys all playing out of the same handful of cash, they would pass chips back and forth. They were also selling chips to other players (not allowed) and pocketing the cash rather than putting it on the table (also not allowed). There is rampant signalling and soft play. The angle shooting is ridiculous. I played $3/6 with this one guy who has $200 in cash in his hand, which he never sets on the table. He buys $20 in chips off of someone and plays a hand and loses, then buys $20 more. The table minimum is $60. If he's in a hand he buys more chips and puts them in play mid hand, also not allowed. He and two other guys were there yesterday all showing each other their cards. If they didn't like a card on the deal they would intentionally fuck up the deal and start yelling "Misdeal!" even if it wasn't. The volunteer dealers are woefully stupid and just redeal. We had three misdeals in four hands because of this, which caused me to leave. I am not losing anything at these tables, but I'm not killing them either. Sometimes it's just funny to watch the show. I gave up complaining to the floor months ago because they don't care and won't stop any of it.
I played some $1/2 with little success as well. I got into a horrendous hand a few days ago that I'd like to share. Playing $1/2 around 11PM (an hour to close - usually crazy time). I start with $200 and work it up to $350 with a flush. I get into this hand: on the button dealt Js-10h. UTG (who has over $1200) limps. Girl at the end makes it $16, she has only about $60 behind. I call the $16 as do the SB and BB. UTG re-raises to $69. I have seen him do this repeatedly with very light holdings to try and squeeze. Mid girl shoves. I flat call, SB and BB fold. Flop comes K-J-3 two spades, but I don't see it because I am staring down Mr. Big Stack. He is staring back and open/shoves all-in. I tell him I think he missed and I call. Turn is the Qs, so I have open ended straight draw, flush draw, and a pair of jacks. River is 10d. He says "straight" and tables A-8h for the two out miracle river. $830+ pot vaporizes in front of me. What do you say to a hand like that? Yes, you can argue I shouldn't have called $69 preflop but I read the hand perfectly and had way the best of it when the money went in.
Had a spotty day yesterday. Lost $40 in Linda's tournament and decided to hit Nautica to kill time. Lit fire to $110 in the cash game playing $1/2. I didn't drag a single pot. Turned trip A's from the BB lost on the river, flopped lots of open end straight and flush draws and bricked them all. Went back to Linda's with Krazy Mike and caught fire in the triple pot limit. Stacked Chuck for $30 when I raised preflop in PLO8, turned straight, flush, and low draws and missed them all. He was also on a draw and my A high won the pot. Bought in $60 and cashed out $238, covering my losses for the day with a little cherry on top.
Some days I feel like I really can play this game.
I haven't been playing much lately (hence the lack of posts) so this one post ought to catch you all up.
I played the $40 PLO tournament at Adam's house last weekend. Started off grinding, built up a stack and dusted off most of the profit. I was up and down for a while but I felt good and was playing well. There were two spots where I used the ole Stop-N-Go with much success (got Adam and Con both to lay down flush draws on the turn - both would've hit if they stayed in). Made the final table pretty easy, there were only 15 runners. I got into one hand where I made my patented DP Idiot Call™ in a three way hand. I got dealt AQd99. I limped in and Lakewood Josh potted himself all in for 3x the blind (I want to say 2500ish). Data repots over the top of him and all in. I hear the little voice in my head say call, so I do. I end up making the nut flush on the river and stacking both. After that I turned a gutshot straight flush and stacked Con. At the beginning of three handed play (in the money) it was me, Adam, and RR Dave. I had 100k in the chips, the other two 25k a piece. We played three handed for a long time before Dave finally stacked off to Adam. Heads up was all me until my AAxx got cracked and Adam went on a tear, winning a few races and finally crippling me. I ended up second, which bothered me because I felt I played better than 2nd place but what can I do when a guy gets hit with the deck heads up?
Played a bit at Nautica this week with little success. The $2/4 and $3/6 limit games are turning into a circus sideshow. The cheating/angle shooting is so obvious it's ridiculous. It's clear no one at Nautica gives a shit what happens at these tables. I was playing $2/4 with three guys all playing out of the same handful of cash, they would pass chips back and forth. They were also selling chips to other players (not allowed) and pocketing the cash rather than putting it on the table (also not allowed). There is rampant signalling and soft play. The angle shooting is ridiculous. I played $3/6 with this one guy who has $200 in cash in his hand, which he never sets on the table. He buys $20 in chips off of someone and plays a hand and loses, then buys $20 more. The table minimum is $60. If he's in a hand he buys more chips and puts them in play mid hand, also not allowed. He and two other guys were there yesterday all showing each other their cards. If they didn't like a card on the deal they would intentionally fuck up the deal and start yelling "Misdeal!" even if it wasn't. The volunteer dealers are woefully stupid and just redeal. We had three misdeals in four hands because of this, which caused me to leave. I am not losing anything at these tables, but I'm not killing them either. Sometimes it's just funny to watch the show. I gave up complaining to the floor months ago because they don't care and won't stop any of it.
I played some $1/2 with little success as well. I got into a horrendous hand a few days ago that I'd like to share. Playing $1/2 around 11PM (an hour to close - usually crazy time). I start with $200 and work it up to $350 with a flush. I get into this hand: on the button dealt Js-10h. UTG (who has over $1200) limps. Girl at the end makes it $16, she has only about $60 behind. I call the $16 as do the SB and BB. UTG re-raises to $69. I have seen him do this repeatedly with very light holdings to try and squeeze. Mid girl shoves. I flat call, SB and BB fold. Flop comes K-J-3 two spades, but I don't see it because I am staring down Mr. Big Stack. He is staring back and open/shoves all-in. I tell him I think he missed and I call. Turn is the Qs, so I have open ended straight draw, flush draw, and a pair of jacks. River is 10d. He says "straight" and tables A-8h for the two out miracle river. $830+ pot vaporizes in front of me. What do you say to a hand like that? Yes, you can argue I shouldn't have called $69 preflop but I read the hand perfectly and had way the best of it when the money went in.
Had a spotty day yesterday. Lost $40 in Linda's tournament and decided to hit Nautica to kill time. Lit fire to $110 in the cash game playing $1/2. I didn't drag a single pot. Turned trip A's from the BB lost on the river, flopped lots of open end straight and flush draws and bricked them all. Went back to Linda's with Krazy Mike and caught fire in the triple pot limit. Stacked Chuck for $30 when I raised preflop in PLO8, turned straight, flush, and low draws and missed them all. He was also on a draw and my A high won the pot. Bought in $60 and cashed out $238, covering my losses for the day with a little cherry on top.
Some days I feel like I really can play this game.
Monday, May 30, 2011
It's Easier To Blog When You're Winning
It's Memorial Monday, hats off to anyone who reads this who also served in the military. I have mad respect for anyone willing to put their ass on the line for this country.
I am winding down my weekend of poker debauchery, and it's been a good one. I started off Saturday with the team tournament at Dave's. I managed to talk Special K into playing (though lately she hates tournaments). I had asked Ryan Rufe to be the third on our team, and he initially declined but changed his mind after the other person we asked cancelled on us. There were 48 people in the tournament (16 teams). It was a zoo. As with anything Meat handles, it went painfully slow.
The beginning stages were not good for me. I started with 15k in chips and quickly dusted off 6k. I flopped a set of 8's and lost to a guy with QQ who drew a gutter on me (-$4k). I also lost 2k to Con when I flopped a pair of K's and tried to check-raise him. He had raised preflop and I expected a c-bet but he checked behind and hit his two out set on the turn. Con, I discovered, has a horrible tell and after that hand I had zeroed in on his preflop hands. I could tell when he had a large Ace or K, a mid pair or medium cards, or nothing. After that I got into one scrap with him where (from his tell) I was certain he had a small/medium pair and I had AKs. Flop was 345 two spades. I check raised him and he shoved. I had to conclude he was either over the board or had a set and I folded since I have not been winning many races. He showed a set of 5's (thanks for confirming your tell again BTW). After a few rounds I picked up some steam. I busted a short stack who shoved with AQ and only 2500 in chips with my Q8 (8 on the flop).
I played a monstrous hand where Con raised preflop (and his tell indicated he had a large Ace). The guy between us (can't remember who it was) shoved for $11k. I flat called with 55. Con tanked and folded. The other guy had QQ (oops!). A five on the flop sealed it for me. I busted Randy a few orbits later. I limped with 97 offsuit. Con limps, Randy checks in. Flop 9-8-2 two hearts. Randy open/shoves his whole stack. I flat call. As Con is thinking Randy excitedly flips over 10-7h for the open ended straight flush draw. Con tanks now, seeing the cards. He uses a consult with Malcolm and finally folds. I roll over my pair of 9's and Randy catches two bricks. Con would've also bricked.
In between I also made a bad read on Krazy Mike that worked out for me. He raised preflop with 99. Monsignor calls and I call with 44. Flop comes J-8-7. Checks around. Turn is another J. Monsignor checks, Mike bets. I decide Mike has AK or AQ and figures we don't have jacks. I flat call. River is a 4. Mike checks, I bet about half the pot. He calls and I show the boat and he gets upset. I made the correct play for my read, just got lucky. I smoked Tuttle in a hand where I flopped two pair from the button with 10-8, turned a boat and he paid off a river bet. He didn't say what he had but I think he made a flush. I made a good read on Monsignor and picked off a semi-bluff. He fired two barrels with nut flush, wheel, and over card draws. I called him down with a low pair (6's?). He was not happy. After the break I got into the hand that made my entire tournament. I had AA on the button. Con opened for a raise to 1500 or so. Hiphop raises to 11k. I shove. Con folds and Hip tanks. He consults Colin who tells him to push. He calls off his last 10.5k with AK and I win a monstrous pot almost 50k. I gave some back after Eskimo (who had a horseshoe up his ass) flopped trip J's on me, plus I took a shot at busting both Krazy Mike and Con and whiffed both. I worked my way back up to 88k for the final table. By then the structure made it mostly push-n-pray so it was pretty straightforward. I folded AQ preflop to a Data shove (he had me covered, said he had 88). I snapped off Con by limping with KK, he shoved and I overshoved. His A-10 didn't get there. I was up to 170k and guaranteed 4th place cash when I finally got horsefucked.
I was SB with 55. Nick open shoves his stack $160k. I call. Eskimo and Jen fold. He has A5. Bink, A in the door. If he doesn't his his three outer I stack him and would have enough chips to win, but sadly it wasn't so. Fourth paid $210, still not bad. K mashed the cash game for several hundred dollars before cashing out.
The next day when we got up, K and I kicked around the idea of going to Rivers casino in Pittsburgh. We were both up and had been playing well, so we decided to do it. I went in and decided to play some of the Hold'em table game. I sat down in the poker room at $4/8 and went on a heater. Made straights and flushes, got paid. Pairs held up. People folded to my raises. It was magical. For one day, I knew what it was like to be Hiphop and hit everything. I raised with large aces preflop and flopped pairs. It was awesome. I finished up $267 which is a huge profit for $4/8 limit. I gave some of it back playing video poker but still left with a profit, which is just fine with me. I made it back to Cleveland with enough money to begin repleneshing my bankroll. The next few weeks at work will be nuts, it's been three straight days of 80º+ outside and the A/C calls will be non-stop. I hope I get some time to grind some $3/6 at Nautica this week.
It's Memorial Monday, hats off to anyone who reads this who also served in the military. I have mad respect for anyone willing to put their ass on the line for this country.
I am winding down my weekend of poker debauchery, and it's been a good one. I started off Saturday with the team tournament at Dave's. I managed to talk Special K into playing (though lately she hates tournaments). I had asked Ryan Rufe to be the third on our team, and he initially declined but changed his mind after the other person we asked cancelled on us. There were 48 people in the tournament (16 teams). It was a zoo. As with anything Meat handles, it went painfully slow.
The beginning stages were not good for me. I started with 15k in chips and quickly dusted off 6k. I flopped a set of 8's and lost to a guy with QQ who drew a gutter on me (-$4k). I also lost 2k to Con when I flopped a pair of K's and tried to check-raise him. He had raised preflop and I expected a c-bet but he checked behind and hit his two out set on the turn. Con, I discovered, has a horrible tell and after that hand I had zeroed in on his preflop hands. I could tell when he had a large Ace or K, a mid pair or medium cards, or nothing. After that I got into one scrap with him where (from his tell) I was certain he had a small/medium pair and I had AKs. Flop was 345 two spades. I check raised him and he shoved. I had to conclude he was either over the board or had a set and I folded since I have not been winning many races. He showed a set of 5's (thanks for confirming your tell again BTW). After a few rounds I picked up some steam. I busted a short stack who shoved with AQ and only 2500 in chips with my Q8 (8 on the flop).
I played a monstrous hand where Con raised preflop (and his tell indicated he had a large Ace). The guy between us (can't remember who it was) shoved for $11k. I flat called with 55. Con tanked and folded. The other guy had QQ (oops!). A five on the flop sealed it for me. I busted Randy a few orbits later. I limped with 97 offsuit. Con limps, Randy checks in. Flop 9-8-2 two hearts. Randy open/shoves his whole stack. I flat call. As Con is thinking Randy excitedly flips over 10-7h for the open ended straight flush draw. Con tanks now, seeing the cards. He uses a consult with Malcolm and finally folds. I roll over my pair of 9's and Randy catches two bricks. Con would've also bricked.
In between I also made a bad read on Krazy Mike that worked out for me. He raised preflop with 99. Monsignor calls and I call with 44. Flop comes J-8-7. Checks around. Turn is another J. Monsignor checks, Mike bets. I decide Mike has AK or AQ and figures we don't have jacks. I flat call. River is a 4. Mike checks, I bet about half the pot. He calls and I show the boat and he gets upset. I made the correct play for my read, just got lucky. I smoked Tuttle in a hand where I flopped two pair from the button with 10-8, turned a boat and he paid off a river bet. He didn't say what he had but I think he made a flush. I made a good read on Monsignor and picked off a semi-bluff. He fired two barrels with nut flush, wheel, and over card draws. I called him down with a low pair (6's?). He was not happy. After the break I got into the hand that made my entire tournament. I had AA on the button. Con opened for a raise to 1500 or so. Hiphop raises to 11k. I shove. Con folds and Hip tanks. He consults Colin who tells him to push. He calls off his last 10.5k with AK and I win a monstrous pot almost 50k. I gave some back after Eskimo (who had a horseshoe up his ass) flopped trip J's on me, plus I took a shot at busting both Krazy Mike and Con and whiffed both. I worked my way back up to 88k for the final table. By then the structure made it mostly push-n-pray so it was pretty straightforward. I folded AQ preflop to a Data shove (he had me covered, said he had 88). I snapped off Con by limping with KK, he shoved and I overshoved. His A-10 didn't get there. I was up to 170k and guaranteed 4th place cash when I finally got horsefucked.
I was SB with 55. Nick open shoves his stack $160k. I call. Eskimo and Jen fold. He has A5. Bink, A in the door. If he doesn't his his three outer I stack him and would have enough chips to win, but sadly it wasn't so. Fourth paid $210, still not bad. K mashed the cash game for several hundred dollars before cashing out.
The next day when we got up, K and I kicked around the idea of going to Rivers casino in Pittsburgh. We were both up and had been playing well, so we decided to do it. I went in and decided to play some of the Hold'em table game. I sat down in the poker room at $4/8 and went on a heater. Made straights and flushes, got paid. Pairs held up. People folded to my raises. It was magical. For one day, I knew what it was like to be Hiphop and hit everything. I raised with large aces preflop and flopped pairs. It was awesome. I finished up $267 which is a huge profit for $4/8 limit. I gave some of it back playing video poker but still left with a profit, which is just fine with me. I made it back to Cleveland with enough money to begin repleneshing my bankroll. The next few weeks at work will be nuts, it's been three straight days of 80º+ outside and the A/C calls will be non-stop. I hope I get some time to grind some $3/6 at Nautica this week.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Adventures In Staking A POY Contender
(WARNING: This is another long one.)
"...a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid." - Captain Jack Sparrow
So, at the beginning of this last POY season I had to make a decision. I had played in the previous three seasons and their Main Events, and I never got very far. I wanted to scale back my tournament play and knew I couldn't dedicate every Saturday to the season. I decided instead that I wanted to buy a horse - a runner who could play every week, play well, and make a serious shot at the title. I made a short list and started making phone calls.
My first choice (who I won't name) hasn't played regularly in a few years. I wanted to get him back into grinding and help him re-establish a bankroll (as well as peeling off a profit for myself). After some discussion he declined, citing a few factors including his tournament rust plus his feeling that he wouldn't be able to dedicate enough time. The next name on my list was someone whom I'd been playing with since well before my CPMG days. I knew his play inside and out, knew he had all the free time in the universe, and knew he couldn't pass up my offer. So, I called Meat and asked if he wanted to be staked for POY IV.
The deal was simple: I would front Meat 100% of his buyins (minus the two tournaments that had already run while I was trying to make this arrangement). When he cashed, I would get 60% of his winnings. When he didn't cash, I would eat the loss. Once I added up the remaining buyins and percentages, it meant that Meat would have to earn 1800 points (that is, cash $1800) for me to break even on the season's worth of buyins (60% of $1800 or $1080). The other benefit would be that if he did crack $1800 anything over that would be profit, plus I would essentially be freerolling for 60% of whatever he cashed in the Main Event. (We agreed that if he won I got to take a picture with the bracelet but that he would keep it).
I felt that this deal was plenty fair for us both. Yes, he was giving up a decent chunk of profit but he was playing with literally no risk to himself. If he busted, then he didn't have to worry about where the next entry was going to come from. There was concern that he might play extra stupid since it wasn't his money, but I felt he was serious enough about being the champion that he would put his best effort into it. I was also taking the risk that he'd have a shitty season (especially since this was the first year he was TD for the games). I put a few ground rules out there for him. When you deal with him on a regular basis you get used to the fact that you MUST spell out SPECIFICALLY what you expect or he makes assumptions on his own. I expected him to play his best game. I expected him to try and squeeze the most profit possible out of the game. I also expected him to go the whole season. I offered him the chance to "opt out" after 10 tournaments if he was unhappy with the deal. He also had the option at the winter break to opt out. He re-signed both times. I also promised that I would not attempt to influence his play or try to make him change his style. He was also free to chop without my approval if it was in his best interest to do so.
There were a few things about the arrangement that irked me. For one, I had initially forbade him to speak of it to anyone else. I was concerned that people might take a more aggressive approach to him if they knew he wasn't playing on his own dime. I also wanted to avoid having other players hitting me up for money. Nontheless, by the end of the first month word was out. I sometimes think that keeping things a secret causes him physical pain. Toward the end of the season, as he approached 1800 points, he started whinging a bit about the split because he knew that over that amount he was giving away equity. He also rankled me when he told me outright that he made a questionable call for his stack (and lost) because "I knew I could make more in the 8 game than if I won the tournament". This pissed me off because (whether he was right or not) he had made a commitment to trying to earn us both money. I also had to repeatedly chase him down for details. He rarely texted me updates on anything. I felt it was common courtesy to text your backer even if you lost and at least let him know what happened. I sometimes had to read it the next day on the board because he would ignore my texts. He also peeled some money out of our cashouts to donate for this or that without checking with me first (not that I object to him putting money in the jar for Elizabeth or kicking Dave $ for supplies). Again it was a matter of courtesy.
Luckily, as the season drew down it became clear that I would get exactly what I was trying for - a free shot at 60% of his Main Event cash. I avoided hounding him about the big game, as I felt he knew what he had to do to get himself to the money. I also stopped in to help with the tournament so he could devote as much time as possible to the actual play. For the two day game I felt he played really well. I think Grayday offering a $500 bounty to anyone who busted Meat on the bubble really fucked us both over. It was definitely on the other players' minds and it made Meat snug it up a lot more when he should have been stealing. It was a shitty thing to do and I am sure it won't be allowed next year. It's one thing to offer a small bounty just to razz someone, it another to try and fuck them over in the biggest game of the year. People like to give Meat shit (me included) but he knows the field better than anyone and he brought his A game. Unfortunately he only made it to 5th. Still, I ended up with a profit on the season (which I am sure wouldn't have been the case if I had been staking myself).
Now that it's over, I don't think that I will end up doing this again next year. For one, chasing after Meat is exhausting. You have constantly be on him about details. He's constantly looking for an edge or advantage in everything and will chisel you on every little dime he can. I think he likes to make things more difficult in the hopes that you'll say "Fuck it" and give in to what he wants. Secondly, although he made it to the break even point this year for me I doubt he can do it two years in a row. Third, I am contemplating a return and making a serious run at the POY title next year since it will be the last year at Dave's (and possibly the last ever). I cannot afford to stake two people for a full season.
So, what's with the Pirates quote at the beginning? Several people asked me why I would stake Meat, and why I put up with his constant haggling. The quote reminds me of him, not that he's dishonest, but that I can count on him to act consistently. He's always going to be this way, but in the end I know he's going to do his best to win. He's not the smoothest motherfucker around, but when it counts he's always showed up.
That's why I consider him a friend.
(WARNING: This is another long one.)
"...a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid." - Captain Jack Sparrow
So, at the beginning of this last POY season I had to make a decision. I had played in the previous three seasons and their Main Events, and I never got very far. I wanted to scale back my tournament play and knew I couldn't dedicate every Saturday to the season. I decided instead that I wanted to buy a horse - a runner who could play every week, play well, and make a serious shot at the title. I made a short list and started making phone calls.
My first choice (who I won't name) hasn't played regularly in a few years. I wanted to get him back into grinding and help him re-establish a bankroll (as well as peeling off a profit for myself). After some discussion he declined, citing a few factors including his tournament rust plus his feeling that he wouldn't be able to dedicate enough time. The next name on my list was someone whom I'd been playing with since well before my CPMG days. I knew his play inside and out, knew he had all the free time in the universe, and knew he couldn't pass up my offer. So, I called Meat and asked if he wanted to be staked for POY IV.
The deal was simple: I would front Meat 100% of his buyins (minus the two tournaments that had already run while I was trying to make this arrangement). When he cashed, I would get 60% of his winnings. When he didn't cash, I would eat the loss. Once I added up the remaining buyins and percentages, it meant that Meat would have to earn 1800 points (that is, cash $1800) for me to break even on the season's worth of buyins (60% of $1800 or $1080). The other benefit would be that if he did crack $1800 anything over that would be profit, plus I would essentially be freerolling for 60% of whatever he cashed in the Main Event. (We agreed that if he won I got to take a picture with the bracelet but that he would keep it).
I felt that this deal was plenty fair for us both. Yes, he was giving up a decent chunk of profit but he was playing with literally no risk to himself. If he busted, then he didn't have to worry about where the next entry was going to come from. There was concern that he might play extra stupid since it wasn't his money, but I felt he was serious enough about being the champion that he would put his best effort into it. I was also taking the risk that he'd have a shitty season (especially since this was the first year he was TD for the games). I put a few ground rules out there for him. When you deal with him on a regular basis you get used to the fact that you MUST spell out SPECIFICALLY what you expect or he makes assumptions on his own. I expected him to play his best game. I expected him to try and squeeze the most profit possible out of the game. I also expected him to go the whole season. I offered him the chance to "opt out" after 10 tournaments if he was unhappy with the deal. He also had the option at the winter break to opt out. He re-signed both times. I also promised that I would not attempt to influence his play or try to make him change his style. He was also free to chop without my approval if it was in his best interest to do so.
There were a few things about the arrangement that irked me. For one, I had initially forbade him to speak of it to anyone else. I was concerned that people might take a more aggressive approach to him if they knew he wasn't playing on his own dime. I also wanted to avoid having other players hitting me up for money. Nontheless, by the end of the first month word was out. I sometimes think that keeping things a secret causes him physical pain. Toward the end of the season, as he approached 1800 points, he started whinging a bit about the split because he knew that over that amount he was giving away equity. He also rankled me when he told me outright that he made a questionable call for his stack (and lost) because "I knew I could make more in the 8 game than if I won the tournament". This pissed me off because (whether he was right or not) he had made a commitment to trying to earn us both money. I also had to repeatedly chase him down for details. He rarely texted me updates on anything. I felt it was common courtesy to text your backer even if you lost and at least let him know what happened. I sometimes had to read it the next day on the board because he would ignore my texts. He also peeled some money out of our cashouts to donate for this or that without checking with me first (not that I object to him putting money in the jar for Elizabeth or kicking Dave $ for supplies). Again it was a matter of courtesy.
Luckily, as the season drew down it became clear that I would get exactly what I was trying for - a free shot at 60% of his Main Event cash. I avoided hounding him about the big game, as I felt he knew what he had to do to get himself to the money. I also stopped in to help with the tournament so he could devote as much time as possible to the actual play. For the two day game I felt he played really well. I think Grayday offering a $500 bounty to anyone who busted Meat on the bubble really fucked us both over. It was definitely on the other players' minds and it made Meat snug it up a lot more when he should have been stealing. It was a shitty thing to do and I am sure it won't be allowed next year. It's one thing to offer a small bounty just to razz someone, it another to try and fuck them over in the biggest game of the year. People like to give Meat shit (me included) but he knows the field better than anyone and he brought his A game. Unfortunately he only made it to 5th. Still, I ended up with a profit on the season (which I am sure wouldn't have been the case if I had been staking myself).
Now that it's over, I don't think that I will end up doing this again next year. For one, chasing after Meat is exhausting. You have constantly be on him about details. He's constantly looking for an edge or advantage in everything and will chisel you on every little dime he can. I think he likes to make things more difficult in the hopes that you'll say "Fuck it" and give in to what he wants. Secondly, although he made it to the break even point this year for me I doubt he can do it two years in a row. Third, I am contemplating a return and making a serious run at the POY title next year since it will be the last year at Dave's (and possibly the last ever). I cannot afford to stake two people for a full season.
So, what's with the Pirates quote at the beginning? Several people asked me why I would stake Meat, and why I put up with his constant haggling. The quote reminds me of him, not that he's dishonest, but that I can count on him to act consistently. He's always going to be this way, but in the end I know he's going to do his best to win. He's not the smoothest motherfucker around, but when it counts he's always showed up.
That's why I consider him a friend.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Just When You Think Things Won't Get Worse (or, Why I Should Just Quit).
It's been a while since my last post so bear with me as it's going to be a bit longer. Go ahead, grab a snack. I'll wait.
OK?
So, I played the April 9th at Dave's. It was pretty uneventful for me, I was up a little in the beginning and gave some back. I ended up losing my first buy-in to Data (yet again). I raised preflop with AK with the Kh. He called with KQ (no heart). Flop comes Q-8-6 all hearts. He checks and I shove, he tanks for a while and then finally calls (about 2/3 of his stack). Of course I brick the over and flush draw twice and I rebuy. Lately he's been owning me, I guess it's variance paying me back for all the times I stacked him with something stupid.
After the rebuy I call a small raise with 46s on the button and the flop comes K-4-4. I get it all in against KQ and double up. I hit my stride, doubling up again when my 99 survives against AK. I took a few smaller pots here and there and then snapped it off in Danny. He open/shoves with A9, I look down at AQ and can't call fast enough. Flop comes A-Q-x and I am up to 18k. I run it up to 21k after the break and then get involved in a weird hand. I get dealt KK on the button. I have Pyxis to my left in the SB and she is displaying her tell that she has a good hand. Meats raises from mid position and I decide to whopperjaw the pot, making it look like a steal. I slam it all in and Pyxis tanks. Finally she surrenders and it's the Meat Show. He basically says he has QQ and I want desperately for him to call. He finally decides he can't risk his stack and folds. Pyxis had JJ. I show the KK and decide I played it wrong. If I flat call Meat, Pyxis shoves and Meat will be nearly pot committed by calling her, so I could wedge them both in and triple up. I didn't expect her to fold JJ so I assumed when I slammed it she would shove in and he'd make the obligatory "I guess I gotta call". Oh well.
After that hand I finally do double up Pyxis with A6s. She was way short and shoved, it was only 6k to call so I did and she had AK. I hover around 18k until I get into a retarded hand with Data. Data open/shoves 15k from middle position (blinds 800/1600 I think). I have been picking up a read on him and am convinced he's shoving light to steal. Folds to me with A8c. I decide to call (stupid) and he rolls over J-10s. He is 99.99999999999992% to win preflop. Sure enough, I flop an A but two spades, and turn is the Ks no waiting. Crippled, I put it in with QJ a few hands later and A2 snaps me. My feeling on the all-in was that (a) I was sure I had the best hand preflop, and (b) if I win I'm all but guaranteed a final table seat. Run better, I guess.
I played Linda's triple pot limit game on the 15th, I folded for the first round and a half (not playing a single non-blind hand) The first hand I played I had Q-J-9-x in PLO and flopped the nut straight (J-10-8 on flop two spades). I slow played against Jeff R. because of the flush draw. On the turn was the 2d. He bet out, I raised him, he potted all in and I called. He has the same straight along with a 9 high spade draw. River? Bink. Crippled, I lose the last 3k flopping a pair of Q's against Linda's pocket kings. I am granted an emergency rebuy and commence losing chips again. It got to be comical - had AQ flopped broadway in PLH Linda rivers full house with her KJ. Flop trip Q's in PLO lose on kicker (My K loses to AQ). Flop nut low with A3 in PLO8 counterfeited by two out A on river to lose both halves. After the break I hit a rush, build my stack from 10K back up to 28K before I have my 2nd blowup. In PLO8 raise preflop get one caller, flop nut low draw and have a pair, other guys leads out with a value but and I shove. He tanks forever and calls with a dry pair of aces and I hit two bricks. I didn't do very well at cash either, dropping $50 in PLO8 when I raised preflop with AQ35 (AQd). Flop J-4-2 two diamonds. Catch two bricks and give up.
Played Dave's 4-16 tournament. I was feeling good when I arrived but that quickly dissipated. Early on a guy at the end of the table played a hand where he three bet preflop and ended up rolling over AA. A round later, I get QQ on the button. He raises to $150, I make it $500. He four bets me to $1000. I roll over QQ face up and he proudly shows Q8s. I put him on being a pretty weak player, so I guess I misread him. I should've just shoved since I had a rebuy but I wimped out. I blinded down to 3600 before taking the rebuy. I piddled around before making the worst fold of the night. Preflop I have 56 off in the BB. Mid position makes a raise to 1000. Cutoff (who is pretty bad) flat calls. I have 7k and decide to call. Flop comes Q-5-9. Initial raiser open shoves. Cutoff tanks and finally calls for less. I think for a while - I know I have initial raiser beat. I say out loud "He has AK (pointing to initial raiser) and he has some shitty Q like Q8 (pointing to cutoff)." I decide a 3k sidepot isn't worth it and fold. First guy turns up AK and cutoff turns over Q7. Turn 8 river 7 I would've made a straight and tripled up. After that I blind down to 4800 before open shoving with 98h on a steal. Of course TK wakes up with KK in the SB and calls, and I am out.
I played the cash game once a $.50/.50 HA game started. It was fairly uneventful. I ran my $100 up to around $180 and managed to lose it all in the worst live PLO beat I have ever taken. I have KQ83 in the SB. Malcolm raises preflop to $2. Danny calls, I call, and Meat calls. Flop comes Q-K-3 with two clubs (I have the Kc but no flush draw). I decide to test the water and bet out $8. Meat folds, Malcolm calls, Danny calls. Turn is a K giving me the abominable nuts (K's full). I check for deception but no one bets. River is the Ah. Danny leads into me for $17. I am putting him on J-10-x-x and figure he made Broadway. He by his own admission isn't that good at Omaha and was calling with straight and flush draws on paired boards all night. I pot him $66 on top. He tanks for a long time before finally repotting me all in. I snap and roll over KQ for my boat and he rolls over AAxx for the win. I was over 95% to win on the turn and got stacked. I couldn't put him on AK since he hadn't bet the turn (and I doubt he'd have checked trip K's, he was playing his made hands very aggressive). It crossed my mind for a half second that he might have had AK and I almost flat called the $17 but I decided it was very unlikely he would check trip K's so I dismissed it.
That hand took the wind out of my poker sails. It literally murdered my desire to play poker. It's been beat after beat after beat (with a few poor decisions tossed in to spice it up) since last July. I have decided to take the summer off from poker. I may play the infrequent tournament here or there but I am done with cash for now. My kids are moving to Maine with their mom in July and it's best I spend my extra time with them anyway. That last PLO hand was the nudge I needed to take some time off and get my shit together.
My blog posts will probably be more infrequent until I actually decide to play on a regular basis again.
It's been a while since my last post so bear with me as it's going to be a bit longer. Go ahead, grab a snack. I'll wait.
OK?
So, I played the April 9th at Dave's. It was pretty uneventful for me, I was up a little in the beginning and gave some back. I ended up losing my first buy-in to Data (yet again). I raised preflop with AK with the Kh. He called with KQ (no heart). Flop comes Q-8-6 all hearts. He checks and I shove, he tanks for a while and then finally calls (about 2/3 of his stack). Of course I brick the over and flush draw twice and I rebuy. Lately he's been owning me, I guess it's variance paying me back for all the times I stacked him with something stupid.
After the rebuy I call a small raise with 46s on the button and the flop comes K-4-4. I get it all in against KQ and double up. I hit my stride, doubling up again when my 99 survives against AK. I took a few smaller pots here and there and then snapped it off in Danny. He open/shoves with A9, I look down at AQ and can't call fast enough. Flop comes A-Q-x and I am up to 18k. I run it up to 21k after the break and then get involved in a weird hand. I get dealt KK on the button. I have Pyxis to my left in the SB and she is displaying her tell that she has a good hand. Meats raises from mid position and I decide to whopperjaw the pot, making it look like a steal. I slam it all in and Pyxis tanks. Finally she surrenders and it's the Meat Show. He basically says he has QQ and I want desperately for him to call. He finally decides he can't risk his stack and folds. Pyxis had JJ. I show the KK and decide I played it wrong. If I flat call Meat, Pyxis shoves and Meat will be nearly pot committed by calling her, so I could wedge them both in and triple up. I didn't expect her to fold JJ so I assumed when I slammed it she would shove in and he'd make the obligatory "I guess I gotta call". Oh well.
After that hand I finally do double up Pyxis with A6s. She was way short and shoved, it was only 6k to call so I did and she had AK. I hover around 18k until I get into a retarded hand with Data. Data open/shoves 15k from middle position (blinds 800/1600 I think). I have been picking up a read on him and am convinced he's shoving light to steal. Folds to me with A8c. I decide to call (stupid) and he rolls over J-10s. He is 99.99999999999992% to win preflop. Sure enough, I flop an A but two spades, and turn is the Ks no waiting. Crippled, I put it in with QJ a few hands later and A2 snaps me. My feeling on the all-in was that (a) I was sure I had the best hand preflop, and (b) if I win I'm all but guaranteed a final table seat. Run better, I guess.
I played Linda's triple pot limit game on the 15th, I folded for the first round and a half (not playing a single non-blind hand) The first hand I played I had Q-J-9-x in PLO and flopped the nut straight (J-10-8 on flop two spades). I slow played against Jeff R. because of the flush draw. On the turn was the 2d. He bet out, I raised him, he potted all in and I called. He has the same straight along with a 9 high spade draw. River? Bink. Crippled, I lose the last 3k flopping a pair of Q's against Linda's pocket kings. I am granted an emergency rebuy and commence losing chips again. It got to be comical - had AQ flopped broadway in PLH Linda rivers full house with her KJ. Flop trip Q's in PLO lose on kicker (My K loses to AQ). Flop nut low with A3 in PLO8 counterfeited by two out A on river to lose both halves. After the break I hit a rush, build my stack from 10K back up to 28K before I have my 2nd blowup. In PLO8 raise preflop get one caller, flop nut low draw and have a pair, other guys leads out with a value but and I shove. He tanks forever and calls with a dry pair of aces and I hit two bricks. I didn't do very well at cash either, dropping $50 in PLO8 when I raised preflop with AQ35 (AQd). Flop J-4-2 two diamonds. Catch two bricks and give up.
Played Dave's 4-16 tournament. I was feeling good when I arrived but that quickly dissipated. Early on a guy at the end of the table played a hand where he three bet preflop and ended up rolling over AA. A round later, I get QQ on the button. He raises to $150, I make it $500. He four bets me to $1000. I roll over QQ face up and he proudly shows Q8s. I put him on being a pretty weak player, so I guess I misread him. I should've just shoved since I had a rebuy but I wimped out. I blinded down to 3600 before taking the rebuy. I piddled around before making the worst fold of the night. Preflop I have 56 off in the BB. Mid position makes a raise to 1000. Cutoff (who is pretty bad) flat calls. I have 7k and decide to call. Flop comes Q-5-9. Initial raiser open shoves. Cutoff tanks and finally calls for less. I think for a while - I know I have initial raiser beat. I say out loud "He has AK (pointing to initial raiser) and he has some shitty Q like Q8 (pointing to cutoff)." I decide a 3k sidepot isn't worth it and fold. First guy turns up AK and cutoff turns over Q7. Turn 8 river 7 I would've made a straight and tripled up. After that I blind down to 4800 before open shoving with 98h on a steal. Of course TK wakes up with KK in the SB and calls, and I am out.
I played the cash game once a $.50/.50 HA game started. It was fairly uneventful. I ran my $100 up to around $180 and managed to lose it all in the worst live PLO beat I have ever taken. I have KQ83 in the SB. Malcolm raises preflop to $2. Danny calls, I call, and Meat calls. Flop comes Q-K-3 with two clubs (I have the Kc but no flush draw). I decide to test the water and bet out $8. Meat folds, Malcolm calls, Danny calls. Turn is a K giving me the abominable nuts (K's full). I check for deception but no one bets. River is the Ah. Danny leads into me for $17. I am putting him on J-10-x-x and figure he made Broadway. He by his own admission isn't that good at Omaha and was calling with straight and flush draws on paired boards all night. I pot him $66 on top. He tanks for a long time before finally repotting me all in. I snap and roll over KQ for my boat and he rolls over AAxx for the win. I was over 95% to win on the turn and got stacked. I couldn't put him on AK since he hadn't bet the turn (and I doubt he'd have checked trip K's, he was playing his made hands very aggressive). It crossed my mind for a half second that he might have had AK and I almost flat called the $17 but I decided it was very unlikely he would check trip K's so I dismissed it.
That hand took the wind out of my poker sails. It literally murdered my desire to play poker. It's been beat after beat after beat (with a few poor decisions tossed in to spice it up) since last July. I have decided to take the summer off from poker. I may play the infrequent tournament here or there but I am done with cash for now. My kids are moving to Maine with their mom in July and it's best I spend my extra time with them anyway. That last PLO hand was the nudge I needed to take some time off and get my shit together.
My blog posts will probably be more infrequent until I actually decide to play on a regular basis again.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
More Tournament Failure
I haven't been playing much poker lately, the bankroll well ran dry after I had to pillage it to pay bills, and there's not much work going on so I am keeping to a few low buy-in tournaments and the very occasional cash buy-in. I'm in poker limbo - I have the desire to play but not the means at the moment. It's gotten bad enough that I've had to cancel my plans for Reno and Vegas in June. I try to go every year but work is fucked and I simply cannot manage it. I am trying to reschedule for November but it may be next year before I head out west again. It's frustrating because I had wanted to move to Nevada by now and things keep getting in the way.
Anyway, played Dave's $40 bounty on March 26th. It was a huge tournament, 48 buyins if I recall correctly. I had to come late since I was on call for work and didn't want to risk driving all the way out only to have to turn around and come back. I got seated at a new table and set to work losing my chips. I made an ill-timed bluff on Chaz that got picked off, and chopped a pot with Doc when we both played our QQ like pussies. There weren't a lot of hands of note, I did a lot of folding and blinding off. Our table broke and I got stuck in Action City. There wasn't any small ball or limping, it was huge raises and stacking off. I finally got down to around 10 BB and tried to make a move with 58 suited from the BB. Lot of limpers, Danny in the SB shoves with only 5BB, I reshove to protect, cutoff was slow playing AJc and picked us both off. Cash game was a loss too, got stacked by Jack T-way on a two out miracle turn for him in the Omaha round. I left pretty frustrated.
Last weekend I decided I had too much money and went to play the $30 at Dave's. I took Special K with me (she hasn't played much with the CPMG lately, she prefers to take weekenders at Rivers). I'm not sure what happened but she was out in the first round. She ended up watching a movie on her iPod until cash opened up (which was surprisingly fast). I ran like Hiphop for the first few rounds, flopping sets and taking pots. Early on I doubled up off of Mick (I think his name is Mick). He limped UTG with Q8 off, I limped with K9 suited, flop comes Q-J-10. I made a pot sized bet and got two calls, turn was an 8. I shove, Randy folds and Mick calls with his two pair. My straight holds and it's off and running. I felt good and felt like I should cash. I was up and down a little after that, but I noticed my big pocket pairs were not holding. I had JJ cracked three times, QQ once and KK once. I peaked at 21k (off a 5k starting stack) when I flopped a set of sixes and dodged TK's straight flush draw to stack him. At the break I took the add-on and had 22k left.
After the break the wheels came off. QQ got mushed by Host Dave's 9 high flush, turned trip 10's and lost to three out gutter ball, JJ runs into quad 4's (lucky for me he was so excited at the second four on the board that I knew I was fucked and didn't double him up). My table started getting really aggressive and Randy started flopping sets or better every hand. I began bleeding chips and couldn't get it turned around. I snugged it up and stopped coming into pots but I was blinded down pretty bad. I worked myself back up to 18k when I took a shot at busting Big Keith. He's such a rock that it's nearly impossible to get chips out of him. He usually just blinds away to nothing and forces himself to shove light. He shoved on me with about 7k and I called with 10-9 suited. His AJ held despite me flopping a 10. I did pick off a stellar bluff he tried to lay on me a few hands later. If you play with him for more than 10 minutes you know how he bets - or rather, he doesn't bet. He just waits for the nuts and hammers the pot. We got into a hand where it folded to him in the SB and he just limps. I check from the BB with 3-8 off. Flop comes Q-10-4. He checks, I check. Turn is the 3h, putting two hearts on the board. He bets the minimum. This is a very odd thing for him to do, he never min bets. I suspected a draw and called. River is a brick and he bets two BB at me. I know he missed whatever he was on, so I call and table my three which was good. Let this be a lesson to all - mix your game up more or end up being picked off by idiots like me.
We also had our annual CPMG Clusterfuck before the second break. Sometime around 10 minutes to go we got down to 20 players (and would normally pause the game and break tables) but the TD didn't notice. Around 6:30 someone busted from the first table leaving the tables 7-6-6. Colin announced man down to Meats and was told we had to wait until break to split tables. This was (in everyone's opinion) too long to wait short handed with the blinds so high. Colin told the table he was refusing to pay another BB and would stall. He also encouraged the rest of them to stall and they then had a misdeal (which I was told later really was accidental). I called the floor over and demanded the entire table be penalized for colluding to stall their game. He refused and put a clock on Colin. Much arguing and posturing ensued until it was finally break and tables broke down.
After the melee ended we restarted. I was solo BB at my table and told everyone I wanted a walk. I look down at AA and am praying to someone to steal but instead they all folded. A few hands later I get JJ, Data open-shoves with Q-10 and I call. I am 99.999999999% to lose preflop and sure as shit the flop is Q-10-x. Turn was a 9 to give me false hope, river was the insult 10. I didn't play any cash, K and I left and we called it a night.
I am going to be short rolled for most of the summer as it looks, I have some bills to take care of still and I need to get myself a decent car. I'm planning on playing this Saturday night, will update the blog a bit sooner if I get time.
I haven't been playing much poker lately, the bankroll well ran dry after I had to pillage it to pay bills, and there's not much work going on so I am keeping to a few low buy-in tournaments and the very occasional cash buy-in. I'm in poker limbo - I have the desire to play but not the means at the moment. It's gotten bad enough that I've had to cancel my plans for Reno and Vegas in June. I try to go every year but work is fucked and I simply cannot manage it. I am trying to reschedule for November but it may be next year before I head out west again. It's frustrating because I had wanted to move to Nevada by now and things keep getting in the way.
Anyway, played Dave's $40 bounty on March 26th. It was a huge tournament, 48 buyins if I recall correctly. I had to come late since I was on call for work and didn't want to risk driving all the way out only to have to turn around and come back. I got seated at a new table and set to work losing my chips. I made an ill-timed bluff on Chaz that got picked off, and chopped a pot with Doc when we both played our QQ like pussies. There weren't a lot of hands of note, I did a lot of folding and blinding off. Our table broke and I got stuck in Action City. There wasn't any small ball or limping, it was huge raises and stacking off. I finally got down to around 10 BB and tried to make a move with 58 suited from the BB. Lot of limpers, Danny in the SB shoves with only 5BB, I reshove to protect, cutoff was slow playing AJc and picked us both off. Cash game was a loss too, got stacked by Jack T-way on a two out miracle turn for him in the Omaha round. I left pretty frustrated.
Last weekend I decided I had too much money and went to play the $30 at Dave's. I took Special K with me (she hasn't played much with the CPMG lately, she prefers to take weekenders at Rivers). I'm not sure what happened but she was out in the first round. She ended up watching a movie on her iPod until cash opened up (which was surprisingly fast). I ran like Hiphop for the first few rounds, flopping sets and taking pots. Early on I doubled up off of Mick (I think his name is Mick). He limped UTG with Q8 off, I limped with K9 suited, flop comes Q-J-10. I made a pot sized bet and got two calls, turn was an 8. I shove, Randy folds and Mick calls with his two pair. My straight holds and it's off and running. I felt good and felt like I should cash. I was up and down a little after that, but I noticed my big pocket pairs were not holding. I had JJ cracked three times, QQ once and KK once. I peaked at 21k (off a 5k starting stack) when I flopped a set of sixes and dodged TK's straight flush draw to stack him. At the break I took the add-on and had 22k left.
After the break the wheels came off. QQ got mushed by Host Dave's 9 high flush, turned trip 10's and lost to three out gutter ball, JJ runs into quad 4's (lucky for me he was so excited at the second four on the board that I knew I was fucked and didn't double him up). My table started getting really aggressive and Randy started flopping sets or better every hand. I began bleeding chips and couldn't get it turned around. I snugged it up and stopped coming into pots but I was blinded down pretty bad. I worked myself back up to 18k when I took a shot at busting Big Keith. He's such a rock that it's nearly impossible to get chips out of him. He usually just blinds away to nothing and forces himself to shove light. He shoved on me with about 7k and I called with 10-9 suited. His AJ held despite me flopping a 10. I did pick off a stellar bluff he tried to lay on me a few hands later. If you play with him for more than 10 minutes you know how he bets - or rather, he doesn't bet. He just waits for the nuts and hammers the pot. We got into a hand where it folded to him in the SB and he just limps. I check from the BB with 3-8 off. Flop comes Q-10-4. He checks, I check. Turn is the 3h, putting two hearts on the board. He bets the minimum. This is a very odd thing for him to do, he never min bets. I suspected a draw and called. River is a brick and he bets two BB at me. I know he missed whatever he was on, so I call and table my three which was good. Let this be a lesson to all - mix your game up more or end up being picked off by idiots like me.
We also had our annual CPMG Clusterfuck before the second break. Sometime around 10 minutes to go we got down to 20 players (and would normally pause the game and break tables) but the TD didn't notice. Around 6:30 someone busted from the first table leaving the tables 7-6-6. Colin announced man down to Meats and was told we had to wait until break to split tables. This was (in everyone's opinion) too long to wait short handed with the blinds so high. Colin told the table he was refusing to pay another BB and would stall. He also encouraged the rest of them to stall and they then had a misdeal (which I was told later really was accidental). I called the floor over and demanded the entire table be penalized for colluding to stall their game. He refused and put a clock on Colin. Much arguing and posturing ensued until it was finally break and tables broke down.
After the melee ended we restarted. I was solo BB at my table and told everyone I wanted a walk. I look down at AA and am praying to someone to steal but instead they all folded. A few hands later I get JJ, Data open-shoves with Q-10 and I call. I am 99.999999999% to lose preflop and sure as shit the flop is Q-10-x. Turn was a 9 to give me false hope, river was the insult 10. I didn't play any cash, K and I left and we called it a night.
I am going to be short rolled for most of the summer as it looks, I have some bills to take care of still and I need to get myself a decent car. I'm planning on playing this Saturday night, will update the blog a bit sooner if I get time.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Before I get into the poker content, I just wanted to take a moment and mention that my friend Elizabeth (a former CPMG regular) is doing a charity walk for the Komen foundation this coming July and is looking for sponsors. If you're a regular at the games you can donate at Dave's (via the coffee can) or you can contact them via their blog: Hot Pink Warriors. I rarely do charity work, but this IMO is a good cause. Now on to poker content:
In A Poker No-Man's-Land
Haven't posted in a couple of weeks, been busy busting out of tournaments and lighting money on fire.
Played Dave's regular Saturday night two weeks ago. I bought short and was determined to play snug. The problem with the structure at Dave's is that playing snug early is fine, but the levels jump so much after the first break that you have to start getting lucky. I was up and down early, building a 7K lead (starting stack is 5k when you buy short). I blew that all doubling up a short stack. After that, I raised preflop with J9 suited and got one customer. Flop came 6-7-8. I bet the flop, he calls. Turn is a brick, I bet again and he hesitates. He clearly doesn't want to call but does. River pairs the 6 and this guy practically jumps out of his seat. I roll my eyes and check knowing I can't bluff him now and he snap shoves his stack in. I Hollywood for a minute and wave goodbye to my chips. I had to take the add-on (3k in chips). I get dealt KsKc and decide to limp/back raise. Well, shit. Everyone limps/checks and I take a flop four ways that's got an A on it and is all hearts. Surprisingly, the hand checks all the way down and I show KK and take it. I was sure I was screwed, and couldn't bet. By the break I am crippled, slide down to 3600 with blinds at 300/600. I get 33 UTG and shove. I get called by Danny in the BB who rolls over K8d and I turn a boat. I then hit my stride. I get QJ on the button. Colin open/shoves from early and everyone runs screaming. I decide I will either have chips or leave, so I call. I flop a J and his A-10 jobs to me. I then busted a short stack and was up over 15k. I get into a comical hand with Meats. I am BB, he is SB. Folds to us, he limps and I check with 8-3h. Flop comes A-K-J two hearts. He checks, I bet 2k and he shoves. I call. He says "I have the nuts" and rolls over Q-10. Turn is a heart and I say "Not anymore" and scoop the pot. I am still hearing about this hand two weeks later.
I get to the final table with 17k when the roll finally stops. Monsignor shoves from early position and I look down in the BB at KK. My first thought is to fold, but I am too stupid to fold kings and I call. He rolls over A-9 and I am drawing dead preflop. Sure enough, A in the door. Crippled, I blind off a round and then get QJ suited UTG+1. I decide to take my chances and shove. Meats tanks and then shoves over top. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Everyone else folds and of course he has AJ. I flop the Q but he flops the A and I brick out. I played a few rounds of the Hold'em/PLO mix game but couldn't get any traction. I folded a hand I apparantly shouldn't have and then got stacked later. $1/1 PLO, I get Q-9-8-4 (suited Q) in the BB. Button min raises to $2. I call, as do a few others. Five take a flop of J-10-9 offsuit. I bet $10, short stack shoves for $19. Button over shoves to put me all-in. I show 2nd nuts and fold, and watch in amazement as the other two roll over K-10-9-x. Had I called I'd have scooped a $100 pot.
This past weekend I decided to hit Linda's $40 Friday. I stopped at Nautica first for some $3/6 limit. It's all players I know from my $5/10 days and it's super soft. Only won one big hand, flopped a set of 8's and got called all the way down and it held. I was up $80 at one point but I bricked a few draws and lost about $20 on the last hand flush over flush. I left down $1. Linda's was a bust. I never really got any traction. I had a favorable table but I kept raising and missing flops, and Ryan S. was playing very aggressive (and he was hitting a lot). The only big hand I won was defending by BB. Ryan button raised (as he had been doing all night) and I decided to defend. I shoved with 2-6h and he calls with AQc. I go runner runner flush to double up before break, but after the break it comes apart. I double up Kris Rao, then Silent Dave shoves blind twice on me and I call with the best hand both times but it doesn't hold. Finally I pulled a stop and go on Ryan and Dave, but ran into Dave's flopped set of 9's and stacked off. Boo.
Dave's tournament this past weekend didn't go so well again either. I short buy again and arrive in time to see Hacker lay down a sick bluff on TK. Blinds are $50/100, hacker makes it $300. TK three bets to $700 from the BB. Hacker four bets him to $1700. TK looks sick, declares he has two outs, and calls. Flop comes K-A-K and Terry open mucks QQ face up. Hacker smiles, rolls over 5-8c and scoops the pot. Sick. I take a few small pots early, but I'm not really making a lot of progress. I grind my stack up to 11k at break and take the add-on. I tried my one bluff of the night on Chas and I picked a bad spot. I had her convinced I had trip 9's but the river gave her Aces up and she called me down, I blew about 5k in that pot. I gave away another 3k to Dave O. when I raised with 99, flop comes 10-8-3 and he check raises me. He showed me a 10 and folded, he said later he flopped a set. From there I was short stacked. RR Dave shoves into me, I look down at 88 and shove over the top. Guy at the end calls short with AQc. Dave shows 88. AQ guy makes a flush and Dave and I chop the pitiful leftovers. Next hand Dave shoves again, I call with A5. He rolls over A2 and for the second hand in a row I chop an all-in pot with him. He busts on the next hand from the BB and then we hit break. After break I have 5k left and am in the BB for 2k. I shove with Q7, TK calls with 55 and Danny calls with J8. A river 8 kills us both.
I borrowed a buyin for the cash game and sat down at $1/1. I was down to around $60 when I get dealt 99 and raise from the SB. Flop comes 10-10-8. I bet out, everyone but Tony folds. Turn is a 4. I shove my stack in, Tony calls. River is a 9. I declare boat and roll it over, but Tony only had A-8 and was behind anyway. After that double up a $1/1 HA opened up. I sat down seven handed and was in the first orbit when I got dealt 10-9-8-8 double suited. I call a small raise and take a flop of J-7-6 offsuit. I check with every intention of raising but no one bets. Turn is a 2. I check again, guy on my left makes it $20. Guy across from me pots, which is enough to put me all-in. I think about it for a long time and realize I have too many outs to fold. I call and the inital bettor folds. River is an 8 and I make my straight against his set of Jacks. After that it was cruise control time. I was up and down a bit but I was determined not to lose my profit. By the end of the night I cashed out +$145 (I gave $25 back in 7 aces). We all ended up at IHOP at 6am eating breakfast and watching a car drive by with it's lights off, the front end smashed, and a flat tire that was driving on the rim. Good times.
In A Poker No-Man's-Land
Haven't posted in a couple of weeks, been busy busting out of tournaments and lighting money on fire.
Played Dave's regular Saturday night two weeks ago. I bought short and was determined to play snug. The problem with the structure at Dave's is that playing snug early is fine, but the levels jump so much after the first break that you have to start getting lucky. I was up and down early, building a 7K lead (starting stack is 5k when you buy short). I blew that all doubling up a short stack. After that, I raised preflop with J9 suited and got one customer. Flop came 6-7-8. I bet the flop, he calls. Turn is a brick, I bet again and he hesitates. He clearly doesn't want to call but does. River pairs the 6 and this guy practically jumps out of his seat. I roll my eyes and check knowing I can't bluff him now and he snap shoves his stack in. I Hollywood for a minute and wave goodbye to my chips. I had to take the add-on (3k in chips). I get dealt KsKc and decide to limp/back raise. Well, shit. Everyone limps/checks and I take a flop four ways that's got an A on it and is all hearts. Surprisingly, the hand checks all the way down and I show KK and take it. I was sure I was screwed, and couldn't bet. By the break I am crippled, slide down to 3600 with blinds at 300/600. I get 33 UTG and shove. I get called by Danny in the BB who rolls over K8d and I turn a boat. I then hit my stride. I get QJ on the button. Colin open/shoves from early and everyone runs screaming. I decide I will either have chips or leave, so I call. I flop a J and his A-10 jobs to me. I then busted a short stack and was up over 15k. I get into a comical hand with Meats. I am BB, he is SB. Folds to us, he limps and I check with 8-3h. Flop comes A-K-J two hearts. He checks, I bet 2k and he shoves. I call. He says "I have the nuts" and rolls over Q-10. Turn is a heart and I say "Not anymore" and scoop the pot. I am still hearing about this hand two weeks later.
I get to the final table with 17k when the roll finally stops. Monsignor shoves from early position and I look down in the BB at KK. My first thought is to fold, but I am too stupid to fold kings and I call. He rolls over A-9 and I am drawing dead preflop. Sure enough, A in the door. Crippled, I blind off a round and then get QJ suited UTG+1. I decide to take my chances and shove. Meats tanks and then shoves over top. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Everyone else folds and of course he has AJ. I flop the Q but he flops the A and I brick out. I played a few rounds of the Hold'em/PLO mix game but couldn't get any traction. I folded a hand I apparantly shouldn't have and then got stacked later. $1/1 PLO, I get Q-9-8-4 (suited Q) in the BB. Button min raises to $2. I call, as do a few others. Five take a flop of J-10-9 offsuit. I bet $10, short stack shoves for $19. Button over shoves to put me all-in. I show 2nd nuts and fold, and watch in amazement as the other two roll over K-10-9-x. Had I called I'd have scooped a $100 pot.
This past weekend I decided to hit Linda's $40 Friday. I stopped at Nautica first for some $3/6 limit. It's all players I know from my $5/10 days and it's super soft. Only won one big hand, flopped a set of 8's and got called all the way down and it held. I was up $80 at one point but I bricked a few draws and lost about $20 on the last hand flush over flush. I left down $1. Linda's was a bust. I never really got any traction. I had a favorable table but I kept raising and missing flops, and Ryan S. was playing very aggressive (and he was hitting a lot). The only big hand I won was defending by BB. Ryan button raised (as he had been doing all night) and I decided to defend. I shoved with 2-6h and he calls with AQc. I go runner runner flush to double up before break, but after the break it comes apart. I double up Kris Rao, then Silent Dave shoves blind twice on me and I call with the best hand both times but it doesn't hold. Finally I pulled a stop and go on Ryan and Dave, but ran into Dave's flopped set of 9's and stacked off. Boo.
Dave's tournament this past weekend didn't go so well again either. I short buy again and arrive in time to see Hacker lay down a sick bluff on TK. Blinds are $50/100, hacker makes it $300. TK three bets to $700 from the BB. Hacker four bets him to $1700. TK looks sick, declares he has two outs, and calls. Flop comes K-A-K and Terry open mucks QQ face up. Hacker smiles, rolls over 5-8c and scoops the pot. Sick. I take a few small pots early, but I'm not really making a lot of progress. I grind my stack up to 11k at break and take the add-on. I tried my one bluff of the night on Chas and I picked a bad spot. I had her convinced I had trip 9's but the river gave her Aces up and she called me down, I blew about 5k in that pot. I gave away another 3k to Dave O. when I raised with 99, flop comes 10-8-3 and he check raises me. He showed me a 10 and folded, he said later he flopped a set. From there I was short stacked. RR Dave shoves into me, I look down at 88 and shove over the top. Guy at the end calls short with AQc. Dave shows 88. AQ guy makes a flush and Dave and I chop the pitiful leftovers. Next hand Dave shoves again, I call with A5. He rolls over A2 and for the second hand in a row I chop an all-in pot with him. He busts on the next hand from the BB and then we hit break. After break I have 5k left and am in the BB for 2k. I shove with Q7, TK calls with 55 and Danny calls with J8. A river 8 kills us both.
I borrowed a buyin for the cash game and sat down at $1/1. I was down to around $60 when I get dealt 99 and raise from the SB. Flop comes 10-10-8. I bet out, everyone but Tony folds. Turn is a 4. I shove my stack in, Tony calls. River is a 9. I declare boat and roll it over, but Tony only had A-8 and was behind anyway. After that double up a $1/1 HA opened up. I sat down seven handed and was in the first orbit when I got dealt 10-9-8-8 double suited. I call a small raise and take a flop of J-7-6 offsuit. I check with every intention of raising but no one bets. Turn is a 2. I check again, guy on my left makes it $20. Guy across from me pots, which is enough to put me all-in. I think about it for a long time and realize I have too many outs to fold. I call and the inital bettor folds. River is an 8 and I make my straight against his set of Jacks. After that it was cruise control time. I was up and down a bit but I was determined not to lose my profit. By the end of the night I cashed out +$145 (I gave $25 back in 7 aces). We all ended up at IHOP at 6am eating breakfast and watching a car drive by with it's lights off, the front end smashed, and a flat tire that was driving on the rim. Good times.
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