It's actually pretty fun playing these tournaments. Since online poker is dead in the US, it's nice to get any chance to play. And maybe I can win something! :-)
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Online Golden Nugget tournament
It's actually pretty fun playing these tournaments. Since online poker is dead in the US, it's nice to get any chance to play. And maybe I can win something! :-)
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
A new approach
Last Monday I went to Red Rock and played some 1/2. I thought I played OK, but I did get into some very questionable situations. For example check out this gem of a hand:
A-Q in the small blind. I call a small raise. Flop is J-7-7. I think "that's a good board texture to c-bet" and call a $6 c-bet from the preflop raiser. Turn is a jack. I think "that board doesn't hit the preflop raiser very often". I check, he bets $25. I say to myself "I'm going to raise him off of his hand, he doesn't have a jack very often here". So I raise to $60, he calls, I check-fold the river, he shows A-J.
Then just a couple annoying hands - guy raises to 12. I reraise to 30 with A-K. Flop misses me, like 9-6-4. He checks, I bet 50, he raises me all-in for $100 more, I fold. Then someone raises to like 7, I make it 20 with A-Q, he calls, I miss the flop, it goes check-check, he bets the turn, I fold.
I also just got into some spots where I was confused about what to do post-flop. Like after listening to these podcasts and they're talking about ranges and this and that, I flop an ace with ace-rag suited and I'm like, I'm going to peel and see what he does, and of course the guy bets again and I have to fold, etc. I just ended up playing like shit.
And then, that puts me on tilt. Making moves that don't work, putting money in the pot when it just feels wrong, etc. It annoys me.
Then I was listening to some more podcasts, the "Deuce Plays" ones, and sometimes they'll have people on that play the live 5/10 games at Commerce. And a common theme is, these guys aren't paying attention to what you're doing, nobody ever folds anything, nobody is ever bluff raising you. And you can value bet pretty thin because nobody ever folds, etc.
I lost $270 at Red Rock last Monday and it was really frustrating. I didn't play the rest of the week and I was just like "fuck this" overall.
So yesterday I said something I have said in the past, although maybe more to the extreme this time. I came up with a new plan. Over the next 100 hours of live poker, I'm going to play this way:
- Never ever bluff.
- Never even semi-bluff, even with huge semi-bluffing hands.
- Never c-bet unless I hit the flop.
- Pretty much never reraise preflop except with huge hands.
- Pretty much only raise preflop with huge hands, limp with everything else, and check/fold unless I really have a monster.
- Bet big with my big hands.
- Play 100% straightforward.
- Basically play like the biggest nit ever.
So I did this yesterday at Red Rock for 3 hours. It was an interesting experiment because I played some hands in ways I would not usually play them. Some examples:
I have K-4 suited in the blind. Check. Flop comes 10-7-4 with 2 of my suit. Sick flop. Check, lol. Turn, check, river, miss, check/fold.
In blind with 6-5. Check. Flop is 2-2-5. Checks around. Turn, 8. Checks around. River, 9. Guy bets 10. I raise to 30, he calls with 9-8.
Open-limp with Q-10 suited (I dont think that was a good idea, but whatever). Flop A-x-x with 2 of my suit. Checks to me, check. Turn, blank. Checks around. River, miss, someone bets, I fold.
I had some big hands too. Reraised this guy Kenny that plays crazy preflop with AA. He raised to 10, 2 callers, I think this is awesome because it looks like I'm trying to steal, I make it 45, he calls. Flop I kinda spaz out and he checks, and I check. I sort of didn't know what to do. Flop was 6-5-4, just not the best flop. Turn, jack. He bets 60, I insta-call because I know this guy can do some weird stuff. River, 5. He checks. I check. Should have bet though because I think he would never check a big hand there, so that was a mistake.
Call 8 with A-Q. 5 way. Flop A-Q-5. Preflop raiser bets 20, I call, heads up. Turn, 9. He checks, I bet 60, he calls. River, 5. He checks, I go all-in, he folds.
Just couple others:
Bunch of people limp. I have K-K on button, make it 15. 3 callers. Flop ace high, 2 hearts. Checks to me, check. Turn, check around. River, check around. Guy made two pair with running jack and 9. Could have won this pot with a c-bet obviously, but whatever. This is my new nit strategy.
Raise to 10 with Q-Q, 2 callers. Flop 7-5-2 with 2 diamonds. I bet 25, guy calls. Turn, 4 of diamonds. I check, he bets 45 right away, I just fold. Old guy, probably a great fold there. But good fold or not, I'm just going to fold there 100% of the time.
Anyway I ended up winning $224. Really good session, I was super happy with the results. As far as the play, I feel like its super weak and exploitable, but maybe these guys are right... at these limits (and maybe even 1 or 2 levels up), nobody is going to be good enough to exploit me, so whatever. I can play super predictable and just rake in the money from all the terrible players out there. And maybe one day when I'm playing high enough that there are not as many bad players around, I can adapt.
For now, I'm going to stick to this strategy for 100 hours of live play and re-evaluate. I like doing this in big blocks of time so I can ignore the short-term and just focus on the long-term results. And not think about moving up in stakes or changing my strategy for a long time, just ride it out and see what happens. If it's profitable, maybe I'll sign up for another 100 hours.
More poker tonight I think!
A-Q in the small blind. I call a small raise. Flop is J-7-7. I think "that's a good board texture to c-bet" and call a $6 c-bet from the preflop raiser. Turn is a jack. I think "that board doesn't hit the preflop raiser very often". I check, he bets $25. I say to myself "I'm going to raise him off of his hand, he doesn't have a jack very often here". So I raise to $60, he calls, I check-fold the river, he shows A-J.
Then just a couple annoying hands - guy raises to 12. I reraise to 30 with A-K. Flop misses me, like 9-6-4. He checks, I bet 50, he raises me all-in for $100 more, I fold. Then someone raises to like 7, I make it 20 with A-Q, he calls, I miss the flop, it goes check-check, he bets the turn, I fold.
I also just got into some spots where I was confused about what to do post-flop. Like after listening to these podcasts and they're talking about ranges and this and that, I flop an ace with ace-rag suited and I'm like, I'm going to peel and see what he does, and of course the guy bets again and I have to fold, etc. I just ended up playing like shit.
And then, that puts me on tilt. Making moves that don't work, putting money in the pot when it just feels wrong, etc. It annoys me.
Then I was listening to some more podcasts, the "Deuce Plays" ones, and sometimes they'll have people on that play the live 5/10 games at Commerce. And a common theme is, these guys aren't paying attention to what you're doing, nobody ever folds anything, nobody is ever bluff raising you. And you can value bet pretty thin because nobody ever folds, etc.
I lost $270 at Red Rock last Monday and it was really frustrating. I didn't play the rest of the week and I was just like "fuck this" overall.
So yesterday I said something I have said in the past, although maybe more to the extreme this time. I came up with a new plan. Over the next 100 hours of live poker, I'm going to play this way:
- Never ever bluff.
- Never even semi-bluff, even with huge semi-bluffing hands.
- Never c-bet unless I hit the flop.
- Pretty much never reraise preflop except with huge hands.
- Pretty much only raise preflop with huge hands, limp with everything else, and check/fold unless I really have a monster.
- Bet big with my big hands.
- Play 100% straightforward.
- Basically play like the biggest nit ever.
So I did this yesterday at Red Rock for 3 hours. It was an interesting experiment because I played some hands in ways I would not usually play them. Some examples:
I have K-4 suited in the blind. Check. Flop comes 10-7-4 with 2 of my suit. Sick flop. Check, lol. Turn, check, river, miss, check/fold.
In blind with 6-5. Check. Flop is 2-2-5. Checks around. Turn, 8. Checks around. River, 9. Guy bets 10. I raise to 30, he calls with 9-8.
Open-limp with Q-10 suited (I dont think that was a good idea, but whatever). Flop A-x-x with 2 of my suit. Checks to me, check. Turn, blank. Checks around. River, miss, someone bets, I fold.
I had some big hands too. Reraised this guy Kenny that plays crazy preflop with AA. He raised to 10, 2 callers, I think this is awesome because it looks like I'm trying to steal, I make it 45, he calls. Flop I kinda spaz out and he checks, and I check. I sort of didn't know what to do. Flop was 6-5-4, just not the best flop. Turn, jack. He bets 60, I insta-call because I know this guy can do some weird stuff. River, 5. He checks. I check. Should have bet though because I think he would never check a big hand there, so that was a mistake.
Call 8 with A-Q. 5 way. Flop A-Q-5. Preflop raiser bets 20, I call, heads up. Turn, 9. He checks, I bet 60, he calls. River, 5. He checks, I go all-in, he folds.
Just couple others:
Bunch of people limp. I have K-K on button, make it 15. 3 callers. Flop ace high, 2 hearts. Checks to me, check. Turn, check around. River, check around. Guy made two pair with running jack and 9. Could have won this pot with a c-bet obviously, but whatever. This is my new nit strategy.
Raise to 10 with Q-Q, 2 callers. Flop 7-5-2 with 2 diamonds. I bet 25, guy calls. Turn, 4 of diamonds. I check, he bets 45 right away, I just fold. Old guy, probably a great fold there. But good fold or not, I'm just going to fold there 100% of the time.
Anyway I ended up winning $224. Really good session, I was super happy with the results. As far as the play, I feel like its super weak and exploitable, but maybe these guys are right... at these limits (and maybe even 1 or 2 levels up), nobody is going to be good enough to exploit me, so whatever. I can play super predictable and just rake in the money from all the terrible players out there. And maybe one day when I'm playing high enough that there are not as many bad players around, I can adapt.
For now, I'm going to stick to this strategy for 100 hours of live play and re-evaluate. I like doing this in big blocks of time so I can ignore the short-term and just focus on the long-term results. And not think about moving up in stakes or changing my strategy for a long time, just ride it out and see what happens. If it's profitable, maybe I'll sign up for another 100 hours.
More poker tonight I think!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
$0.50/$1 NL home cash game
Last night we went to a cash game someone was hosting at a local house. 50c/$1 NL. I should look out for these kind of games more often really, as I think they are going to be much better than casino games. The game last night had a couple people that were somewhat competent, my wife who I think is decent, and a bunch of others that were just bad.
I ran really good and ended up winning $120. I had a bunch of huge hands. Flopped a set twice, including one where I got all in against the nut flush and rivered a boat. In that hand, I had K-K in the small blind. A bunch of people limped, and I raised to $8.50. Really big raise in that game. 2 callers, so the pot was relatively huge. Flop K-x-x with all 3 diamonds. I bet $15, guy goes all-in, I call. I probably should have paid more attention to how much he had because it might not have necessarily been a insta-call, although I did call. Thinking about it now, I think he could do that with:
AK with the ace of diamonds.
Flush with a suited ace, although what suited aces is he calling 7.5x more with? ATs+ I think, at most.
Flush with a suited connector. Although again, what suited connectors is he going to have? T9s+, and since I have a king that takes away a lot of combos. So only T9, JT, QJ, let's add in 89 too, why not.
Lower set.
Against all of those, let's run it in PokerStove and see how my equity works out.
Whoa, sick! I don't remember the exact board cards, but assuming it was K-6-4 and he could have the hands I mentioned, I'm a big favorite! Then I took out the non-flush AK combos, and it only changed it a very small amount which I find confusing. I thought I might have had to factor the pot size in to determine if I was right, but no - I'm just straight up a huge favorite against that range. Probably because I'm crushing the lower sets, and even against the flushes I have decent equity. I'm actually really surprised that this is a no-brainer call regardless of pot size.
Yeah, sometimes he might be calling with a lower suited connector too, or lower suited aces. But overall I think especially with the huge size of my raise, and the fact that nobody else had called yet, my range estimations really aren't that bad here.
OK - PokerStove is the bomb! I can't believe I've never used this tool before, because I've heard people talk about it so much. But now after watching just a couple videos and watching how they do the range calculations, I'm starting to figure it out.
Another one I wanted to look at was this one. I had AKo and raised to $3. Lady next to me, pretty tight old lady, reraised to $13. She only had $10 more, so she was essentially all-in.
I was thinking OK - this lady's range is incredibly tight here. I think she would probably do that with aces, kings, queens, and maybe AK/JJ. If everyone else folded and I got all-in with her, I would have to put in another $20 to win $47.
Against that range, I'm not quite as bad off as I thought. 60/40 dog.
I ran really good and ended up winning $120. I had a bunch of huge hands. Flopped a set twice, including one where I got all in against the nut flush and rivered a boat. In that hand, I had K-K in the small blind. A bunch of people limped, and I raised to $8.50. Really big raise in that game. 2 callers, so the pot was relatively huge. Flop K-x-x with all 3 diamonds. I bet $15, guy goes all-in, I call. I probably should have paid more attention to how much he had because it might not have necessarily been a insta-call, although I did call. Thinking about it now, I think he could do that with:
AK with the ace of diamonds.
Flush with a suited ace, although what suited aces is he calling 7.5x more with? ATs+ I think, at most.
Flush with a suited connector. Although again, what suited connectors is he going to have? T9s+, and since I have a king that takes away a lot of combos. So only T9, JT, QJ, let's add in 89 too, why not.
Lower set.
Against all of those, let's run it in PokerStove and see how my equity works out.
Whoa, sick! I don't remember the exact board cards, but assuming it was K-6-4 and he could have the hands I mentioned, I'm a big favorite! Then I took out the non-flush AK combos, and it only changed it a very small amount which I find confusing. I thought I might have had to factor the pot size in to determine if I was right, but no - I'm just straight up a huge favorite against that range. Probably because I'm crushing the lower sets, and even against the flushes I have decent equity. I'm actually really surprised that this is a no-brainer call regardless of pot size.
Yeah, sometimes he might be calling with a lower suited connector too, or lower suited aces. But overall I think especially with the huge size of my raise, and the fact that nobody else had called yet, my range estimations really aren't that bad here.
OK - PokerStove is the bomb! I can't believe I've never used this tool before, because I've heard people talk about it so much. But now after watching just a couple videos and watching how they do the range calculations, I'm starting to figure it out.
Another one I wanted to look at was this one. I had AKo and raised to $3. Lady next to me, pretty tight old lady, reraised to $13. She only had $10 more, so she was essentially all-in.
I was thinking OK - this lady's range is incredibly tight here. I think she would probably do that with aces, kings, queens, and maybe AK/JJ. If everyone else folded and I got all-in with her, I would have to put in another $20 to win $47.
Against that range, I'm not quite as bad off as I thought. 60/40 dog.
So even without anyone else calling, here is my expected value in that pot:
($47 * .397) + (-$20 * .602) = $6.62
So even if everyone folds, it's way +EV to call there. So I guess the analysis really ends here. But I was actually going to fold if nothing else interesting happened. As it turned out, this other TERRIBLE player called $13 cold. I put her on basically any pair, and probably not a huge one. And maybe like AK/AQ. She had about $60 or so more, so I just reraised all-in to push her out and go heads up with the dead money in there. I reraised all-in, the lady with $10 left obviously called, the other lady folded. We both had AK (although hers was suited), nobody got a flush, and we chopped it up.
I played pretty well overall I thought. I also did some things like not c-bet into a bunch of people. For example in one hand I raised with KQs, got 3 callers. Flop came T-6-7 with the 10 of my suit. I'd generally c-bet here, but I just thought the board was pretty drawy and there was no real purpose to betting. So I checked. Not a very interesting story I know but in the past I probably would have bet that a high percentage of the time even with a bunch of people in.
I also did some things that were looser closer to the button. Like I raised with K-7 suited in the HJ. Got 2 callers and I had to check-fold the flop, but not the worst move I think. And then later on the button or one off the button I raised with Q-9 suited. Again lost the pot (got reraised to $13 from the big blind, folded, she showed QQ) but I think those are reasonable moves.
I'm just really looking forward to playing some more poker and trying to really think about ranges, board textures, etc. Should be fun!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
I'm back bitches
Poker career reboot - version 12 or so.
I'm back fuckers. Last time I did the best I ever have done since I quit. Got my $1500 or so bankroll up to about $8k, was playing 2/5 NL for the first time in forever, it was awesome. I thought I was playing pretty well for a while there. Then I did the usual - went on a big downswing, got frustrated, and quit. Donated the bankroll back into the checking account and said fuck this.
 |
| The Bankroll |
Well I'm back. $1000 in the new bankroll and I'm going to start out by playing some 1/2 NL. Play tight, pay attention, hopefully get lucky, and kickstart the poker career again.
I'm also going to try some new things, specifically watching some poker tutorial videos online at someplace like Deuces Cracked. A lot of it might not apply directly to what I'm doing, but I can at least figure out how to think about hands differently. I tried a free trial at Bluefire Poker and it was OK, the video quality was a little sketchy but I downloaded a few and have been watching them. Just watched one so far about reading people at pretty low stakes NL online. Some interesting tips about putting people on ranges, which I have heard of but haven't really done before. Not in that exact way anyway - of course you're thinking about what people might have, but not "putting people on ranges".
That's all for now. Not playing today, but soon.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
My last hurrah
I'm done. That's it. I played my best, won some money overall, but I need to take a long break from poker. I'm doing the most final thing I can right now, which is just taking my bankroll money and getting rid of it. Depositing it back into the family bank account, and giving up.
I've been on a steady downswing for weeks, following a really spectacular upswing. I was up over $7000 playing 1/2-2/5 NL. In the last weeks though I lost $4000 or so of that, and it's just too mentally brutal to deal with for me. Loss after loss for weeks. I don't know if I'm playing really bad or just running bad. My guess is that it's a combination of both.
I've gone through this before, usually not showing a profit. I know I've thought that before in these kind of situations, the most important thing is to not freak out and just stay in action, keep playing, and it will eventually even out. Right now though I don't even want to play at all. I just feel like I could be doing better things with my time. Getting in shape or focusing on my career.
Yesterday I played some poker at Aria. 1/3 NL then the tournament. I don't really even feel like writing that much about it. In the cash game I got brutalized and lost $600. I was down $300 right away. Lost some money where I had 10-5 on a straddle, flopped a 10, and the other guy ended up having K-10. Then with a little over $200 left I got K-K in the big blind and got all-in on the flop against pocket aces. I called $16 preflop. Flop was T-5-4. I check, he bets $35, I raise to $90, he goes all-in, I call, pocket aces.
I had K-K vs A-A again later in the day and only ended up losing $50. I raised to $15 and got reraised to $50 from the big blind. This guy had been raising to $50 a lot, and I had actually gotten all-in with him earlier preflop with K-K against K-K and chopped. I just called the $50, flop came ace high and I check/folded. He showed A-A for a flopped set. Great flop for me.
Then I just played pretty loose, straddled a bunch, overall did not play well. Just put a lot of money in with substandard hands and the outcome was as expected if you aren't hitting a bunch of hands - you lose a lot of money. So I ended up losing $600.
The tournament started out pretty well. I thought I played well through the entire tournament really. I picked up some pots early and got my starting stack of $10k up to $15k. Then I played a pretty big pot.
I picked up A-K, raised to $600 (blinds were 100/200). Flop comes Q-10-8 with a flush draw. I bet $900, he calls. Turn is the perfect card, an offsuit jack. Now I bet $1800. He goes all-in. I call. I was thinking, I'm probably going to end up chopping this. He has J-10 for two pair. Sweet, I'm about to double up and be the chip leader at my table. River, 10. Brutal. He didn't have quite as much as I did and I was down to $3k chips at that point.
I played really well from there. Had K-K and limp-reraised all-in on one hand, stealing the blinds, antes, a raise, and a call. Raised all-in from the big blind with A-J against a late position raiser, he called with A-7, and I doubled up. Pushed in a few other times and got my stack up to about 9000. Then with the blinds at 300/600/100 ante, I pushed all-in over a 3000 chip raise with 9-9 and got called by A-Q. Ace on the flop and I was out.
I got home and collected all of my bankroll money. I had it stashed in a small can. I remember for a while it was all $100 bills and the can was so full that I was thinking about finding a new place to stash my money because it literally all wouldn't fit in there. Now, it was a collection of some 100s, a bunch of twenties, and random tens, fives, and ones. A sad poker bankroll, showing the signs of repeated losses. All together it added up to about $2650 or so. Technically I had more in my bankroll, maybe another $1000 or even $1500, since I had been taking money out of it to loan to my wife to play with me, and gamble (video poker, etc) while I was on vacation, and I just hadn't taken that money back out of our bank account.
Now I'm just going to deposit that money back into our bank account and call it a day. Another poker cycle ends for me. I'm sure I'll get started again later. Maybe around Christmas or my birthday (in April). I love the excitement of poker, the prospect of getting a bankroll together, the excitement and promise of that first huge win. It's what makes poker great. Right now I'm on the opposite end of that, feeling the depression of repeated losses over a long period of time.
The money itself doesn't bother me at all, and that's why I had a separate poker bankroll. I always knew that if I lost it, I would be OK with that. But after you lose for weeks and weeks, you start to doubt that you have any skills to begin with. You start to think about past big hands, and how you got really lucky to win those to begin with. You either coolered someone else, or you made a retarded move that worked, or better yet, you made a retarded move that didn't work, got called, and drew out in a monster pot. I've had all of the above happen during my giant upswing for sure. So then which side is the reality? The winning side, where you have a huge upswing, make some good moves, and just keep winning? Or the side where you try to play your best and lose over and over, with no hope to recover?
I honestly don't know. What I do know is that I'm giving up on poker again, at least for a while. Poker is an awesome game and there are a lot of exciting aspects to it. In the short term, you can win money and play huge pots, which is exciting. In the long term you can always dream of winning big, winning a huge tournament, or maybe consistently winning at cash games and turning that into a career. I know I get sucked into that dream every once in a while. At least the dream of being able to win consistently and make some decent money on the side.
I'll be back. See you soon, and good luck at the tables.
- Mark
I've been on a steady downswing for weeks, following a really spectacular upswing. I was up over $7000 playing 1/2-2/5 NL. In the last weeks though I lost $4000 or so of that, and it's just too mentally brutal to deal with for me. Loss after loss for weeks. I don't know if I'm playing really bad or just running bad. My guess is that it's a combination of both.
I've gone through this before, usually not showing a profit. I know I've thought that before in these kind of situations, the most important thing is to not freak out and just stay in action, keep playing, and it will eventually even out. Right now though I don't even want to play at all. I just feel like I could be doing better things with my time. Getting in shape or focusing on my career.
Yesterday I played some poker at Aria. 1/3 NL then the tournament. I don't really even feel like writing that much about it. In the cash game I got brutalized and lost $600. I was down $300 right away. Lost some money where I had 10-5 on a straddle, flopped a 10, and the other guy ended up having K-10. Then with a little over $200 left I got K-K in the big blind and got all-in on the flop against pocket aces. I called $16 preflop. Flop was T-5-4. I check, he bets $35, I raise to $90, he goes all-in, I call, pocket aces.
I had K-K vs A-A again later in the day and only ended up losing $50. I raised to $15 and got reraised to $50 from the big blind. This guy had been raising to $50 a lot, and I had actually gotten all-in with him earlier preflop with K-K against K-K and chopped. I just called the $50, flop came ace high and I check/folded. He showed A-A for a flopped set. Great flop for me.
Then I just played pretty loose, straddled a bunch, overall did not play well. Just put a lot of money in with substandard hands and the outcome was as expected if you aren't hitting a bunch of hands - you lose a lot of money. So I ended up losing $600.
The tournament started out pretty well. I thought I played well through the entire tournament really. I picked up some pots early and got my starting stack of $10k up to $15k. Then I played a pretty big pot.
I picked up A-K, raised to $600 (blinds were 100/200). Flop comes Q-10-8 with a flush draw. I bet $900, he calls. Turn is the perfect card, an offsuit jack. Now I bet $1800. He goes all-in. I call. I was thinking, I'm probably going to end up chopping this. He has J-10 for two pair. Sweet, I'm about to double up and be the chip leader at my table. River, 10. Brutal. He didn't have quite as much as I did and I was down to $3k chips at that point.
I played really well from there. Had K-K and limp-reraised all-in on one hand, stealing the blinds, antes, a raise, and a call. Raised all-in from the big blind with A-J against a late position raiser, he called with A-7, and I doubled up. Pushed in a few other times and got my stack up to about 9000. Then with the blinds at 300/600/100 ante, I pushed all-in over a 3000 chip raise with 9-9 and got called by A-Q. Ace on the flop and I was out.
I got home and collected all of my bankroll money. I had it stashed in a small can. I remember for a while it was all $100 bills and the can was so full that I was thinking about finding a new place to stash my money because it literally all wouldn't fit in there. Now, it was a collection of some 100s, a bunch of twenties, and random tens, fives, and ones. A sad poker bankroll, showing the signs of repeated losses. All together it added up to about $2650 or so. Technically I had more in my bankroll, maybe another $1000 or even $1500, since I had been taking money out of it to loan to my wife to play with me, and gamble (video poker, etc) while I was on vacation, and I just hadn't taken that money back out of our bank account.
Now I'm just going to deposit that money back into our bank account and call it a day. Another poker cycle ends for me. I'm sure I'll get started again later. Maybe around Christmas or my birthday (in April). I love the excitement of poker, the prospect of getting a bankroll together, the excitement and promise of that first huge win. It's what makes poker great. Right now I'm on the opposite end of that, feeling the depression of repeated losses over a long period of time. The money itself doesn't bother me at all, and that's why I had a separate poker bankroll. I always knew that if I lost it, I would be OK with that. But after you lose for weeks and weeks, you start to doubt that you have any skills to begin with. You start to think about past big hands, and how you got really lucky to win those to begin with. You either coolered someone else, or you made a retarded move that worked, or better yet, you made a retarded move that didn't work, got called, and drew out in a monster pot. I've had all of the above happen during my giant upswing for sure. So then which side is the reality? The winning side, where you have a huge upswing, make some good moves, and just keep winning? Or the side where you try to play your best and lose over and over, with no hope to recover?
I honestly don't know. What I do know is that I'm giving up on poker again, at least for a while. Poker is an awesome game and there are a lot of exciting aspects to it. In the short term, you can win money and play huge pots, which is exciting. In the long term you can always dream of winning big, winning a huge tournament, or maybe consistently winning at cash games and turning that into a career. I know I get sucked into that dream every once in a while. At least the dream of being able to win consistently and make some decent money on the side.
I'll be back. See you soon, and good luck at the tables.
- Mark
Friday, August 17, 2012
Clear cut tournament mistake
Played last night at Caesar's, at their 10 PM tournament. $85 buyin, start with 7500 in chips, 20 minute levels. The tournament was decent. I think they got 40 entries or so. Here are some of the hands I played.Hand 1 : Blinds 100/200, I have about $7500 with Q-Q. Raise to 300 from middle position. Young guy who says he plays a lot of tournaments reraises me to 600. I call. Thought about reraising, but I figured he could easily have a big hand here and if he has a worse hand a reraise will just chase him away. Flop is J-8-x with 2 hearts. I check. He bets $800. He has about $4k left. I think for a bit about what to do. Eventually I just figure, if he has aces or kings, so be it. I don't think there's really any way I can fold this hand the way it went down. I could have gone all-in, but instead I reraised to $2500. He called. He only had like $1300 left so I figured he was basically all-in at this point. So I just put two 1k chips out in the dark. Turn was an offsuit 9. He tanks and eventually folds.
Hand 2 : I have K-7 in the big blind. Check. There are 3 people in the pot. Flop comes 7-7-3 with 2 hearts. Small blind checks, I check, other guy bets $300. Folds to me, I make it $800. He calls. Sweet. I figured I could call, but I might as well raise. Especially if he had a flush draw, because I want to get some money out of him if he wants to draw. Turn is a great card, an offsuit king. I bet $700, he folds. I guess I could have checked, but I figured that betting $700 was small enough to get him to call if he had a flush draw. Maybe checking could have made it look like I had a 3 or something, but overall I think betting was correct.
Hand 3 : Later in the tournament. Blinds are 400/800 with a 100 ante. I have about $12k and he has me covered. I'm in the big blind with K-10 of hearts. Folds around to this asian guy with a lot of chips. I've seen him do some stupid things earlier in the tournament, like putting way too much in with no pair A-K and hitting. I call 800 more. Flop comes Q-J-6 with 2 hears. I check, he bets $1500.
I knew I was calling at least, but I wanted to be more aggressive with my draw, especially since I've seen this guy play more hands than average and his bet looked fairly weak. I thought about going all-in, but I thought it might look stronger to raise less. I ended up raising to $4600. I think this was a big mistake, but let me just spit out the rest of the hand first. He thinks for a while and calls. Turn is a 4 of hearts, giving me the backdoor flush draw. I put my remaining $5100 in, he calls with A-J, river is a jack, I am out.
If I thought about what the stack sizes would be on the turn after he called, I would have realized that 4600 was a terrible amount to put in on the flop. If he calls the flop, there is zero chance of him folding on the turn. So when I go all-in on the turn I'm putting all of my money in with a draw and zero fold equity. Just totally gambling. It was terrible. If I didn't want to go all-in on the flop, it would have been much better to make it 6k or 7k or something. Realistically though just shoving on the flop would have been a much better play.
Then on the turn, once I do make that bad bet on the flop, I should have just check-called (hoping for the check back). I think once the heart comes, I'm not folding. However, I have nothing and with zero fold equity there's no reason to bet. So I should have just checked, hope he checks too, and if not, call any amount on the turn.
Then if I miss on the river, I guess I just need to give up (had it gone check-check on the turn).
Sigh. That was disappointing. I haven't had a clear-cut big mistake in a tournament so far (that I've been smart enough to realize, anyway). This one was just clearly bad and it cost me the tournament. Sure, I could have hit, and I definitely had a gigantic draw on the turn (any heart, ace, king, 9). But still, it was a mistake to play it the way I did.
Going to play another tournament tomorrow at Aria, hopefully that goes better.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Soul read (aka I can see your cards)
I'm on vacation this week, which means I'm going to be playing a ton of poker! I don't have much time to write right now, but I did want to write a bit about a couple fun hands. I'm going to be playing some tournaments this week too to change it up a bit.
Flop Q-J-5 rainbow. First guy checks, 9-6 guy checks. I figure I have to bet it. I already look super strong preflop. So I grab a bill and $30 in chips. As I'm getting my bet ready, I can see the blind is preparing to fold, so this is great. I bet $130, they both fold. What an awesome hand though, when do you ever see someone's cards and get to do something with it? A little dicey but a lot of fun.
Played the Aria 7 PM tournament last night. Buyin - $125. I played pretty well I thought, but didn't have many hands at all. Ended up never really getting over my initial stack. Blinded down to $5200, blinds were $200/$400 with $25 ante. Guy raised to $900, Euro guy raising a lot of hands and playing pretty crazy (although maybe he had slowed down a bit now that the blinds got this high). I had A-10 suited and went all-in, got called (which I knew would happen), he had 8-8 and I did not hit. So that was my tournament.
What sucked was that there was a hand that I was about to triple up on, if the action went a little differently. Guy raises in early position to $600. Blinds were 100/200/25. Gets like 3 callers. I have 5-5 in the big blind and around 7k in chips. With a little over 2k in the pot, I was going to just go all-in hoping to pick up the money in the pot. The small blind took my idea first though and went all-in. Original raiser called with A-K. The small blind had pocket aces. Flop K-K-5 and the A-K guy wouldn't have caught up. The really blahhhhh part about it is that this guy doubles through with A-K vs A-A, and I see him in the tournament like 4 hours later, probably final table. 7% chance to win that hand, he wins, and he's in the money 4 hours later. Oh well. People were overall playing just awful in the tournament, but if you don't get anything to play, what can you do. Nobody was big on folding either. :-)
So I bust out and get on the list for 1/3. Sit down at 2/5 while I wait. And I get this pretty fun hand. Guy to my right has 2 stacks of green, sitting with about 1200 or so. I have $600. Guy to my right has been pretty aggressive, raising a lot and reraising big on one hand, and I've played maybe 2-3 orbits. So he looks at his cards. I look over and I can see his cards, just on this one hand. He has 9-6. Both black, maybe suited. He raises to 25. I look down at 2-2.
Perfect situation. I get to see peoples' cards all the time, but never get a good chance to act on it. This time, I totally do. In position against an aggressive player, and I know his cards. I want to isolate or just get him to fold, although I'd rather have him call. I make it $65.
Little wrench in the plan, the big blind cold-calls it. :P He is sitting with about $800. Doesn't look like a guy who is very good, kinda middle aged middle eastern-ish type of guy. Guy next to me asks if I have 4 bills, answer is yes, he calls.
Flop Q-J-5 rainbow. First guy checks, 9-6 guy checks. I figure I have to bet it. I already look super strong preflop. So I grab a bill and $30 in chips. As I'm getting my bet ready, I can see the blind is preparing to fold, so this is great. I bet $130, they both fold. What an awesome hand though, when do you ever see someone's cards and get to do something with it? A little dicey but a lot of fun.
Eventually got to 1/3. Played this hand there, I think I played it really well. Not a huge pot, but still. I have A-8 of spades and call $12. The guy that raised is pretty loose and I doubt he is very good. And then this other tourist guy with a sleeveless shirt calls. I'm in position. Flop comes 10-9-x with 2 of my suit. Raiser bets 12, I call. Turn is an offsuit queen. He bets 12 again.
At this point, I think he's weak. So I'm thinking raise. However, I also know he sucks and won't necessarily fold to a raise here. So I just call. River comes out an offsuit 4. Total miss. He bets 12 again. Now, I raise to 42. He folds. I thought it was a much better idea to wait to raise, just because he was probably not going to fold the turn. And then what, fire out $80 on the river if I miss? I am just trying to stay out of those spots if I can.
I ended up winning $92 at 2/5, and losing $4 at 1/3. So overall including the tournament I lost like $30 yesterday. No big deal. More poker today.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Red Rock Monday
Played some 1/2 at Red Rock on Monday. Nothing too exciting. I tried to change up my game a bit by doing a couple different things. First of all, I'm trying to bet more if I decide to bet. Raising more preflop, betting more if I decide to bet. I think that will do a couple things for me. Number one, it will make pots bigger, which is good because it just makes the game play bigger overall. Two, once the pots start getting bigger I think people will play more straightforward and easy to read. That's just a hypothesis though. As far as the other thing I'm doing, I was definitely staying with the theme of playing more hands in position and playing hands slower out of position.
As I started making both of these changes, it brought me back to when I used to play a lot a few years back. I used to do a lot of the same things. I definitely raised more preflop (30 was my standard preflop raise in 2/5) and I definitely played more cautious out of position.
Few hands I played:
Hand 1 : Few people limp. I raise to 14 with KQ offsuit. Much bigger raise than I have been making in the past. 1 get one caller, this weirdo guy who has these rubber duckies all over the place. I don't remember if he was in the blind or limped in early position, but I was in position. Flop comes K-9-8 with 2 to a flush. He checks, and I check. In retrospect that was pretty stupid. It would have been a much better idea to bet here because the flush and straight draws were there, so I could get a call with either one. I wanted to slowplay a bit and sort of just remove a betting street because I didn't have a super big hand, but this was just the wrong time to try something like that. Turn was an offsuit deuce, he checked, I bet 20, he folded. Should have bet the flop though.
Hand 2 : This guy just sat down and raises to 11 in position on his first hand. He has about $500 (max buy-in is 300). Younger guy. I have 10-10 in the blind. I decide to just call. I could reraise, but if he calls then I'm just in a really awkward position. I have about $300 as well and don't want to get in some really big pot against an unknown guy with pocket 10s out of position. So I call and an old guy who limped calls. Flop comes A-Q-x and I'm done. I check, and it checks around. Turn is a 9. I check, the old guy checks, and now the preflop raiser bets 12. I call, thinking he probably doesn't have anything. The old guy calls too. I know he probably has a better hand than I do, so I'm going to have to bet the river to win. I'm putting him on something kinda weak, maybe a weak ace or a queen. River comes an 8. I bet out $40, they both fold. I guess I'm representing the J-10, but my real thought was just that they were both weak on the turn and I'd try to take it away on the river, assuming the river wasn't some card I thought would hit them.
Hand 3 : I limp with 9-7 offsuit in mid/late position. 4 people see the flop. Flop comes 7-4-3 with 2 diamonds. Guy in the blind bets out $6. I don't totally love my hand but I figure if I'm going to play it I want to isolate and just play this heads up, and maybe win it now. I raise to $18, he calls. Turn is an offsuit king. He checks, I bet $20, he calls. River is the jack of diamonds. He thinks for a bit and bets out $25. I fold. He was a middle aged guy, I don't think he was going to bluff here at all. And really all I have is a 7. In retrospect I like the way I played this but on the turn I should have bet more, like $35 if I was going to bet it. That would have made it a lot harder for him to call. If I thought he had something like 2 overs with a flush draw, I was giving him straight up odds to call the turn. Plus there are so many cards that can hit the river where I have no idea where I'm at.
Hand 4 : Under the gun with A-Q. Limp. About 4 or 5 people see the flop. Flop is 10 high. Guy bets out 12, I fold. Just figured I'd mention this hand because it's one of those ones where a week or two ago, I'd raise 100% of the time, and c-bet a high percentage of flops too. Now I'm not sure that's really the best plan especially from under the gun. I'm definitely limping more with big hands. I figure I'll either flop a huge hand and can trap a bit, maybe flop TPTK and just call down for value, or if I miss I can just throw it away for cheap. Whereas if I raise under the gun it just makes it harder for me to play, especially when people play bad and don't necessarily want to fold the flop that much. I understand there are some good situations to double barrel boards, but I don't really want to get in a situation where I'm raising, cbetting, and double barrelling the turn out of position if I have to when I really don't know what the other person is doing. I'd rather save that stuff for when I'm in position.
Not very many exciting hands yesterday. I figure I just need to put the time in though, and eventually the wins will come. I ended up losing like $18 over 2 hours, but I had almost no premium hands to play and didn't flop any big draws or anything either. Just a really boring session for me.
Next week I'm on vacation and probably will play a lot of poker. Hopefully I can start kicking ass again! I think I'm playing pretty well, although definitely playing tighter than I was. I'd like to loosen up more, but I can see how that can hurt me too. I'll continue to play pretty tight, but loosen up a little more in position and hopefully that goes well.
As I started making both of these changes, it brought me back to when I used to play a lot a few years back. I used to do a lot of the same things. I definitely raised more preflop (30 was my standard preflop raise in 2/5) and I definitely played more cautious out of position.
Few hands I played:
Hand 1 : Few people limp. I raise to 14 with KQ offsuit. Much bigger raise than I have been making in the past. 1 get one caller, this weirdo guy who has these rubber duckies all over the place. I don't remember if he was in the blind or limped in early position, but I was in position. Flop comes K-9-8 with 2 to a flush. He checks, and I check. In retrospect that was pretty stupid. It would have been a much better idea to bet here because the flush and straight draws were there, so I could get a call with either one. I wanted to slowplay a bit and sort of just remove a betting street because I didn't have a super big hand, but this was just the wrong time to try something like that. Turn was an offsuit deuce, he checked, I bet 20, he folded. Should have bet the flop though.
Hand 2 : This guy just sat down and raises to 11 in position on his first hand. He has about $500 (max buy-in is 300). Younger guy. I have 10-10 in the blind. I decide to just call. I could reraise, but if he calls then I'm just in a really awkward position. I have about $300 as well and don't want to get in some really big pot against an unknown guy with pocket 10s out of position. So I call and an old guy who limped calls. Flop comes A-Q-x and I'm done. I check, and it checks around. Turn is a 9. I check, the old guy checks, and now the preflop raiser bets 12. I call, thinking he probably doesn't have anything. The old guy calls too. I know he probably has a better hand than I do, so I'm going to have to bet the river to win. I'm putting him on something kinda weak, maybe a weak ace or a queen. River comes an 8. I bet out $40, they both fold. I guess I'm representing the J-10, but my real thought was just that they were both weak on the turn and I'd try to take it away on the river, assuming the river wasn't some card I thought would hit them.
Hand 3 : I limp with 9-7 offsuit in mid/late position. 4 people see the flop. Flop comes 7-4-3 with 2 diamonds. Guy in the blind bets out $6. I don't totally love my hand but I figure if I'm going to play it I want to isolate and just play this heads up, and maybe win it now. I raise to $18, he calls. Turn is an offsuit king. He checks, I bet $20, he calls. River is the jack of diamonds. He thinks for a bit and bets out $25. I fold. He was a middle aged guy, I don't think he was going to bluff here at all. And really all I have is a 7. In retrospect I like the way I played this but on the turn I should have bet more, like $35 if I was going to bet it. That would have made it a lot harder for him to call. If I thought he had something like 2 overs with a flush draw, I was giving him straight up odds to call the turn. Plus there are so many cards that can hit the river where I have no idea where I'm at.
Hand 4 : Under the gun with A-Q. Limp. About 4 or 5 people see the flop. Flop is 10 high. Guy bets out 12, I fold. Just figured I'd mention this hand because it's one of those ones where a week or two ago, I'd raise 100% of the time, and c-bet a high percentage of flops too. Now I'm not sure that's really the best plan especially from under the gun. I'm definitely limping more with big hands. I figure I'll either flop a huge hand and can trap a bit, maybe flop TPTK and just call down for value, or if I miss I can just throw it away for cheap. Whereas if I raise under the gun it just makes it harder for me to play, especially when people play bad and don't necessarily want to fold the flop that much. I understand there are some good situations to double barrel boards, but I don't really want to get in a situation where I'm raising, cbetting, and double barrelling the turn out of position if I have to when I really don't know what the other person is doing. I'd rather save that stuff for when I'm in position.
Not very many exciting hands yesterday. I figure I just need to put the time in though, and eventually the wins will come. I ended up losing like $18 over 2 hours, but I had almost no premium hands to play and didn't flop any big draws or anything either. Just a really boring session for me.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Pocket kings, and some no chop situations
Played some poker this weekend at the Aria, Red Rock, and even Excalibur. 1/3 and 1/2 NL. Overall I made some pretty big mistakes and I'm not super happy with my play overall, but I did end up winning over $200.
Hand 1 : I raise to 8 with KK (Aria 1/3 NL). Get 3 callers. Flop comes 6-5-3 with 2 spades. Checks to me, I bet out 17. Guy raises to 50. He is on the button. He has about 200 total (including the 50) and is racked up and about to move to another table. I thought folding was too weak, and calling might put me in a spot where I didn't know where I was. Overall it was an uncomfortable situation for me and I thought for a while. Eventually I ended up raising him to 105, he went all-in and I insta-called (which was probably pretty stupid, I didn't really think about it at all). He had 6-5 and I doubled him up. Pretty brutal way to start the weekend's poker. I just sat down and played this hand in my first orbit. In retrospect, I think that even though folding seems REALLY weak here, since it is such an uncomfortable situation I think I can just fold. I am probably folding the best hand sometimes if he has a smaller overpair, but his stack size puts me in a weird spot where if I call, it's going to be hard for me to get away from it. And in general, I don't think people are raising very light at 1/2 or 1/3, so a fold here wouldn't have been terrible. Alternatively I could have min-raised (to 80 or whatever) and if he pushed all in over the top I think I could fold a lot easier. But by just folding I'm only losing the 17 I put in on the flop and it just seems like since the pot was so small, who cares if I fold the best hand there sometimes.
Hand 2 : I am in the big blind with K-Qs and check. Red Rock 1/2 NL. Flop comes Q-9-x with 2 spades. I check, and it checks around. Probably about 6 people in. Turn is a king, giving me top two. I bet 12. Guy directly to my left makes it 30. I know he's playing pretty tight. Folds to me, I call. River is the ace of spades. I check. He bets 25. On the turn I already thought if the flush hits and he bets again, I should just fold because he obviously has a strong hand at that point, if he's not afraid of the flush. But it was only $25 (that's how I justified it) and I called, and he had J-10 for the straight. Was this just a cooler? I don't know. I feel like I could probably fold the turn a lot of the time. If a tight guy had just A-K or turned smaller two pair, they might raise but a lot of the time I think they are just calling.
Hand 3 : Red Rock 1/2 NL. I'm under the gun with K-K (and a little over $300) and limp. Lately I've been thinking about playing my big pairs a lot slower out of position. First of all, people tend to fold a lot if you just open raise from early position. I'm definitely losing some value by not raising, but at the same time, people are MUCH more likely to make huge mistakes after the flop than they are preflop. So by under-repping my hand I might be able to check-call 3 streets against a weaker top pair, or flop an invisible set, who knows. Anyway, it's something I'm trying out. Couple other people limp and the button makes it 8. I just call. There's nobody trapped in the middle that called his raise, and limp-reraising just looks super strong and defines my hand too much. The other two guys call. Flop is great for me, 10-2-2. It checks to the raiser and he bets 30. I raise to 75. He calls. Turn is an 8. I bet 105. He goes all-in (has me covered) and I call. River is a 9. He turns over Q-Q and my kings win a huge pot. I felt pretty confident on the flop when he didn't reraise me. His turn raise in my opinion was just one of those "well, its going all in anyway, so whatever" type of raises since I only had probably less than $150 behind after my $105 bet.
Hand 4 : Red Rock 1/2 NL. I raise to 8 in late position with K-K. Guy in the blind calls, big blind raises to 24. He has been playing pretty crazy. I just call, and so does the blind. Flop comes K-9-7. Now it checks to me. I bet $22. Blind calls, and the crazy guy min-raises to $44. I reraise to $172. He calls. Pot is fucking huge at this point. Turn comes a 5. He checks and I go all-in for the rest, $184. He folds. I guess I could have bet like $125 instead and maybe he could have talked himself into calling or saying fuck it and putting me all-in. The pot was so big though I really didn't want anyone to call, and at that point you're getting pretty good odds even with a flush draw. Preflop = 75, and on the flop 360 went in. So on the river I bet 180 into 430 or so, giving him 180 : (430 + 180) odds, or 3.4:1 odds. So really I shouldn't bet any less than I did anyway, or calling with a flush draw would have been mathematically correct anyway.
Hand 5 : Excalibur $1/$2. Under the gun with K-K, limp. Few people call and the button makes it $16. I thought about reraising but I figured I could get a lot more money in the pot by just calling and letting everyone else call. I call, 2 or 3 other people call too. Flop is 10-8-x. I bet out $20 or $25, hoping to get a bunch of people stuck in the middle. Guy next to me goes all-in for $80 or so. Folds back to me, I call. He has J-9. Turn and river are a jack and nine. Ughhhhhhhh
Hand 6 : Excalibur $1/$2 NL. I raise to 6 with A-10 offsuit after a couple people limp. Couple people call my raise, and this guy (pictured at right) limp-reraises all-in for $56 more. He just lost a big pot and was steaming IMO. So I call. Board runs out and I don't pair up. Luckily he didn't either and he had pushed all-in with 9-8 offsuit, so my A-10 held up.
Then I had a couple really interesting hands where I was in the big blind and did not chop. :-)
Hand 7 : Folds around to the small blind. I say I don't chop. He calls 2 (Aria $1/$3 NL). I look down at A-A. Raise to 13, he calls. Flop is A-5-4. He bets out $15. I call. I figure I flopped the SUPER nuts and don't want to run him off yet. Turn is a 3. He bets out $35. I don't love it, but I don't think I'm ever folding this hand here. He might have a strong second best hand (set, A-K). Plus people love to just spew money in blind vs blind situations because they're going to "teach you a lesson" for not chopping. So I call. River, 8. He bets $50. I don't love it but I call. He has Q-2 offsuit. Bet the flop with the gutshot, hit it. :P
Hand 8 : Aria $1/$3 NL again. Folds to the small blind, I say I don't chop. He calls. I look down at J-J and raise to $13. He reraises to $30. He has only like $75 or so total, and I push him all-in. He insta-calls with A-A. Turn, jack. Fuck you. Haha. Ship it.
The weekend was a little frustrating. I had some hands I should have played better, and they cost me a lot of money. Overall though I won a couple hundred bucks and it's nice to get a win finally, so that was great. Probably will play more during the week.
 |
| Aria |
Hand 2 : I am in the big blind with K-Qs and check. Red Rock 1/2 NL. Flop comes Q-9-x with 2 spades. I check, and it checks around. Probably about 6 people in. Turn is a king, giving me top two. I bet 12. Guy directly to my left makes it 30. I know he's playing pretty tight. Folds to me, I call. River is the ace of spades. I check. He bets 25. On the turn I already thought if the flush hits and he bets again, I should just fold because he obviously has a strong hand at that point, if he's not afraid of the flush. But it was only $25 (that's how I justified it) and I called, and he had J-10 for the straight. Was this just a cooler? I don't know. I feel like I could probably fold the turn a lot of the time. If a tight guy had just A-K or turned smaller two pair, they might raise but a lot of the time I think they are just calling.
Hand 3 : Red Rock 1/2 NL. I'm under the gun with K-K (and a little over $300) and limp. Lately I've been thinking about playing my big pairs a lot slower out of position. First of all, people tend to fold a lot if you just open raise from early position. I'm definitely losing some value by not raising, but at the same time, people are MUCH more likely to make huge mistakes after the flop than they are preflop. So by under-repping my hand I might be able to check-call 3 streets against a weaker top pair, or flop an invisible set, who knows. Anyway, it's something I'm trying out. Couple other people limp and the button makes it 8. I just call. There's nobody trapped in the middle that called his raise, and limp-reraising just looks super strong and defines my hand too much. The other two guys call. Flop is great for me, 10-2-2. It checks to the raiser and he bets 30. I raise to 75. He calls. Turn is an 8. I bet 105. He goes all-in (has me covered) and I call. River is a 9. He turns over Q-Q and my kings win a huge pot. I felt pretty confident on the flop when he didn't reraise me. His turn raise in my opinion was just one of those "well, its going all in anyway, so whatever" type of raises since I only had probably less than $150 behind after my $105 bet.
Hand 4 : Red Rock 1/2 NL. I raise to 8 in late position with K-K. Guy in the blind calls, big blind raises to 24. He has been playing pretty crazy. I just call, and so does the blind. Flop comes K-9-7. Now it checks to me. I bet $22. Blind calls, and the crazy guy min-raises to $44. I reraise to $172. He calls. Pot is fucking huge at this point. Turn comes a 5. He checks and I go all-in for the rest, $184. He folds. I guess I could have bet like $125 instead and maybe he could have talked himself into calling or saying fuck it and putting me all-in. The pot was so big though I really didn't want anyone to call, and at that point you're getting pretty good odds even with a flush draw. Preflop = 75, and on the flop 360 went in. So on the river I bet 180 into 430 or so, giving him 180 : (430 + 180) odds, or 3.4:1 odds. So really I shouldn't bet any less than I did anyway, or calling with a flush draw would have been mathematically correct anyway.
 |
| Excalibur |
Hand 6 : Excalibur $1/$2 NL. I raise to 6 with A-10 offsuit after a couple people limp. Couple people call my raise, and this guy (pictured at right) limp-reraises all-in for $56 more. He just lost a big pot and was steaming IMO. So I call. Board runs out and I don't pair up. Luckily he didn't either and he had pushed all-in with 9-8 offsuit, so my A-10 held up.
Then I had a couple really interesting hands where I was in the big blind and did not chop. :-)
Hand 7 : Folds around to the small blind. I say I don't chop. He calls 2 (Aria $1/$3 NL). I look down at A-A. Raise to 13, he calls. Flop is A-5-4. He bets out $15. I call. I figure I flopped the SUPER nuts and don't want to run him off yet. Turn is a 3. He bets out $35. I don't love it, but I don't think I'm ever folding this hand here. He might have a strong second best hand (set, A-K). Plus people love to just spew money in blind vs blind situations because they're going to "teach you a lesson" for not chopping. So I call. River, 8. He bets $50. I don't love it but I call. He has Q-2 offsuit. Bet the flop with the gutshot, hit it. :P
Hand 8 : Aria $1/$3 NL again. Folds to the small blind, I say I don't chop. He calls. I look down at J-J and raise to $13. He reraises to $30. He has only like $75 or so total, and I push him all-in. He insta-calls with A-A. Turn, jack. Fuck you. Haha. Ship it.
The weekend was a little frustrating. I had some hands I should have played better, and they cost me a lot of money. Overall though I won a couple hundred bucks and it's nice to get a win finally, so that was great. Probably will play more during the week.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Poker this weekend
Played on Friday at Orleans, and Saturday at Red Rock. Both times 4/8 limit. I'm still way down lately, but I did end up winning a little this weekend which was great.
On Friday I basically broke even. Lost $2. On Saturday I won $173. I made some adjustments in my play. I tightened up, and I also didn't just bet all the way down as much. I took some free cards where I thought it made sense. And I also did something differently than I had been doing lately - I actually hit some hands. So that was nice.
On Friday I basically broke even. Lost $2. On Saturday I won $173. I made some adjustments in my play. I tightened up, and I also didn't just bet all the way down as much. I took some free cards where I thought it made sense. And I also did something differently than I had been doing lately - I actually hit some hands. So that was nice.
Not the most exciting poker weekend but it was nice to not lose $1k+. I might play some more during the week this week, but I think overall it's going to be a little slower than it's been in the past couple of months.
Friday, July 27, 2012
More losing
Played some more $4/$8 last night. Dropped $180.
I did some stupid things. For example, in one hand I had 8-6 suited. Flop gave me some backdoor outs (flush and straight) so I called a bet, maybe that was stupid in the first place. Then on the turn an ace hit (flop was 10 high) and the ace gave me a flush draw. Guy bet and I raised him. He called. Then on the river I missed, he check-called with J-10. Pretty retarded to raise as there's really no reason to think the guy is going to fold. And why I was in there in the first place I'm not sure, probably shouldn't have been.
Then in this other pot I raised with K-Q in early position (probably a mistake already) and got 3 bet, and I just 4 bet it since that closed the action. Probably stupid, but there were 2 people stuck in the middle so I thought maybe it made sense, but probably not. Then I flopped a gutshot and ended up calling him down. On the river I hit a king (flop was ace high) and he checked to me, and made it obvious if I bet he was calling. I bet anyway, and he had A-10. Probably should have just checked it back.
So I probably made a ton of mistakes throughout the night. I think tightening up preflop would help me out a lot. Really just playing a lot more straightforward and tight would help. I think I should probably be doing that, and then when I do get in there with a premium hand, semi-bluffing or even straight up bluffing late in the hand makes more sense. Not getting in with shitty hands like KQ and trying to outplay people or whatever, thats just stupid.
And of course there were plenty of times where I could have hit and didn't, or got drawn out on. Heads up I get 4 bets in preflop with K-K, other guy has A-Q, flops a Q and rivers another Q. Getting the $68 in that pot back in my stack would have helped the bottom line a bit.
Oh well. The pain continues.
I did some stupid things. For example, in one hand I had 8-6 suited. Flop gave me some backdoor outs (flush and straight) so I called a bet, maybe that was stupid in the first place. Then on the turn an ace hit (flop was 10 high) and the ace gave me a flush draw. Guy bet and I raised him. He called. Then on the river I missed, he check-called with J-10. Pretty retarded to raise as there's really no reason to think the guy is going to fold. And why I was in there in the first place I'm not sure, probably shouldn't have been.
Then in this other pot I raised with K-Q in early position (probably a mistake already) and got 3 bet, and I just 4 bet it since that closed the action. Probably stupid, but there were 2 people stuck in the middle so I thought maybe it made sense, but probably not. Then I flopped a gutshot and ended up calling him down. On the river I hit a king (flop was ace high) and he checked to me, and made it obvious if I bet he was calling. I bet anyway, and he had A-10. Probably should have just checked it back.
So I probably made a ton of mistakes throughout the night. I think tightening up preflop would help me out a lot. Really just playing a lot more straightforward and tight would help. I think I should probably be doing that, and then when I do get in there with a premium hand, semi-bluffing or even straight up bluffing late in the hand makes more sense. Not getting in with shitty hands like KQ and trying to outplay people or whatever, thats just stupid.
And of course there were plenty of times where I could have hit and didn't, or got drawn out on. Heads up I get 4 bets in preflop with K-K, other guy has A-Q, flops a Q and rivers another Q. Getting the $68 in that pot back in my stack would have helped the bottom line a bit.
Oh well. The pain continues.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Just keep dumping money
In my last entry I think I said I was going to take at least a week, probably 2 weeks off. I ended up going out and playing the very next day, $4/$8 limit at Red Rock. And I proceeded to dump off another $200.
I don't feel like I played THAT bad. I've been getting crushed at limit, but I think you're definitely going to see some big swings in limit. But I don't know. It's very frustrating. I had a bunch of hands that didn't go very well.
For example, someone raises, I reraise with JJ, get 4 bet. 3 people in. 2 bets go in on the flop, I end up calling down, and her 8-8 hits a set on the river. :P Or I limp with J-9, flop J-9-8, get raised on the river when an ace hits that also brings the flush, and I fold. Various other hands... draws don't get there, etc.
It's just frustrating. The scariest part to me is that I don't really know if I'm playing terrible or if I'm playing these hands OK and I'm just losing. I don't really care about the losing but I want to make sure I'm not just playing completely terrible.
Then there are some spots I just don't know about. For example, there's a raise directly to my right and I 3-bet with J-J. Lady cold calls it. Flop comes J-10-x with 3 hearts. I don't have any hearts. I bet, get called, turn I bet and get called, river I bet and get called. She has A-K. I figured I was going to bet the flop. On the turn I figure I'll bet, I don't want a flush draw to get there for free, etc. Then on the river I'm going to bet and fold if I get raised. That's probably true of the turn as well. But I just bet all the way, get called down, lose to A-K. Is that bad? I seriously have no clue.
In that hand, you have to figure she has something at least DECENT since she put 3 bets in preflop, but you never know. People do weird shit in 4/8. But I guess you have to give that SOME respect. A-K is definitely a possibility. I don't know what she could be calling me down with that doesn't beat me. A-Q or A-J or A-T with the ace of hearts for sure, but would she put 3 bets in preflop with that? Maybe A-Q. I guess she could have Q-J for the straight draw, but I have two jacks and it has to be pretty hard to call with just a straight draw on the turn there.
But then again, who knows. I guess I could have check-folded the turn, but that seems WEAK. And on the river, if I check I'm not going to fold to a bet so I think I made the right play there (assuming I would fold to a raise, which I would have).
Maybe I'm just running bad, not sure. I sure hope so. I think I'm going to continue to give limit a try for a while. It's really fun, lot of action.
I don't feel like I played THAT bad. I've been getting crushed at limit, but I think you're definitely going to see some big swings in limit. But I don't know. It's very frustrating. I had a bunch of hands that didn't go very well.
For example, someone raises, I reraise with JJ, get 4 bet. 3 people in. 2 bets go in on the flop, I end up calling down, and her 8-8 hits a set on the river. :P Or I limp with J-9, flop J-9-8, get raised on the river when an ace hits that also brings the flush, and I fold. Various other hands... draws don't get there, etc.
It's just frustrating. The scariest part to me is that I don't really know if I'm playing terrible or if I'm playing these hands OK and I'm just losing. I don't really care about the losing but I want to make sure I'm not just playing completely terrible.
Then there are some spots I just don't know about. For example, there's a raise directly to my right and I 3-bet with J-J. Lady cold calls it. Flop comes J-10-x with 3 hearts. I don't have any hearts. I bet, get called, turn I bet and get called, river I bet and get called. She has A-K. I figured I was going to bet the flop. On the turn I figure I'll bet, I don't want a flush draw to get there for free, etc. Then on the river I'm going to bet and fold if I get raised. That's probably true of the turn as well. But I just bet all the way, get called down, lose to A-K. Is that bad? I seriously have no clue.
In that hand, you have to figure she has something at least DECENT since she put 3 bets in preflop, but you never know. People do weird shit in 4/8. But I guess you have to give that SOME respect. A-K is definitely a possibility. I don't know what she could be calling me down with that doesn't beat me. A-Q or A-J or A-T with the ace of hearts for sure, but would she put 3 bets in preflop with that? Maybe A-Q. I guess she could have Q-J for the straight draw, but I have two jacks and it has to be pretty hard to call with just a straight draw on the turn there.
But then again, who knows. I guess I could have check-folded the turn, but that seems WEAK. And on the river, if I check I'm not going to fold to a bet so I think I made the right play there (assuming I would fold to a raise, which I would have).
Maybe I'm just running bad, not sure. I sure hope so. I think I'm going to continue to give limit a try for a while. It's really fun, lot of action.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Hiatus
I'll fill you in on what happened yesterday. I'm not happy about it, and it's pretty retarded/embarassing, but whatever. After last night I decided I need to seriously take some time off of poker. At least 2 weeks so I can focus, reflect on things, and be ready to play my A game.
Last night I went up to the Wynn to play some 1/3 NL. Bought in for $500. The day started out fine.
Hand 1: Guy in middle position raises to 15. Someone calls, and I call from the blind with A-Q. I already don't love it. We see the flop 4 ways. Flop is A-10-7 with 2 clubs. Checks to the preflop raiser and he bets $25. Guy calls the $25 and I call. Now the other guy in the pot raises to 133 total. I fold.
Had some disappointing hands. For example :
Hand #2 : Limp with 9-6 offsuit on the button. 4 people see the flop - 10-8-7. Guy in the blind bets out $15 (little more than the pot). Folds to me, I make it $40. Fold. Damn. I figured raising was fine because I wasn't using any of the cards on the flop. If he had a set, or an overpair, or even a 9, I figured I could pretty easily get called there. Just bad luck he didn't have anything really good.
Hand #3: Raise with 5-5, Flop a set on a A-10-5 board. Bet 10 into 2 people, 1 call. Turn Q. Check to me, 22, fold. :P
Hand #4 : This one basically started the downfall for me the rest of the night. I raise with A-10 suited to 11. 1 caller, and an old guy limp-reraises me to 28. Fucking annoying. I call, and the other guy calls. Flop comes Q-x-x with 2 of my suit. He bets 25, I call, the other guy calls. Turn is a blank. First guy checks. Preflop raiser bets $70. I call. Probably should just fold here. He has $200 more behind, but when the flush gets there he's almost certainly going to check. I'm getting 3:1 on my money and need closer to 4:1 (little better than that) to call. If you factor in the implied odds I guess it's fine, but whatever. I need to make like $100 on the river to break even. Also I thought the other guy might call, even with a worse flush draw, which would have been great for me. Of course he didn't call. River brick, he bets $100, I fold. Sigh. Another flush draw missed.
After this point, my brain just kinda broke. I don't know what happened. I bought in for another $200. On that last hand, I shouldn't really even be that upset about it. Pretty standard really. The call on the turn, maybe I could have folded, but it's not THAT bad.
I straddle for $6 and this girl min-raise opens on the button. 2 calls and I call with 5-3 offsuit. Not great. Flop is 10-6-5. Check to her, she bets 28, I call. Turn is a 6. Check, she bets $40, call. River, check check. She has K-K.
OK, that was stupid. Call the flop, fine. Not good, but let's say it's fine for some reason. Once she fires the turn, give up! Also, she's a girl. Just fucking check/fold the flop. Sigh. That hand made me pretty upset, just because it was so obviously stupid.
Now I'm frustrated and I get the brilliant idea that I'm going to - wait for it - play my hands blind for a while. HAHA! Yes, you read this correctly.
A long time ago, I read about Annette Obrestad playing poker online, blind, and being able to win just by playing position and paying attention to good spots to bet/bluff, etc. I think this is an article about it too. So I think it's a good idea to pick this time to do the same thing.
It actually started out OK. And it was fun. I didn't look at my cards unless I was going to fold (in case I accidentally had a monster - spoiler alert, never happened). Few hands where I did this:
2 people limp and I make it 12. Get 2 callers including one guy behind me. Flop is A-4-3 with 2 diamonds. I see the guy behind me glance at his chips and I decide to check after the first guy checks. It checks around. Turn is a diamond. First guy checks, I bet 22, both fold.
2 people limp, I make it 15. I felt 15 was better than 12 because people were calling 12 too much, and both of them folded.
One limper, I raise to 8. 2 callers. Flop is K-6-2. First guy checks, I bet $16, 1 fold and the guy that checked calls. Turn is a 10. He checks, I bet 35, he folds.
It actually was going pretty well. I lost some hands, but overall I was about even. And one of the hands I lost was when I was going to fold, looked down at A-K suited and ended up losing about 40 bucks in the hand. So as far as just playing blind, I think I did pretty well.
Until this hand. I raise to 8 in late position. This old guy reraises to 28. I obviously should fold most of the time an old guy raises me, but I think I've seen this guy before and he plays a little aggressive sometimes. REGARDLESS, I should still have folded. He was playing tight today and who knows, I might not even be remembering the guy right. Regardless, I decide to reraise to 70. He calls. OK, red flags should be going off at this point. Flop comes out J-5-5. He checks, I bet all-in, and he calls for 110. So retarded. If he put 70 in preflop, there is already 140 in the pot. Even if he had A-K he might call just because the pot is so big. Fucking retarded. I look down for the first time and see A-8 suited. I miss, he turns up Q-Q on the river, and I lose $200 for no reason at all.
If I'm going to play like that, I should at least FOLD WHEN OLD GUYS RERAISE ME!!! WTF????? And at least check it down after the flop. Even when I reraised preflop, I was thinking this is my one shot, if I get called I'm done. Because I thought (even though it was stupid) that this guy could be reraising me light. If that was the case obviously he would fold. So when he calls, he wasn't bluffing, he has a good hand, just check/fold. Nope, I decide to throw away the rest of my chips.
I ended up losing $550 yesterday. $200 of it was on that last stupid blind hand (and by blind I mean not looking at my cards, lol). $80 was on the hand where I decided to be a hero against that lady with K-K, and about $120 was when I had a flush draw. Overall not good.
Even playing blind wasn't that terrible of an idea. I thought last night, that was so stupid. But it wasn't that bad. Just was bad that I completely ignored the extremely obvious warning signs and decided to throw $200 away. Should I be playing blind all the time, no. Obviously. But it was actually going fine until I decided to throw away anything smart about what I was doing by raising/reraising a guy who clearly had a good hand.
Sigh. I'm on a huge downswing right now. Probably over $3k down. I wish I could post a picture of this graph. It's awful. Looks like a mountain. I was doing so well for a minute, now I'm in free fall mode.
The good news - I'm still in action. I have about $5k in my bankroll, so I have plenty of time to come back. That's probably the best thing, just to make sure that I can keep playing. I'm going to take a little time off. I don't know if it will be a week or two weeks, but it won't be much longer than that. I just need to calm down, make peace with the idea that I'm down right now, and start crawling back. Poker just happens in waves. I had a huge upswing earlier, and now I'm in a downswing. And I'm making the downswing worse by playing bad. So I just need to ride it out, play well, and eventually I'll be the guy on the other side, hitting huge hands and getting maximum value out of them.
Last night I went up to the Wynn to play some 1/3 NL. Bought in for $500. The day started out fine.
Hand 1: Guy in middle position raises to 15. Someone calls, and I call from the blind with A-Q. I already don't love it. We see the flop 4 ways. Flop is A-10-7 with 2 clubs. Checks to the preflop raiser and he bets $25. Guy calls the $25 and I call. Now the other guy in the pot raises to 133 total. I fold.
Had some disappointing hands. For example :
Hand #2 : Limp with 9-6 offsuit on the button. 4 people see the flop - 10-8-7. Guy in the blind bets out $15 (little more than the pot). Folds to me, I make it $40. Fold. Damn. I figured raising was fine because I wasn't using any of the cards on the flop. If he had a set, or an overpair, or even a 9, I figured I could pretty easily get called there. Just bad luck he didn't have anything really good.
Hand #3: Raise with 5-5, Flop a set on a A-10-5 board. Bet 10 into 2 people, 1 call. Turn Q. Check to me, 22, fold. :P
Hand #4 : This one basically started the downfall for me the rest of the night. I raise with A-10 suited to 11. 1 caller, and an old guy limp-reraises me to 28. Fucking annoying. I call, and the other guy calls. Flop comes Q-x-x with 2 of my suit. He bets 25, I call, the other guy calls. Turn is a blank. First guy checks. Preflop raiser bets $70. I call. Probably should just fold here. He has $200 more behind, but when the flush gets there he's almost certainly going to check. I'm getting 3:1 on my money and need closer to 4:1 (little better than that) to call. If you factor in the implied odds I guess it's fine, but whatever. I need to make like $100 on the river to break even. Also I thought the other guy might call, even with a worse flush draw, which would have been great for me. Of course he didn't call. River brick, he bets $100, I fold. Sigh. Another flush draw missed.
After this point, my brain just kinda broke. I don't know what happened. I bought in for another $200. On that last hand, I shouldn't really even be that upset about it. Pretty standard really. The call on the turn, maybe I could have folded, but it's not THAT bad.
I straddle for $6 and this girl min-raise opens on the button. 2 calls and I call with 5-3 offsuit. Not great. Flop is 10-6-5. Check to her, she bets 28, I call. Turn is a 6. Check, she bets $40, call. River, check check. She has K-K.
OK, that was stupid. Call the flop, fine. Not good, but let's say it's fine for some reason. Once she fires the turn, give up! Also, she's a girl. Just fucking check/fold the flop. Sigh. That hand made me pretty upset, just because it was so obviously stupid.
Now I'm frustrated and I get the brilliant idea that I'm going to - wait for it - play my hands blind for a while. HAHA! Yes, you read this correctly.
A long time ago, I read about Annette Obrestad playing poker online, blind, and being able to win just by playing position and paying attention to good spots to bet/bluff, etc. I think this is an article about it too. So I think it's a good idea to pick this time to do the same thing.
It actually started out OK. And it was fun. I didn't look at my cards unless I was going to fold (in case I accidentally had a monster - spoiler alert, never happened). Few hands where I did this:
2 people limp and I make it 12. Get 2 callers including one guy behind me. Flop is A-4-3 with 2 diamonds. I see the guy behind me glance at his chips and I decide to check after the first guy checks. It checks around. Turn is a diamond. First guy checks, I bet 22, both fold.
2 people limp, I make it 15. I felt 15 was better than 12 because people were calling 12 too much, and both of them folded.
One limper, I raise to 8. 2 callers. Flop is K-6-2. First guy checks, I bet $16, 1 fold and the guy that checked calls. Turn is a 10. He checks, I bet 35, he folds.
It actually was going pretty well. I lost some hands, but overall I was about even. And one of the hands I lost was when I was going to fold, looked down at A-K suited and ended up losing about 40 bucks in the hand. So as far as just playing blind, I think I did pretty well.
Until this hand. I raise to 8 in late position. This old guy reraises to 28. I obviously should fold most of the time an old guy raises me, but I think I've seen this guy before and he plays a little aggressive sometimes. REGARDLESS, I should still have folded. He was playing tight today and who knows, I might not even be remembering the guy right. Regardless, I decide to reraise to 70. He calls. OK, red flags should be going off at this point. Flop comes out J-5-5. He checks, I bet all-in, and he calls for 110. So retarded. If he put 70 in preflop, there is already 140 in the pot. Even if he had A-K he might call just because the pot is so big. Fucking retarded. I look down for the first time and see A-8 suited. I miss, he turns up Q-Q on the river, and I lose $200 for no reason at all.
If I'm going to play like that, I should at least FOLD WHEN OLD GUYS RERAISE ME!!! WTF????? And at least check it down after the flop. Even when I reraised preflop, I was thinking this is my one shot, if I get called I'm done. Because I thought (even though it was stupid) that this guy could be reraising me light. If that was the case obviously he would fold. So when he calls, he wasn't bluffing, he has a good hand, just check/fold. Nope, I decide to throw away the rest of my chips.
I ended up losing $550 yesterday. $200 of it was on that last stupid blind hand (and by blind I mean not looking at my cards, lol). $80 was on the hand where I decided to be a hero against that lady with K-K, and about $120 was when I had a flush draw. Overall not good.
Even playing blind wasn't that terrible of an idea. I thought last night, that was so stupid. But it wasn't that bad. Just was bad that I completely ignored the extremely obvious warning signs and decided to throw $200 away. Should I be playing blind all the time, no. Obviously. But it was actually going fine until I decided to throw away anything smart about what I was doing by raising/reraising a guy who clearly had a good hand.
Sigh. I'm on a huge downswing right now. Probably over $3k down. I wish I could post a picture of this graph. It's awful. Looks like a mountain. I was doing so well for a minute, now I'm in free fall mode.
The good news - I'm still in action. I have about $5k in my bankroll, so I have plenty of time to come back. That's probably the best thing, just to make sure that I can keep playing. I'm going to take a little time off. I don't know if it will be a week or two weeks, but it won't be much longer than that. I just need to calm down, make peace with the idea that I'm down right now, and start crawling back. Poker just happens in waves. I had a huge upswing earlier, and now I'm in a downswing. And I'm making the downswing worse by playing bad. So I just need to ride it out, play well, and eventually I'll be the guy on the other side, hitting huge hands and getting maximum value out of them.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Home games
Played a couple home game tournaments over the last two days. Just friendly type of games with people from work or other people we know. Super low stakes. Overall ended up losing money, although I did cash in two of the tournaments.
Played on Thursday with some people from work. Played a $20 tournament with rebuys for the first hour. Wound up buying in twice and taking 3rd place (out of like 8 people) for 20 bucks. No interesting hands to report really. I tripled up with pocket aces on one hand, and ended up going out when we were 3 handed and I pushed all in preflop with A-5 and got called by the big stack who limped in with Q-Q.
On Friday I was excited because we were going to this guy's house to play in a $100 tournament, which is pretty big for a home game tournament with the people I know. And I know all of the people there would be morons. I was half right, the people there were terrible at poker. Unfortunately when I got there, $100 turned into $20. So I ended up playing two $20 tournaments. In the first tournament, I got heads up with a guy with a massive chip lead, got back to almost even, then took a few beats and got back down pretty low and ended up chopping.
I probably made a bad deal really. The payouts were $120/$40 and I ended up taking $55 and giving him $105. He had probably a 5:1 chip lead on me (not sure though). At the time I thought it was decent, but now that I'm thinking about it I'm taking $15 to give up a chance to win $80. I could have doubled up and have been around a 2:1 dog. When you take into consideration that this guy has no idea how to play poker, I guess it probably would have made sense to just gamble and try to win it.
I generally don't like making deals, but I've been listening to a bunch of podcasts where they talk about making deals and how you can get a bunch of added value by taking deals in the right spots. Especially when you get down to the late stages of a tournament or satellite when a ton of luck is involved and people are all in a lot, if you can get some extra value out of it by making a deal then it's a good idea. That's what I was trying to do here but I think I messed up. Not a huge deal obviously, there was like no money involved in this tournament.
Then I played another tournament, got all in preflop with AKs against KK (who had me covered) and A7, and did not hit my 2 outer or flush. Weak. I spent the rest of the night dealing that tournament which was pretty brutal. Some drunk woman was playing and refused to understand what the chip denominations meant, so literally every hand I had to be like "if you want to call put out 2 black and 2 grey chips", it was very frustrating.
Afterward they were going to play a NL cash game. It probably would have been the juiciest cash game that I have ever played in, but my wife wanted to leave and honestly I didn't really want to play either. The reason being, nobody has any idea how to run a poker game there at all. In the tournament, who cares because it's super low stakes. In the NL game they were going to play 25/50c blinds and a $20-$200 buyin. They would have played with the same chips that were in use in the tournament. The table itself was shaky and people were dropping chips all over the floor. So if someone dropped a red chip on the floor during the tournament, I guarantee nobody would have picked them all up. In fact I 100% know I dropped one I never got back. So what, is that now going to be used as a $5 cash chip? My concern is that everyone puts their money in, some people cash out and get their money, and at the end of the night people fuck up the money and they are short. And I know the guy who has the house is not going to just make up the difference. It would just be like, oh, thats weird, sorry we don't know what the fuck we are doing. I'm willing to deal with that in a stupid tournament but not a cash game where I could potentially lose a ton of money just because nobody is paying attention or knows how to run a cash game. And if some decision needed to be made obviously I have zero confidence the right call would be made. Like if a card was shown early, or string bets, etc.
So I lost $20 on Thursday and won $15 yesterday. Not extremely lucrative poker, and honestly not that fun either. Hopefully I get back to the cash game tables soon.
Played on Thursday with some people from work. Played a $20 tournament with rebuys for the first hour. Wound up buying in twice and taking 3rd place (out of like 8 people) for 20 bucks. No interesting hands to report really. I tripled up with pocket aces on one hand, and ended up going out when we were 3 handed and I pushed all in preflop with A-5 and got called by the big stack who limped in with Q-Q.
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| Friday home game |
I probably made a bad deal really. The payouts were $120/$40 and I ended up taking $55 and giving him $105. He had probably a 5:1 chip lead on me (not sure though). At the time I thought it was decent, but now that I'm thinking about it I'm taking $15 to give up a chance to win $80. I could have doubled up and have been around a 2:1 dog. When you take into consideration that this guy has no idea how to play poker, I guess it probably would have made sense to just gamble and try to win it.
I generally don't like making deals, but I've been listening to a bunch of podcasts where they talk about making deals and how you can get a bunch of added value by taking deals in the right spots. Especially when you get down to the late stages of a tournament or satellite when a ton of luck is involved and people are all in a lot, if you can get some extra value out of it by making a deal then it's a good idea. That's what I was trying to do here but I think I messed up. Not a huge deal obviously, there was like no money involved in this tournament.
Then I played another tournament, got all in preflop with AKs against KK (who had me covered) and A7, and did not hit my 2 outer or flush. Weak. I spent the rest of the night dealing that tournament which was pretty brutal. Some drunk woman was playing and refused to understand what the chip denominations meant, so literally every hand I had to be like "if you want to call put out 2 black and 2 grey chips", it was very frustrating.
Afterward they were going to play a NL cash game. It probably would have been the juiciest cash game that I have ever played in, but my wife wanted to leave and honestly I didn't really want to play either. The reason being, nobody has any idea how to run a poker game there at all. In the tournament, who cares because it's super low stakes. In the NL game they were going to play 25/50c blinds and a $20-$200 buyin. They would have played with the same chips that were in use in the tournament. The table itself was shaky and people were dropping chips all over the floor. So if someone dropped a red chip on the floor during the tournament, I guarantee nobody would have picked them all up. In fact I 100% know I dropped one I never got back. So what, is that now going to be used as a $5 cash chip? My concern is that everyone puts their money in, some people cash out and get their money, and at the end of the night people fuck up the money and they are short. And I know the guy who has the house is not going to just make up the difference. It would just be like, oh, thats weird, sorry we don't know what the fuck we are doing. I'm willing to deal with that in a stupid tournament but not a cash game where I could potentially lose a ton of money just because nobody is paying attention or knows how to run a cash game. And if some decision needed to be made obviously I have zero confidence the right call would be made. Like if a card was shown early, or string bets, etc.
So I lost $20 on Thursday and won $15 yesterday. Not extremely lucrative poker, and honestly not that fun either. Hopefully I get back to the cash game tables soon.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Crawling back
Played last night at Red Rock. $1/$2 NL. I just tried to focus on tightening up a bit and playing well, and picking my spots a little more selectively than in the past.
Hand #1: Someone min-raises to $4, I call with T-8 suited along with 5 other people. The flop is A-Q-4 with 2 of my suit. I'm in late position (1 person behind me). Checks to me, I check, last guy checks. The turn is a blank and the blind bets $16. I call, everyone else folds. River is another blank. He checks. I thought about betting but decided to check, and he had Q-4 for a flopped two pair. Kind of a big bet to call on the turn (only getting like 2.5:1 on the call if you factor in the rake). Probably wasn't worth it, but it's not THAT bad either. I'd only have to make like $30 on the river to make it worth it if I hit.
Hand #2: I have A-A and raise to $7 under the gun. 3 callers (2 from the blinds). Flop is 9-4-2 with 2 hearts. It checks to me, I bet $12, one guy in the blinds calls me. The turn is the 5 of hearts. He checks, I bet $23, he calls. I thought I had the ace of hearts, but I wasn't 100% sure. So I had to check and yes, I did have it. River is money, the queen of hearts. He checks, I bet $45. He calls with the J-2 of hearts, so I drew out on him. Feels good. :-)
I was trying to be more selective with my c-bets as well. In the past I've been betting 100% of boards (more or less), but now I'm not betting the scarier boards. When it comes like Q-J-x with 2 of a suit, I'm just not even betting. So many hands can hit that board with a pair or a draw, I just don't even think it's worth it. I'm talking multiway pots. Heads up it's a little different for sure, but most pots are multiway especially at 1/2. I don't want to swing too far in the wrong direction where I raise and if I miss, I just check all the time. But I do think I am probably throwing money away by betting the worst boards.
Hand #3 : Pretty fun one. I had been playing really tight but decided to get out of line a bit and raise to $6 with T-8 suited in early position. 3 callers. Flop comes A-7-4. I just check, it checks around. Turn is a 5, great card giving me the straight draw. Checks to me, I bet $10, get 1 caller. River is the magic 9. Now the lone caller from the blind bets out $15 into me. I raise to $65, he calls with an 8. $65 was already a really big bet, but I'm wondering if I could have done something like bet $100. Probably. And if I am raising to $65, I don't think there's anything he's going to call me with that isn't an 8. So if I thought about that a bit, maybe I could have gotten more money there. Maybe even just ship it all in. Which would have been a sick overbet, we both had $300. But it could have worked. Definitely $100 would have worked. Then again, I guess he knows that he's calling to chop, so maybe even $100 could not have worked. I'm overall happy with that one.
Hand #4: Just solid play. Bunch of calls and I'm in the small blind with two red kings. I raise to $15, get 3 callers. Flop comes J-4-4. I bet $35, they all fold. I think here you could make an argument for checking really. Check flop, bet turn, or check-raise if someone has A-J or whatever. I'm way ahead and even if someone has a jack, they can't catch 2 pair. So I really could check there a lot of the time, make it look like I have A-K, and maybe get a lot more calls on the turn when a blank rolls off. Probably would have been the best play there because the board was so good for me.
Overall I ended up winning exactly $100. I'll take it. I've been struggling lately, and even yesterday I didn't get a ton of great hands. It felt good to play solid and come out a winner.
Hand #1: Someone min-raises to $4, I call with T-8 suited along with 5 other people. The flop is A-Q-4 with 2 of my suit. I'm in late position (1 person behind me). Checks to me, I check, last guy checks. The turn is a blank and the blind bets $16. I call, everyone else folds. River is another blank. He checks. I thought about betting but decided to check, and he had Q-4 for a flopped two pair. Kind of a big bet to call on the turn (only getting like 2.5:1 on the call if you factor in the rake). Probably wasn't worth it, but it's not THAT bad either. I'd only have to make like $30 on the river to make it worth it if I hit.
Hand #2: I have A-A and raise to $7 under the gun. 3 callers (2 from the blinds). Flop is 9-4-2 with 2 hearts. It checks to me, I bet $12, one guy in the blinds calls me. The turn is the 5 of hearts. He checks, I bet $23, he calls. I thought I had the ace of hearts, but I wasn't 100% sure. So I had to check and yes, I did have it. River is money, the queen of hearts. He checks, I bet $45. He calls with the J-2 of hearts, so I drew out on him. Feels good. :-)
I was trying to be more selective with my c-bets as well. In the past I've been betting 100% of boards (more or less), but now I'm not betting the scarier boards. When it comes like Q-J-x with 2 of a suit, I'm just not even betting. So many hands can hit that board with a pair or a draw, I just don't even think it's worth it. I'm talking multiway pots. Heads up it's a little different for sure, but most pots are multiway especially at 1/2. I don't want to swing too far in the wrong direction where I raise and if I miss, I just check all the time. But I do think I am probably throwing money away by betting the worst boards.
Hand #3 : Pretty fun one. I had been playing really tight but decided to get out of line a bit and raise to $6 with T-8 suited in early position. 3 callers. Flop comes A-7-4. I just check, it checks around. Turn is a 5, great card giving me the straight draw. Checks to me, I bet $10, get 1 caller. River is the magic 9. Now the lone caller from the blind bets out $15 into me. I raise to $65, he calls with an 8. $65 was already a really big bet, but I'm wondering if I could have done something like bet $100. Probably. And if I am raising to $65, I don't think there's anything he's going to call me with that isn't an 8. So if I thought about that a bit, maybe I could have gotten more money there. Maybe even just ship it all in. Which would have been a sick overbet, we both had $300. But it could have worked. Definitely $100 would have worked. Then again, I guess he knows that he's calling to chop, so maybe even $100 could not have worked. I'm overall happy with that one.
Hand #4: Just solid play. Bunch of calls and I'm in the small blind with two red kings. I raise to $15, get 3 callers. Flop comes J-4-4. I bet $35, they all fold. I think here you could make an argument for checking really. Check flop, bet turn, or check-raise if someone has A-J or whatever. I'm way ahead and even if someone has a jack, they can't catch 2 pair. So I really could check there a lot of the time, make it look like I have A-K, and maybe get a lot more calls on the turn when a blank rolls off. Probably would have been the best play there because the board was so good for me.
Overall I ended up winning exactly $100. I'll take it. I've been struggling lately, and even yesterday I didn't get a ton of great hands. It felt good to play solid and come out a winner.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Drop down to 1/2-1/3?
The free fall continues. I played last night at Red Rock ($2/$5 NL) and it was absolutely brutal. I dropped $750 in what I believe was 2.5 hours. I feel like I played OK, but the one big call I made was maybe really bad. I don't know. Either way, here were some of the hands.
Guy raises to $20 in early position. Another guy calls. I reraise to $60 with AKs. They both fold. Yay. :-)
Lady raises to $25 in early position. I reraise to $60 with A-K offsuit. Guy cold calls. Lady reraises to $160. I fold. She ends up showing A-A.
I open to 15 with A-K offsuit on the button. The two blinds call, including the A-A lady from the other hand.
Call $10 with 4-4 in early position (someone straddled). Guy raises it $35 more, I call and another person calls. Flop is T-9-3, I check/fold.
This one was a tough one. I limp on the button with 7-7 after one or two others limped. I have been raising this lately but I decided to just limp. In fact lately I've been essentially raising any pair from any position. I figure I should cut back on that, but I don't know if this is the right time to cut back. I don't think my decision affected this hand at all, but anyway, here's the rest of the hand.
Flop comes out T-5-3 with a flush draw. Limper bets out $15, I call. Turn is the magic card, offsuit 7. He checks. I bet $40. Now he check-raises me to $130.
I felt like that was weird. Like if he had the straight, why wouldn't he just bet it? He already bet the flop. I just wasn't sure. So I called.
River was a 4. He bets $260.
At this point, I probably should have just folded. However, here's what I was thinking. That was a very scary card. Good bluffing card. I didn't really think that card could have improved his hand. He either turned the straight (bet with 4-6 on the flop, hit) or he is continuing a bluff. The flush didn't get there. The only other good straight draw could have been 6-8 (turn the double gutter) and although I wasn't thinking about that one at all at the time, it wouldn't make a ton of sense because he would have just had to bet $15 with total air on the flop with that. But like I said I didn't really consider that. So eventually I felt like since I felt his betting line was weird on the turn, I didn't think this card (although scary) was good enough to make me fold, and he could easily be bluffing here. Also although I don't know how much weight I should put into it, but he was not moving at all and I didn't get a super confident feel from him or anything. So I called.
He had 5-6. Bet the flop with middle pair, picked up a gutshot on the turn and decided to check-raise for whatever reason, and hit the straight on the river. Damn it.
I pick up 10-10 in the blind. There was a button straddle. Girl (who is pretty terrible and loose) raises to 40. I reraise to 105. She calls. Flop comes out 9-8-x. I bet $100. She calls. Turn is a jack. At this point I have $300 left and there is $400 in the pot. I didn't really know what to do, but since I picked up the draw I figured I wasn't going to be in that bad of shape, so I just pushed for $300. She thought about it for a bit, said something like the jack was a bad card and she thinks I might have turned a set, and she folded. She was trying to make it sound like she folded an overpair, but I seriously doubt it.
Finally, guy raises to $25, another guy calls, and I reraise to $60 with K-K. They both call. Flop is 10-9-x. Checks to me, I bet $130. Original raiser folds. Next guy goes all-in for a min-raise. I call obviously. He flopped a set of 10s. I said "nice hand" and he said "yeah, it was", which just pissed me off even more. I followed him to his vehicle later that night and strangled him to death with his own shoelaces and took my money back, which felt great. I also used his library card to rent several books that I have no intention of returning.
So that was my night. Lost $750. I think I'm going to drop down to $1/$3 at Wynn for a while, still a decently big game compared to like Red Rock 1/2, and hopefully it can get my bankroll and confidence back up a bit.
Guy raises to $20 in early position. Another guy calls. I reraise to $60 with AKs. They both fold. Yay. :-)
Lady raises to $25 in early position. I reraise to $60 with A-K offsuit. Guy cold calls. Lady reraises to $160. I fold. She ends up showing A-A.
I open to 15 with A-K offsuit on the button. The two blinds call, including the A-A lady from the other hand.
Call $10 with 4-4 in early position (someone straddled). Guy raises it $35 more, I call and another person calls. Flop is T-9-3, I check/fold.
This one was a tough one. I limp on the button with 7-7 after one or two others limped. I have been raising this lately but I decided to just limp. In fact lately I've been essentially raising any pair from any position. I figure I should cut back on that, but I don't know if this is the right time to cut back. I don't think my decision affected this hand at all, but anyway, here's the rest of the hand.
Flop comes out T-5-3 with a flush draw. Limper bets out $15, I call. Turn is the magic card, offsuit 7. He checks. I bet $40. Now he check-raises me to $130.
I felt like that was weird. Like if he had the straight, why wouldn't he just bet it? He already bet the flop. I just wasn't sure. So I called.
River was a 4. He bets $260.
At this point, I probably should have just folded. However, here's what I was thinking. That was a very scary card. Good bluffing card. I didn't really think that card could have improved his hand. He either turned the straight (bet with 4-6 on the flop, hit) or he is continuing a bluff. The flush didn't get there. The only other good straight draw could have been 6-8 (turn the double gutter) and although I wasn't thinking about that one at all at the time, it wouldn't make a ton of sense because he would have just had to bet $15 with total air on the flop with that. But like I said I didn't really consider that. So eventually I felt like since I felt his betting line was weird on the turn, I didn't think this card (although scary) was good enough to make me fold, and he could easily be bluffing here. Also although I don't know how much weight I should put into it, but he was not moving at all and I didn't get a super confident feel from him or anything. So I called.
He had 5-6. Bet the flop with middle pair, picked up a gutshot on the turn and decided to check-raise for whatever reason, and hit the straight on the river. Damn it.
I pick up 10-10 in the blind. There was a button straddle. Girl (who is pretty terrible and loose) raises to 40. I reraise to 105. She calls. Flop comes out 9-8-x. I bet $100. She calls. Turn is a jack. At this point I have $300 left and there is $400 in the pot. I didn't really know what to do, but since I picked up the draw I figured I wasn't going to be in that bad of shape, so I just pushed for $300. She thought about it for a bit, said something like the jack was a bad card and she thinks I might have turned a set, and she folded. She was trying to make it sound like she folded an overpair, but I seriously doubt it.
Finally, guy raises to $25, another guy calls, and I reraise to $60 with K-K. They both call. Flop is 10-9-x. Checks to me, I bet $130. Original raiser folds. Next guy goes all-in for a min-raise. I call obviously. He flopped a set of 10s. I said "nice hand" and he said "yeah, it was", which just pissed me off even more. I followed him to his vehicle later that night and strangled him to death with his own shoelaces and took my money back, which felt great. I also used his library card to rent several books that I have no intention of returning.
So that was my night. Lost $750. I think I'm going to drop down to $1/$3 at Wynn for a while, still a decently big game compared to like Red Rock 1/2, and hopefully it can get my bankroll and confidence back up a bit.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Thin value bets
I went up to Red Rock with my wife last night and played 1/2 NL. I think overall I played really well, made some decent thin value bets, and overall I'm pretty happy with my play.
Here are some hands that went down last night.
Limp with J-9 offsuit after some others limped. Flop comes out 9-8-4. Guy to my right bets 15 (about a pot sized bet). I raised to 30. I actually meant to make it 35 but messed up. He called. Turn came a queen. He checked. I bet 22, he called. River is a jack, giving me 2 pair but putting the 1 card straight out there. He checked again. I bet 30. He called. He had Q-8. :P
I thought I played that hand fine, and I thought my bets were pretty good. Flop raise, fine, although I could have made it more. I wanted to isolate and didn't want to get in too much trouble by putting too big of a raise in. On the turn I was more than willing to fold to a raise, like if he had J-T, but he didn't raise. On the end I make 2 pair. I was planning on checking behind if I didn't improve, but since I made 2 pair I thought it was reasonable to put another small bet out there and get value from something like A-8, A-9, whatever. Of course, he turned 2 pair and I hit the only 3 outer I had to lose additional money.
Hand 2 : Guy raises to 7 in early position. I call with 2 red queens. We see the flop 5 handed. Flop is A-8-5. It checks around. Turn is a blank. Checks to me, I bet 9, get 2 callers. River is another 5. Checks to me, I bet 16, get 1 caller. Queens are good. I was pretty happy with this one. Pretty much every other person playing 1/2 there would just check it down I'm sure, and certainly would shut down after getting called on the turn. So I got a little extra value there.
Hand 3 : I raise to 7 with K-K, get 3 callers. Flop is J-10-3. I bet 21, get 1 caller. Turn is a queen, giving me the straight draw. I'm out of position and don't love it, but I still want to get value where I can so I bet 30. I'm going to fold to any raise. Girl calls me again. River is a 5. I bet 35, she calls. I turn up my K-K expecting it's good, she turns up a set of 3s. :P
Then just a couple annoying hands. I have 9-9 in the blind and raise it 7 more after a bunch of people limp. Flop comes 10-7-x. I bet out 20. This lady down the table raises me 20 more. I fold. She is all like "I just wanted to see where you were at". LOL, give me a break. Preflop she was also saying something like I was raising a lot, and do I really have it every time, etc. Which made me want to call more on the flop. At that point, I thought she might be raising me somewhat light but I just figured I'd let her have this one and if she kept doing it, I'd be more willing to keep her honest later. However as the night progressed I think that was literally the only pot she played. So I was pretty happy with myself, not getting sucked into her obvious BS talk. Preflop she probably even had me beat, who knows. I'm really really happy I didn't put an extra dime in on that pot.
Then the always annoying hand where I'm in the big blind with J-J and make it 11, early position limper girl (previously had the set of 3s) now raises it to 32 and just so obviously has a super strong hand. She's like "I have to raise" and double-checks her cards before putting the raise out. I know she has me beat, and she only has like $160 more. I'm getting 2:1 on my call, and she has about 8 times the size of the raise in her stack, but I know I'm going to have to hit a set to win so I just fold. I figure it's a good play especially since I'm not going to know if she has A-A or K-K or whatever (maybe Q-Q?) so it's going to be hard to play even if I do hit a set. I'll just blindly stack off if she flopped set over set. So I fold and she shows me A-A.
Basically just another super annoying night of poker. I'm losing a ton lately and it's extremely frustrating. I think I played really well yesterday. I made some great value bets in my opinion, although if anyone reading this thinks otherwise feel free to post. The J-9 and K-K hands were just sort of unlucky I think, I feel like I could have gotten called by a bunch of weaker hands there and my bets were good. Then the other hands were just annoying to lose.
I ended up losing about $190 over 2.3 hours. I'm trying to stay positive and play my best. I think I played really well yesterday so that is a good feeling, but losing doesn't feel good. I'm on about a $1700 downswing right now and it feels shitty. It's crazy too, a lot of that has been playing 1/2. Some of it has been bad play, but I haven't been getting much luck either I think.
Going to play again tonight, but I'm definitely feeling beat down after these losses. Staying positive! :-) I know I can turn it around and I'm playing fine, especially when I'm really concentrating and focusing on playing my best.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Orleans
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| Orleans Poker Room |
There was a lot of limping that caused a lot of multiway pots. More players than I'm used to, like you'd routinely get in pots with 6+ people seeing the flop. It made for some weird spots. For example in one hand early on Friday I limped with 9-9 from early position. About 6 people saw the flop and it came out J-8-6 with 2 clubs. Guy bets out 10, 2 people call, I call. Next guy goes all-in for 22. Everyone calls.
My call closed out the action, so I guess I had some options there. I could have raised, but I had more of a showdown value hand than anything else. At the same time, the pot is big and there are a ton of potential draws and overcards that can hit, so there are a ton of scare cards that can get me off of my hand if I do have the best hand. Since I have no way to get the all-in guy out though, I don't think just calling was that bad.
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| Called himself a "famous poker player" lol |
Another interesting hand came up when I had 7-2 in the blind and checked. Flop came 4-5-6. There were 3 people in. I bet out 6. Next guy called, and the final guy made it 15. I called, as did the other guy. Turn came the 8. I bet out like $15 or $20. I guess this isn't really the best move necessarily because it turns my hand face-up, but whatever. Next guy calls. Now the flop raiser raises huge, to $100.
He had about $300 total. I think he at least has the 7 100% of the time, so I'm basically looking to chop at best. Of course, he could have the 7-9 in which case I would be stacking off with an extremely low chance to chop. I decided to fold. He showed the 7-8, so he flopped the straight. Would have chopped, but my decision was 100% right to fold since chopping was my very best option there.
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| This dealer would not shut up |
Now the guy betting all the way checks. The guy in the middle checks too. I thought the first guy might have had a strong hand, but now that he checks I don't think he's that strong. Although, I guess he could still have something like A-J and just be taking a really passive line here as many live players will tend to do. The guy in the middle I basically put on a draw and am not worried about at all. So I figured that I might be able to take this down by betting. I bet out $75.
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| Nice hair bro |
I had a couple decent hands over the weekend, like when I flopped a set and busted a guy, and another when I got all-in against a short stack with a draw and hit. But I had some other bad hands too. I flop a straight with 10-9 on a K-Q-J board, guy had K-J and turns a jack. Flop top two with K-J, other guy calls down with K-Q and rivers a Q. Have A-K with the ace of spades, flop comes K high with 3 spades, get it in on the turn against a small flush and don't draw out ($400+ pot).
Overall I played 9 hours over 2 sessions at the Orleans this weekend and ended up losing $700. A pretty big loss at 1/2. It was frustrating for sure. Didn't play any yesterday, but I'm going out tonight. I'm just going to tighten up a bit, think more, and play my very best.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Mandalay Bay 1/2 NL
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| Mandalay Bay 1/2 |
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| Guy that doubled me up |
The rest of the night, not very exciting. The players here were awful. Overall somewhat tight, and just idiots. This one guy raised with a small ace out of the blind one hand, flopped trip aces, and folded when he bet out and some guy raised all-in for like $100 or less. And then that guy showed a flush and straight draw. IMO that is retarded to just fold trips there. Even if you have a small kicker, the board was A-A-J. The kicker won't even play a lot of the time. Just stupid.
Gotta run! I'll post more after playing this weekend. Might not play a ton, maybe on Sunday though.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Red Rock Wednesday
Played some 2/5 last night at the Rock. Didn't go all that well, but it could have been worse. I made plenty of mistakes. Some were freaking terrible, honestly.
I started out in the must move game, which was 4 handed. In one hand, it folded to me in the small blind with AKs and raised to 15. The big blind called. Flop was J-10-8. I bet 20. He raised to 55. I called. Turn was an ace. I checked, he checked. River was a 7. I bet $60. He says, "Do you have K-Q?" and called. I flip up my A-K, he has J-9 for the straight. :P A queen would have been a nice card on the turn. Oh well.
In that hand, I called the flop bet just because it's 4 handed. I figure I have 2 overs and a gutshot, and it's 4 handed, so I call. Is that a good idea, I don't know. I think I can probably tighten up a bit in these spots until I know that someone is CONSTANTLY raising me out of pots and might be raising me light. I had no reason to think this guy was raising me light here. And as far as odds, there was 30 + 40 + 35 = 105 in the pot and I had to call 35. So I'm getting exactly 3:1 odds. If I think all of my outs are good I have 10 outs, so I'm getting 4:1 odds and with implied odds I'm definitely cool to call there.
And of course, BET THE TURN. OMG. What a huge mistake. Sure, I would have gotten called and lost a much bigger pot, but still. Bet the turn. Bet/fold.
Actually, that's something that I have messed up a couple times lately. Where I know I'm behind, and when the next card gives me a very good but non-nut hand, I don't bet out. I just check/call. This happened to me at Bellagio the other week. I had A-K and I was out of position, flopped an ace, and I was worried the guy had a better hand so I think I just called a bet on the turn. Then on the river a king came off, giving me top two. I should have bet/folded the river, but I checked and it went check-check. This is another similar situation, I probably turned the best hand and I gave him a free card.
Then I ran another bluff that didn't work. This one was one where I just went with my read, but my read was bad. So I don't really blame myself too much for this one. We were 3 handed and I raised with K-7 of diamonds. Guy called me out of the blind. Flop came Q-8-8 with 1 diamond. He checked to me and I bet 30. He check-raised 60 more. I thought about it and I didn't think he looked very strong. So I ended up raising him 125 more on top of that. He went all-in, I folded. Maybe it was a bit spewy for sure, as I had no draw and I was just raising him because I thought he looked weak. But really, the guy check-raised me on the flop, what do I think, he's check-raise bluffing me? Pretty unlikely. Especially with zero draws out there. So I'm not super upset about it, but I could have picked a better spot. Sure, if he had like 4-4 he would have folded. Or maybe 10-10. But whatever, just a bad move.
Then, I had some really big hands that I got ZERO money on. It was pretty frustrating.
This one is so bad I don't even want to write about it. I was at the main game and raised under the gun to $15 with 10-9 diamonds. 3 callers. I had been playing a ton of pots and went up and down a lot so I felt like I looked like I was playing pretty reckless. Flop comes just sick. 3 10s. I flop quads. I bet $20. 3 folds. ARRRGHHHHHHHHH
Was this bad, I don't know. I figure I'm going to cbet there a ton of the time anyway, and since I had been playing SO many hands before that, it was reasonable to bet out. But realistically I guess I should have just checked, hope an ace peels off on the turn. And if I was in position, maybe that's a better place to bet small. But I did raise under the gun, and now I'm betting out, so an overpair has to be in peoples' minds. Or at least a pair. I mean, I'm sure nobody had a pair there or they would have called me. Maybe I couldn't have gotten much more, but it was pretty frustrating to let that one slip away.
Then in another hand (against same guy I ran the bluff against) I called a raise out of the blind with 9-9. Flop came 9-4-3. There were 4 people in. I checked, next guy checks, he bet $55. Next guy folds, and I check-raised to $160. He folded. I thought this was OK because I had been playing pretty aggressive and had that big hand against him earlier, so I thought he might call. But realistically I look super strong there especially with multiple people in the pot. I should have either lead out on the flop or probably better, just call the flop and lead the turn for $75 or $100. Oh well though. That sucked.
Another one where I fucked up a bit - I was going crazy and I raised with 4-2 suited. Really bad timing too because I literally just raised the last 4 hands. As I was putting the chips out I was like "this is a bad idea" in my head, but I did it. Whatever. Flop came literally the only flop you are hoping for when raising with 4-2. It came A-5-3 with 2 hearts. Checked to me, I bet 25. One caller. Turn, offsuit 10. I bet $75, he calls. River, offsuit 6. I bet $225, he folds. My river bet was too big. Maybe he was just calling me with a flush draw, in which case it didn't matter. I was hoping since I was going so crazy in other pots that if he had A-10 or A-6 he would call the bet. But I probably could have been more successful if I bet like $130, then it might have been hard for him to fold any ace.
Last hand - another example of me putting too much in with a draw. I limp with 7-5 suited. Flop comes J-6-4. Checks to me, I bet 20. Guy calls, and this tight old guy makes it $60. Fine, I call. I don't even mind really because I have the draw and at least he probably has a strong hand. The other guy called too. Turn was a king. First guy checks, now the old guy bets $150. Sigh. I'm thinking about it and I'm putting him on a set. I was playing somewhat deep, probably started the hand with around $900 and he had me covered. So if I did hit the straight I felt like I could get paid huge. So I called. I was only getting like 2:1 I think. Let's say there was 25 in preflop, 180 on the flop, now 150. So I had to call 150 to win 355. 2.3:1 or so. For an open ender I have 8 outs, about 16% to win, so I need like 5:1. I figured it was worth it and called. River was a queen and he checked. I thought about betting but knew he was check-calling, so I checked. He had pocket aces. This actually sucked for me because I don't think I was getting the odds I needed at all to draw. He may have check-folded the river to a decent bet anyway. Not sure. If the river came a 3 and he bet, I think he would be hard pressed to not call my shove. And if he checked hopefully I would have bet like 300. If I bet like 400 or shoved he would have folded with A-A. Since I put him on a set I gave myself much better implied odds than what I actually had.
So I ended up losing $170 last night. Not the end of the world. I think I'm going to play some lower limit poker the next few days, I'll be hanging out with my wife and playing some 1/2 most likely. :-) Hopefully I can crush the game, I just need to ease up on the bluffing and value bet like crazy.
I started out in the must move game, which was 4 handed. In one hand, it folded to me in the small blind with AKs and raised to 15. The big blind called. Flop was J-10-8. I bet 20. He raised to 55. I called. Turn was an ace. I checked, he checked. River was a 7. I bet $60. He says, "Do you have K-Q?" and called. I flip up my A-K, he has J-9 for the straight. :P A queen would have been a nice card on the turn. Oh well.
In that hand, I called the flop bet just because it's 4 handed. I figure I have 2 overs and a gutshot, and it's 4 handed, so I call. Is that a good idea, I don't know. I think I can probably tighten up a bit in these spots until I know that someone is CONSTANTLY raising me out of pots and might be raising me light. I had no reason to think this guy was raising me light here. And as far as odds, there was 30 + 40 + 35 = 105 in the pot and I had to call 35. So I'm getting exactly 3:1 odds. If I think all of my outs are good I have 10 outs, so I'm getting 4:1 odds and with implied odds I'm definitely cool to call there.
And of course, BET THE TURN. OMG. What a huge mistake. Sure, I would have gotten called and lost a much bigger pot, but still. Bet the turn. Bet/fold.
Actually, that's something that I have messed up a couple times lately. Where I know I'm behind, and when the next card gives me a very good but non-nut hand, I don't bet out. I just check/call. This happened to me at Bellagio the other week. I had A-K and I was out of position, flopped an ace, and I was worried the guy had a better hand so I think I just called a bet on the turn. Then on the river a king came off, giving me top two. I should have bet/folded the river, but I checked and it went check-check. This is another similar situation, I probably turned the best hand and I gave him a free card.
Then I ran another bluff that didn't work. This one was one where I just went with my read, but my read was bad. So I don't really blame myself too much for this one. We were 3 handed and I raised with K-7 of diamonds. Guy called me out of the blind. Flop came Q-8-8 with 1 diamond. He checked to me and I bet 30. He check-raised 60 more. I thought about it and I didn't think he looked very strong. So I ended up raising him 125 more on top of that. He went all-in, I folded. Maybe it was a bit spewy for sure, as I had no draw and I was just raising him because I thought he looked weak. But really, the guy check-raised me on the flop, what do I think, he's check-raise bluffing me? Pretty unlikely. Especially with zero draws out there. So I'm not super upset about it, but I could have picked a better spot. Sure, if he had like 4-4 he would have folded. Or maybe 10-10. But whatever, just a bad move.
Then, I had some really big hands that I got ZERO money on. It was pretty frustrating.
This one is so bad I don't even want to write about it. I was at the main game and raised under the gun to $15 with 10-9 diamonds. 3 callers. I had been playing a ton of pots and went up and down a lot so I felt like I looked like I was playing pretty reckless. Flop comes just sick. 3 10s. I flop quads. I bet $20. 3 folds. ARRRGHHHHHHHHH
Was this bad, I don't know. I figure I'm going to cbet there a ton of the time anyway, and since I had been playing SO many hands before that, it was reasonable to bet out. But realistically I guess I should have just checked, hope an ace peels off on the turn. And if I was in position, maybe that's a better place to bet small. But I did raise under the gun, and now I'm betting out, so an overpair has to be in peoples' minds. Or at least a pair. I mean, I'm sure nobody had a pair there or they would have called me. Maybe I couldn't have gotten much more, but it was pretty frustrating to let that one slip away.
Then in another hand (against same guy I ran the bluff against) I called a raise out of the blind with 9-9. Flop came 9-4-3. There were 4 people in. I checked, next guy checks, he bet $55. Next guy folds, and I check-raised to $160. He folded. I thought this was OK because I had been playing pretty aggressive and had that big hand against him earlier, so I thought he might call. But realistically I look super strong there especially with multiple people in the pot. I should have either lead out on the flop or probably better, just call the flop and lead the turn for $75 or $100. Oh well though. That sucked.
Another one where I fucked up a bit - I was going crazy and I raised with 4-2 suited. Really bad timing too because I literally just raised the last 4 hands. As I was putting the chips out I was like "this is a bad idea" in my head, but I did it. Whatever. Flop came literally the only flop you are hoping for when raising with 4-2. It came A-5-3 with 2 hearts. Checked to me, I bet 25. One caller. Turn, offsuit 10. I bet $75, he calls. River, offsuit 6. I bet $225, he folds. My river bet was too big. Maybe he was just calling me with a flush draw, in which case it didn't matter. I was hoping since I was going so crazy in other pots that if he had A-10 or A-6 he would call the bet. But I probably could have been more successful if I bet like $130, then it might have been hard for him to fold any ace.
Last hand - another example of me putting too much in with a draw. I limp with 7-5 suited. Flop comes J-6-4. Checks to me, I bet 20. Guy calls, and this tight old guy makes it $60. Fine, I call. I don't even mind really because I have the draw and at least he probably has a strong hand. The other guy called too. Turn was a king. First guy checks, now the old guy bets $150. Sigh. I'm thinking about it and I'm putting him on a set. I was playing somewhat deep, probably started the hand with around $900 and he had me covered. So if I did hit the straight I felt like I could get paid huge. So I called. I was only getting like 2:1 I think. Let's say there was 25 in preflop, 180 on the flop, now 150. So I had to call 150 to win 355. 2.3:1 or so. For an open ender I have 8 outs, about 16% to win, so I need like 5:1. I figured it was worth it and called. River was a queen and he checked. I thought about betting but knew he was check-calling, so I checked. He had pocket aces. This actually sucked for me because I don't think I was getting the odds I needed at all to draw. He may have check-folded the river to a decent bet anyway. Not sure. If the river came a 3 and he bet, I think he would be hard pressed to not call my shove. And if he checked hopefully I would have bet like 300. If I bet like 400 or shoved he would have folded with A-A. Since I put him on a set I gave myself much better implied odds than what I actually had.
So I ended up losing $170 last night. Not the end of the world. I think I'm going to play some lower limit poker the next few days, I'll be hanging out with my wife and playing some 1/2 most likely. :-) Hopefully I can crush the game, I just need to ease up on the bluffing and value bet like crazy.
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