I don't have much time to type, have to get to bed. But I played another 9 hours of poker on Saturday/Sunday. First at MGM, then tonight at my old stomping grounds, Wynn.
On both nights I really didn't play that great. I had some ups and downs, and I got lucky. I got really lucky a couple of times and only ended up winning $80 overall, so that isn't so great. For example, one hand I raised with KK. Flop 669. Checked to me, I bet, couple callers. Turn 5. Checked to me, I bet 55, guy raises to 110. I should have folded, but it was a min-raise and I didn't want to let go of it yet. So I call. River, king. Sick. He bets 100, I go all-in for my 150, he calls, he had the straight. So that was a really bad call on the turn. Then tonight I got lucky in a much smaller pot, and my action was much more reasonable. I called a raise from someone with QQ. Flop comes 5-6-9 and the blind goes all-in for a bet larger than the pot, like 75. Folds to me, I call. She has 9-5, river is a 6.
I got a little unlucky on one hand, but it wasn't a big deal at all really. I got a guy all-in on a 9-6-5 flop. He had 9-7 and I had pocket jacks. Jack on the turn, but an 8 on the river. He had like 9 outs on the flop though so I wasn't super far ahead.
I've been playing so much looser and crazier than I have in the past that it's becoming hard for me to even pick hands to write about. I'm more thinking about overall themes of how I played rather than individual hands. Here are some things I'm noticing.
First, I'm playing too many hands out of position. I'm basically raising with any playable hand from any position. I've looked down at 9-7 in early position and raised, probably several times. This is obviously too loose. It sounds a lot worse when you type it than when I'm doing it, because writing it down and seeing it here on the screen makes me know it is freaking terrible. :-) And of course, I'm getting myself into trouble after the flop too. Which leads me to my second point.
Second, I'm c-betting too much. I don't know how much I should be c-betting, but I don't think it's 100% of the time. I mean I probably can c-bet 100% of the time if I at least have a backdoor flush draw or a gutshot or maybe even a backdoor straight draw, like if I raise with A-Q and flop a 10. But I'm literally c-betting every single flop with any two cards, and it's not a very good strategy. OK, maybe not EVERY flop, but a whole lot of flops.
Third, I'm firing a second barrel at the wrong people and in the wrong situations. Bluffing the turn is a new thing for me. I started reading about it and listening to podcasts about it, and it does make sense. There are a lot of flops where people are going to peel a lot of the time, and on those flops you can c-bet a lot of the time if the right card comes. Also if I bet the flop and pick up a draw on the turn, it seems OK to keep betting on the turn sometimes too. Looks pretty strong... raise pre, bet the flop, bet the turn. But I'm definitely doing it too much and against the wrong people. I'm having a hard time giving up on pots and it's costing me some money. I should be more apt to fire that second bullet when I'm in position too.
There are some good things coming out of the way I'm playing. One, I've been running good, lol. That feels good. Doesn't really help my game at all, but still, worth mentioning. Two, I've been having more fun. It's way more fun to play more hands, so this style of poker is much more enjoyable to play. Three, I'm getting more experience in new kinds of spots that I never would have had before. I'm feeling more comfortable in weird spots. Four, I'm learning to trust my instincts a little more. That has bit me in the ass a bit, but overall I think it's probably a good thing if I continue to learn and start to act on my instincts. Sure, I'm going to get it wrong a decent amount of the time, especially at first. But if I keep learning and improving it's going to make me a lot better of a player later on.
It sounds like we are going to play some more poker tomorrow, probably at Mandalay Bay. I hope they have a $300 max buy-in. With a $200 max my style really sucks more I think. Either way I'm going to try to tighten up more, so maybe it will do me some good to buy in for a bit less.
One fun hand today : I have 9-8 of spades and raise to 8 from the cutoff (1/3 game at Wynn). The guy on the button calls me and another guy calls me. I know the button has a bone to pick with me and he has a lot of money I want to get. In fact, I told him "I want those chips" earlier and I don't think he liked that. :-)
Flop comes 5-6-7 with 2 hearts. SICK flop! I bet out 10 bucks. He raises to 30. Folds to me. I'm thinking slowplay. I really wanted to just call and check it to him on the turn. But I thought, if he has something like a smaller straight or a set, I definitely want to raise now. Also the flush draw complicates things. Actually it's funny, I was just thinking "if it was a rainbow flop I would be more likely to just call here". However, it probably makes even MORE sense to raise a rainbow flop, because he has to have something there. I guess he could have a straight draw, maybe 6-7, but definitely he could have a set and it's almost even more likely to get a call or get it all in on that flop if it's rainbow.
Either way, the dealer pulled in the 10s and I put 75 out. So I made it 85 total on the flop. He called. I figured he would. Here we go. Turn, 3. At the time I was just blind because I had the nuts and didn't really think about this card much, but it was a pretty bad card for me (unless the guy had a A-4 flush draw or something). Definitely a scare card, probably would kill my action a bit. So on the turn we are both pretty deep, and I want to get a big bet in there. So I bet $175. He thinks forever and eventually folds A-J of hearts face up. Overall I'm pretty glad I bet that on the turn, I did not want to lose a monster pot on the river if a heart came. It's too bad the turn wasn't a jack or an ace though or the money surely would have gone in. And I'll take those odds.
Gotta go. Have to get some sleep.
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