Monday, June 11, 2012

Another long weekend of poker



The World Series of Poker
 Another big weekend playing poker!  It was a ton of fun and I also won some good money.

On Friday night after work I went up to the Rio.  I hadn't been up to the Rio since the WSOP started, so I wanted to get up there and give it a shot. 

The game didn't appear to be all that great at first.  I found that a little annoying.  I got there and the game seemed pretty tight.  I wondered if I would have been better off playing somewhere else, like the Wynn where I have had some good recent success.  The guy to my left looked like he might have been decent, and the first pot I raised I had to fold to him on the flop and I felt like he would be trying to take pots away from me all the time.  Although even as I write this, there's really no good reason to think that.  He just had a lot of chips in front of him, and he liked to talk a lot, but there was no reason to think that he was not only going to be playing loose, but also really good.  He probably was just playing super tight, doubled up with AA or a set or whatever, and there you go.

I turned the nut straight in one hand with AK, got all-in, and had to chop it with another guy who also had AK.  :P  Pretty annoying.  Later I did win some decent pots.

Friday night at Rio
For example, I had Q-Q in early position.  Guy under the gun (and to my immediate right) raised to 10 and I just called.  I thought about raising, and I probably should have, because with an under the gun raise and a call you are probably getting a ton of callers.  With QQ that's going to be hard to play.  Anyway, I did just call and the flop came 10-x-x.  The raiser bet out 25 into about 50.  I raised to 65.  I figured if he came over the top I'd fold.  Now the next guy takes forever and just calls.  This guy was playing pretty lousy and he took a really long time and seriously looked like he was making a tough decision, so I didn't feel like he necessarily flopped a set or anything.  The original raiser folded.  The turn was a total blank.  I had about 200 left, and I didn't really see how I was getting away from this hand if he did flop a set.  So I just bet 125, with the intention of calling a shove.  I could have just shoved but I figured this would not look as strong if I did have him beat.  He goes all-in over the top, I call.  River was a jack, which was a particularly bad card because I thought J-J was one hand he totally could have here.  But he instead had Q-10, so I doubled up. 

I ended up winning over $400 on Friday.  Definitely a good win.  As my bankroll continues to grow, I thought that it felt like it was time to take a shot at 2/5 NL.  It has been a long time since I tried it, and it's always been my goal to get back there.  Now that I've been doing well and building up a bankroll, I wanted to finally take that step.  And I did on Saturday night.

On Saturday night I went back up to the Rio and got right into a 2/5 NL game.  I was definitely nervous.  I wanted my first time back to be a good one.  If I was successful, I could potentially play there and stay there, leaving 1/2 behind.  If I lost, I'd probably be at 1/2 for a while still.  So this was a big night for me.

I sat down and instantly started winning.  I got AK, raised to 20, 3 callers.  Flop K-J-5.  Bet 55, 1 caller.  Turn 2.  I bet 135, he folds.

Next hand I raise with AQ to 20, get 1 caller.  Flop 6-6-2.  I bet 20, he calls.  Turn 10.  We both check.  River, 2.  Now the guy leads out for 40.  I thought it felt weak, I called.  He was bluffing, and my ace high won the pot.

I raise with 9-9 to 20, get 1 caller.  Flop 10-6-5.  Checks to me, I bet 20, get called.  Turn, 2.  He checks, I check.  River 5.  He checks, I bet 45, he calls, I win.

Later on in the session, I am in the big blind.  It folds around to the small blind and I tell him I don't chop.  He raises to 15.  I look down at J-J.  I reraise to 40.  He calls.  Flop was sick, J-10-5.  He checks, I bet 35, he calls.  Turn was an ace.  A little scary because K-Q would totally make sense here.  I thought about checking, but there was also a flush draw on the flop and I didn't want to give him a free card.  He checked, I bet 75, he folded.  He said he didn't like the ace and probably had me on the flop.  Damn... why wasn't that turn card less scary?  :-)

Eventually I was up about $550 and decided to leave the table.  A guy sat down with $1k and he appeared to be a foreign kid that was pretty good.  He immediately busted this other guy at the table and he just looked pretty scary to play against.  I figured I'd lock up a win, go sit at 1/3 for a while, and come back later.

Bad decision.  :-|

So I go to 1/3.  I played a couple hands super bad, just really terrible.  I tried to go with my gut on the first and it was a total fail.  The on the second, I just don't know what I was thinking.  But I ended up losing $400 at 1/3 in about an hour.

The first hand : I raise to 10 under the gun with 10-10.  Get a few callers.  Flop J-J-8 with 2 spades.  I had the 10 of spades.  I bet out 25.  One caller, and the button min-raises me.  I basically didn't think I had a good reason to fold just yet, so I called.  The other guy folded.  The turn was a blank.  I check.  Now he bets 100.

He had about another 100 behind.  For whatever reason, I had it in my head that he was bluffing.  Why, I don't really know.  Maybe he looked like he was bluffing.  I thought the turn bet size was really big and looked kind of like a bluff, but at the same time there were a ton of draws out there.  Long story short, I push all-in after a long debate, he calls with K-J, I do not hit a 10, I lose $300 on that hand.  Looking back on it now, it feels SO stupid.  It was stupid because I didn't really have a good reason to think this guy was bluffing.  I hadn't seen him bluff before.  Calling on the flop, fine.  On the turn, I now have this information : he raised me after I raised under the gun preflop and bet the flop, and I called, so I'm definitely representing that I have a strong hand that I'm not easily going to fold.  Now he's betting out into me again on the turn for a large bet.  Obviously that shows a ton of strength.  Whether I think he's bluffing or not, I basically need to give him credit there and just fold.  So that one was really bad.

The next one was stupid too and I think it was mostly carry-over from the TT hand.  I raised with A-K, missed, bet the flop (J-x-x), got called.  Checked the turn, this guy bet.  I basically just hated this guy and wanted to beat him so I called, then I check-called the river (again with no pair) and of course he had a pocket pair and beat me.  So I threw away another 100 there.

Later I got into another 2/5 game, and that game was considerably worse than the one I was in earlier.  I played fine though, and ended up losing about $150.  Just basically got blinded off, raised some hands that didn't work out, etc.  Not bad.

Finally, today I went to Red Rock and played some limit Omaha high-low!  :-)  4/8 with a half kill.  I brought my iPad so I could sit there and do some work while I was playing.

Crushing Omaha 8/B
The iPad worked out AWESOME!  It was so enjoyable.  I totally got some things done, completely ignored the game except when it was my turn to act, it was heaven.  Especially for a game where I'm not even trying to do anything but play tight and play my cards.

Of course, I started out losing about $150 and thought maybe I was making a big mistake by playing it.  I haven't played it in a really long time.  I used to play a lot, at Palace Station I made that my primary game for a long time way back in the day.  I played there every day for at least a month and did alright, when I first moved to Vegas.

The game was fine, I just wasn't hitting any hands today.  So I got down about $150.  Then I won some pots and creeped up a bit... down $60, up $50, up $150.  Then I went on a SICK heater, OMG, it was insane.  I don't remember the pots really but all I know is I was instantly up about $450.  There was a period of time where I must have won 7 out of 8 pots in a row.  At my peak I was up about $550.  The game eventually got shorthanded and I left winning $440.  An excellent day at the Omaha table.

Can't wait for the next session!  2/5 NL is definitely in my future, and my bankroll is now over $5000.  So awesome.

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