We were up in Mesquite this past weekend to visit my mom, who was in town for a golf tournament. We played some poker while we were there. It turned out to be a pretty good game. They had 2-8 spread limit hold 'em, and they also got a 1/3 NL game going. I was really excited about that. It didn't work out all that well, but it taught me some lessons about adjusting I guess.
The spread limit game was insane and I got hit with the deck right when I sat down. I seriously had a good hand every hand for the first round or two, which is all we played until we got moved to 1/2. I flopped a set of 2s, then got TT, AQ, and this hand came up. I got pocket aces and raised to 5 (you can raise to anywhere from 4 to 10). Guy raises me the max, to 13. I reraise to 21. He reraises to 28. I think that was the cap preflop. This was insane action for the game and everyone was already blown away. Flop came J-T-x with 2 clubs. I bet 8. He raised. I reraise. He reraised. It went on and on like this and we got all-in. I figured there was no way he could have J-J or T-T based on the preflop action, just because I know when people in these games 3-bet or more preflop they basically always have A-A or K-K. Anyway, we get all-in and I flip up my aces. He flips up A-K with the flush draw. He missed and I won a ridiculously large pot. That took me by surprise. I mean after I reraise him, he reraises me, and I reraise him again, at some point you just have to call with your flush draw (in my opinion). I mean why keep jamming it up in a limit game when you know you are beat. Made no sense.
The NL game did not treat me as favorably. I played some hands badly though and I did not adjust when I needed to. I got into a hand right away where I had A-K and raised to probably 11. One caller. Flop came Q-10-x with 2 clubs (I had the ace of clubs). Checked to me, I bet 13. He raises me 25 more. I called, thinking if I hit a jack I could be good, maybe he's just messing around, who knows. So I turn a club. He bets 35, I call. River, brick, he bets, I fold. I probably should have just folded on the flop or better yet, checked the flop. I'm in position, the flop hits a range of calling hands pretty good (K-J, K-Q, J-10, Q-10, and so on). Basically any 2 broadway card combination hits that flop in some way. Might as well take my free card. On the turn I don't know that I had odds to call especially considering that when I hit, 4 clubs are on the board so I'm not getting much action at all. And this guy is an old man, I know he's not bluffing on the flop so it's stupid to ever factor that in at all.
Then I basically fell into this routine : raise with whatever, bet the flop, get called, bet the turn, get called, give up. That routine had been working well for me at other places lately. It failed more this weekend because I didn't end up making anything like, ever, but also people were NOT folding. It was crazy. Like nobody ever folded to a c-bet or even the 2nd barrel, ever. It got really frustrating and I was going on tilt.
Luckily I pulled it back and calmed down. I used some techniques I picked up on the Tommy Angelo episodes of Deuce Plays. Like sitting up straight in my chair and taking deep breaths, focusing on the action, etc. I also came up with a pretty reasonable compromise, I just decided to play tighter and only value bet, no bluffs or even c-bets. I figure if nobody is folding to a flop or turn bet, I wouldn't c-bet at all unless I hit. It worked out and in the second session I was down about 150 and ended up winning 100 (as opposed to the first 1/2 session where I lost 300). Overall I lost a little over a hundred this weekend but it turned out pretty well considering how bad I started out.
A bit of a frustrating poker weekend but it was still fun. We also played 2 freerolls - the Wynn freeroll and a weekly freeroll in Mesquite. The Mesquite one let you qualify after 10 hours of live play, so we played 10 hours on Saturday. :-) In both I busted out really early, but it's all good. Was still cool getting to play in them.
Hopefully more poker this week! My bankroll is at $4200 and I'm ready to start crushing.
No comments:
Post a Comment