Quick hi to Mike, a guy I played 4/8 with this weekend at Wynn. How's it going? Hope you got a chance to check out the blog. :-) If you did, congratulations, you are probably reader #3 of this thing. :-)
Had a lot of fun playing poker this weekend. Pretty much all limit. It was a blast. Ton of action. Don't have time to write about it right now, but I'll definitely put some time in writing this week.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
How I'm doing lately
I have fallen behind a bit on the blogs, and didn't submit one this Tuesday. I had a bunch queued up but need to get back into writing them. I've been playing a TON of poker lately though, and taking notes, so there's definitely a lot to write about.
I thought I would take today to write a little bit about how it's going overall and how I'm feeling. I've just been writing session reports but nothing about my mindset. I feel like I'm at a critical point in my poker career. I've been here many times before and it always ends up the same way, and I need to make sure it doesn't go the same way this time.
Poker has honestly been going really bad for me lately. I was on top of the world a month or so ago. At my peak, I was up about $2600 total and was feeling great. I was implementing this new strategy (WPT Boot Camp recommendations) and felt I was following the plan pretty well. I was winning and I could see how their strategy was a good one. I also got lucky in some big pots. It's easy to forget about that and the effect it has on your bottom line. For example, I got all-in preflop for $600 with K-K against A-A in the Wynn 1/3 NL game. River, king. That's a $1200 swing in your bankroll. And when you are talking about your total overall profit being $2600 max, that's super substantial.
Since that initial rush, it has died down. I went flat and wasn't winning much for quite a while. And lately I've been feeling the negative side of variance. Nothing has been working well for me, and I've gone from a total of $2600 won to only $1100.
I've had some rough hands. The other day I flopped set under set in a $1100 pot. I've had a ton of hands that have been pretty standard, but I didn't win. Two hands I can remember in the last few weeks I flopped a set vs a flopped straight, got all-in, and lost. And then there have been others that could have gone either way. Flop 2 pair vs a straight draw, all in, straight draw hit. Flop a pair and a flush draw vs just top pair, all in, no improvement. Get all in on the flop with 2 overcards and a gutshot vs a pair, don't hit. It all adds up.
I'm not trying to complain. And, I'm staying super cool at the table. I just count out what I owe, push it over, and pop a few more hundreds off to keep playing. And I know that this is a part of the game and it's expected. And it's unavoidable. One thing that Nick from the WPT Boot Camp said was that we can't be upset when things happen, like flopping set under set. It's a foregone conclusion of playing poker. It WILL happen. He brought up that you wouldn't get mad when you run out of milk. "Out of milk? Damn it!! EVERY TIME!!!!" lol. I love "every time", that makes me laugh. But it's so true. We know we are going to run out of milk, or it's going to rain out. It's completely expected and we don't get mad about it. Why would you get mad when you flop a set vs a bigger set? It's just going to happen sometimes. Probably not very often, but it's going to happen.
I'm enjoying poker right now, but it's definitely tough. You just want to win so bad. And when you have losing session after losing session, it's easy to doubt how you are playing. That's where I am right now. I want to keep playing, and I want to stay cool. My biggest problem is that it's really easy to doubt yourself and question whether you are good enough to win at all.
I'm going to stick with it. I'm going to continue playing and I know it will turn around. But it's definitely rough on me right now. I thought I was so close to getting back into the 2/5 game. I had some great weeks ($1k+ wins over the course of the week) and thought, one or two more weeks like this, and I'm back at 2/5 NL. And that's where I really want to be. But now I am knocked down and it's hard to get back up.
The good news is that I essentially have unlimited money to play, at least 1/2 NL. I have $1100 in my bankroll and worst case, I can pull more money out to play. I don't think there is any real risk of ruin for me. If I stick with it, I can give myself the opportunity to come back. I just need to stick with it.
I've been trying to stay positive. My wife has been supportive. Also my man Johnny (aka the only person that reads this blog) has been super awesome and helpful. :-) It has been great being able to talk about some hands and just have someone to vent to or get positive words during a session. I think it has really helped me out and it makes me smile knowing that someone is there sweating my action and rooting for me. Thanks Johnny!
Slow and steady wins the race, and that's what I'm going to try to do here. So often in the past I start off a poker streak by running really hot, winning a ton, and at my first big continued downswing I get frustrated and give up. That's where I am right now. But I know if I keep playing 1/2 for the next few months, at some point it WILL turn around. And I WILL go on that hot streak where it feels like I'm the best poker player alive. Playing great, making good decisions, and also running hot when it counts. It WILL happen, no question. I just need to put the hours in, pay attention and play my best, and wait for it.
I'll probably start the normal blog rotation back up next week. This weekend definitely more poker.
I thought I would take today to write a little bit about how it's going overall and how I'm feeling. I've just been writing session reports but nothing about my mindset. I feel like I'm at a critical point in my poker career. I've been here many times before and it always ends up the same way, and I need to make sure it doesn't go the same way this time.
Poker has honestly been going really bad for me lately. I was on top of the world a month or so ago. At my peak, I was up about $2600 total and was feeling great. I was implementing this new strategy (WPT Boot Camp recommendations) and felt I was following the plan pretty well. I was winning and I could see how their strategy was a good one. I also got lucky in some big pots. It's easy to forget about that and the effect it has on your bottom line. For example, I got all-in preflop for $600 with K-K against A-A in the Wynn 1/3 NL game. River, king. That's a $1200 swing in your bankroll. And when you are talking about your total overall profit being $2600 max, that's super substantial.
Since that initial rush, it has died down. I went flat and wasn't winning much for quite a while. And lately I've been feeling the negative side of variance. Nothing has been working well for me, and I've gone from a total of $2600 won to only $1100.
I've had some rough hands. The other day I flopped set under set in a $1100 pot. I've had a ton of hands that have been pretty standard, but I didn't win. Two hands I can remember in the last few weeks I flopped a set vs a flopped straight, got all-in, and lost. And then there have been others that could have gone either way. Flop 2 pair vs a straight draw, all in, straight draw hit. Flop a pair and a flush draw vs just top pair, all in, no improvement. Get all in on the flop with 2 overcards and a gutshot vs a pair, don't hit. It all adds up.
I'm not trying to complain. And, I'm staying super cool at the table. I just count out what I owe, push it over, and pop a few more hundreds off to keep playing. And I know that this is a part of the game and it's expected. And it's unavoidable. One thing that Nick from the WPT Boot Camp said was that we can't be upset when things happen, like flopping set under set. It's a foregone conclusion of playing poker. It WILL happen. He brought up that you wouldn't get mad when you run out of milk. "Out of milk? Damn it!! EVERY TIME!!!!" lol. I love "every time", that makes me laugh. But it's so true. We know we are going to run out of milk, or it's going to rain out. It's completely expected and we don't get mad about it. Why would you get mad when you flop a set vs a bigger set? It's just going to happen sometimes. Probably not very often, but it's going to happen.
I'm enjoying poker right now, but it's definitely tough. You just want to win so bad. And when you have losing session after losing session, it's easy to doubt how you are playing. That's where I am right now. I want to keep playing, and I want to stay cool. My biggest problem is that it's really easy to doubt yourself and question whether you are good enough to win at all.
I'm going to stick with it. I'm going to continue playing and I know it will turn around. But it's definitely rough on me right now. I thought I was so close to getting back into the 2/5 game. I had some great weeks ($1k+ wins over the course of the week) and thought, one or two more weeks like this, and I'm back at 2/5 NL. And that's where I really want to be. But now I am knocked down and it's hard to get back up.
The good news is that I essentially have unlimited money to play, at least 1/2 NL. I have $1100 in my bankroll and worst case, I can pull more money out to play. I don't think there is any real risk of ruin for me. If I stick with it, I can give myself the opportunity to come back. I just need to stick with it.
I've been trying to stay positive. My wife has been supportive. Also my man Johnny (aka the only person that reads this blog) has been super awesome and helpful. :-) It has been great being able to talk about some hands and just have someone to vent to or get positive words during a session. I think it has really helped me out and it makes me smile knowing that someone is there sweating my action and rooting for me. Thanks Johnny!
Slow and steady wins the race, and that's what I'm going to try to do here. So often in the past I start off a poker streak by running really hot, winning a ton, and at my first big continued downswing I get frustrated and give up. That's where I am right now. But I know if I keep playing 1/2 for the next few months, at some point it WILL turn around. And I WILL go on that hot streak where it feels like I'm the best poker player alive. Playing great, making good decisions, and also running hot when it counts. It WILL happen, no question. I just need to put the hours in, pay attention and play my best, and wait for it.
I'll probably start the normal blog rotation back up next week. This weekend definitely more poker.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Wynn Tuesday
Tuesday, February 19th - Wynn 1/3 NL
Just a usual Tuesday at the Wynn.
Hand 1 : I raise to 15 with K-K and get one caller. Flop is 5-7-8 with 2 clubs. He checks to me, I bet 20. He raises to 75, I fold.
Hand 2 : Call 15 in the big blind with 4-4. Miss, fold.
Hand 3 : I have A-10 on the button. A couple people limp and the cutoff makes it $15. I raise to $45. The blind calls, and the cutoff calls. Pot is getting a little big for my taste right now. :-) The flop is A-8-5. It checks to me, I bet $90, they both fold.
Hand 4 : A few people limp and the button (same initial raiser as the A-10 hand) makes it $20. I look down at pocket kings and make it $60. Folds to him and he makes it $140. I go all in and he calls for another $100 or so. I flip up the kings and he is just basically like, I fucked up. I don't get drawn out on here and win a big pot. Not sure what he had.
Hand 5 : One limper and I make it $15 on the button with K-9 suited. Get one caller. Flop is J-10-6. She checks, I bet $20. She makes it $60. I fold, she shows 6-6.
Hand 6 : I limp in with 8-6 of clubs after a couple limpers. We see the flop 5 ways. Flop is a nice one. K-5-4 with the 5-4 of clubs. Checks to me, I bet $10 and get 2 callers. Turn is a 4 and it checks around. River is the deuce of clubs. Checks to me, I bet $30, everyone folds.
Good night for me, I ended up winning $333. Only played for 2 hours. Would be nice if it was always like this.
Just a usual Tuesday at the Wynn.
Hand 1 : I raise to 15 with K-K and get one caller. Flop is 5-7-8 with 2 clubs. He checks to me, I bet 20. He raises to 75, I fold.
Hand 2 : Call 15 in the big blind with 4-4. Miss, fold.
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| Creative chip stack tonight |
Hand 4 : A few people limp and the button (same initial raiser as the A-10 hand) makes it $20. I look down at pocket kings and make it $60. Folds to him and he makes it $140. I go all in and he calls for another $100 or so. I flip up the kings and he is just basically like, I fucked up. I don't get drawn out on here and win a big pot. Not sure what he had.
Hand 5 : One limper and I make it $15 on the button with K-9 suited. Get one caller. Flop is J-10-6. She checks, I bet $20. She makes it $60. I fold, she shows 6-6.
Hand 6 : I limp in with 8-6 of clubs after a couple limpers. We see the flop 5 ways. Flop is a nice one. K-5-4 with the 5-4 of clubs. Checks to me, I bet $10 and get 2 callers. Turn is a 4 and it checks around. River is the deuce of clubs. Checks to me, I bet $30, everyone folds.
Good night for me, I ended up winning $333. Only played for 2 hours. Would be nice if it was always like this.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Wynn Monday
Wynn 1/3 NL - Monday, February 18th
Let's just get into it. Also this is a bonus blog - since I have so many queued up now I figured I'd drop an extra one in this week on a Tuesday, breaking away from the Monday/Thursday schedule.
BTW, Dyzzl pointed out that I should be posting stack sizes and positions in these hands. I agree and I'm going to start trying to keep track of that information better. However, I'm still transcribing hands that happened weeks ago at this point. Also, it's pretty difficult to write everything down accurately all the time. I'm trying to get better about it, but it's tough. So please bare with me. :-)
Hand 1 : I raise A-K to 15, get 2 callers. Flop is 10 high. They both check to me, I bet $30. First guy calls, next guy is all in for $5 more. :P We both call. Turn is a king. He checks, I bet $90, he folds. Other guy flopped a set of tens.
Hand 2 : There is a straddle. I open to $22. Big blind goes all in for $140. I fold.
Hand 3 : I am on the button with A-K. The cutoff raises to $12. I reraise to $40. He calls. Flop is Q-x-x. He checks, I bet $55, he raises me $65 more, I fold.
Hand 4/5 : Raise 9-9 on button and win a small pot. Very next hand (with a straddle) raise 9-9 and lose a much bigger pot.
Hand 6 : Call $12 with 3-3, miss.
Hand 7 : Guy raises to $13. I have pocket jacks and pop it up to $40. He calls. Flop is A-10-x. He checks, I bet $60, he calls. Turn is a king. We both check. River is another blank. We both check and somehow I'm good.
I ended up playing for 4 hours and losing $229. No big deal, the grind continues.
Let's just get into it. Also this is a bonus blog - since I have so many queued up now I figured I'd drop an extra one in this week on a Tuesday, breaking away from the Monday/Thursday schedule.
BTW, Dyzzl pointed out that I should be posting stack sizes and positions in these hands. I agree and I'm going to start trying to keep track of that information better. However, I'm still transcribing hands that happened weeks ago at this point. Also, it's pretty difficult to write everything down accurately all the time. I'm trying to get better about it, but it's tough. So please bare with me. :-)
Hand 1 : I raise A-K to 15, get 2 callers. Flop is 10 high. They both check to me, I bet $30. First guy calls, next guy is all in for $5 more. :P We both call. Turn is a king. He checks, I bet $90, he folds. Other guy flopped a set of tens.
Hand 2 : There is a straddle. I open to $22. Big blind goes all in for $140. I fold.
Hand 3 : I am on the button with A-K. The cutoff raises to $12. I reraise to $40. He calls. Flop is Q-x-x. He checks, I bet $55, he raises me $65 more, I fold.
Hand 4/5 : Raise 9-9 on button and win a small pot. Very next hand (with a straddle) raise 9-9 and lose a much bigger pot.
Hand 6 : Call $12 with 3-3, miss.
Hand 7 : Guy raises to $13. I have pocket jacks and pop it up to $40. He calls. Flop is A-10-x. He checks, I bet $60, he calls. Turn is a king. We both check. River is another blank. We both check and somehow I'm good.
I ended up playing for 4 hours and losing $229. No big deal, the grind continues.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Saturday at Wynn
I've been playing a TON of poker in the last month. Probably the most I've played in a month since I had a real job. These blogs are getting a little repetitive and they kind of all melt together. I think I'm going to try to cut back a bit and only write about hands that are at least a LITTLE interesting. Writing about all of the hands I play is great, but it does get boring to read and it's pretty brutal to write too. Especially when I'm playing 5+ nights/week.
Wynn 1/3 NL - Saturday, February 16th
Played a pretty long session this day, almost 7 hours.
Hand 1 : Raise Q-Q to 20, 2 callers. Flop is 7-6-3 with 2 clubs. I bet out $40. Guy calls, but bitches a little bit about the amount and tries to get out of calling. He thought it was only $30. Eventually he puts the rest in. Turn is the 5 of clubs, and we both check. River is the 8 of clubs and we both check. He turned a straight with pocket fours.
Hand 2 : I change tables. First hand dealt to me is AQs. I raise to $12, get a caller (some Snoop Dogg looking dude). Flop is A-J-x with 2 of my suit. Monster flop. He checks to me, I bet $15, he calls. Turn is a jack. He checks. I figure I'll just check. I don't want to get raised off of my draw, and if I am ahead the guy probably has a hand he can't call 2 streets with anyway (like a weaker ace). So I check. River brings the flush. He bets out $20. I raise to $80. He calls. Q-J. This hand was sweet, I put money in on the 3 streets I was ahead on, and checked the one street I was behind on. :-)
Hand 3 : I have AQs again. There is a straddle and 3 people limp. What I'm doing on straddles lately is simply doubling my opening raise. So I'd normally open to $12 at 1/3, and I double it to $24. Seems kinda high but whatever. Straddling effectively doubles the stakes, so I double my raise. Since 3 people limped I raised more, and made it $36 to go. I got 4 callers. MONSTER pot preflop, wow.
Flop is A-10-x with 1 diamond and 2 hearts. I don't have a flush draw. My wife bets out $75 into me. I figure she either has 2 pair+ or a flush draw, but it's hard to tell. I just fold. She ends up hitting her flush and wins a big pot.
Hand 4 : I have A-Q again. :-) Guy raises to 16. I reraise to 45. He calls. Flop K-6-5 with 2 hearts. Not the best flop. He checks, I bet $65, he calls. Turn, 4. He goes all-in. I fold, he says he had the straight.
Hand 5 : I have Q-Q under the gun and raise to $12. New player, an older Asian guy makes it $30. This might be his very first hand, he just sat down. Folds around and another guy cold calls. Back on me and I reraise to $120. Asian guy is all-in for $200. Other guy folds. I call. Turns out he had Q-Q as well and we chopped. The board was sick too, basically no other legitimate hand I could beat. It was K-K-J-10-x I think.
Hand 6 : Call $16 with 2-2. 5 people see the flop. Flop is 6-5-2. I bet out $65. Guy goes all-in for $170. I call. He has 2-5 and my set holds up.
Hand 7 : Guy raises to $12. I reraise to $35 with J-J. He calls. Flop is Q-Q-6. He bets out $60. I thought it looked kinda fishy, I don't think he would instantly bet out if he hit the queen. And I figured my hand was best preflop. I raised to $150, he folded.
After going through all of these hands, it looks like I had a pretty good session. Unfortunately though I only ended up winning $83. Another day, another dollar.
Oh and by the way above are ALL of the hands I wrote down for this session. Didn't leave any out. I guess they are all just too interesting to me to leave any on the cutting room floor. :-)
Wynn 1/3 NL - Saturday, February 16th
Played a pretty long session this day, almost 7 hours.
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| Waterfall at Wynn - I take breaks here |
Hand 2 : I change tables. First hand dealt to me is AQs. I raise to $12, get a caller (some Snoop Dogg looking dude). Flop is A-J-x with 2 of my suit. Monster flop. He checks to me, I bet $15, he calls. Turn is a jack. He checks. I figure I'll just check. I don't want to get raised off of my draw, and if I am ahead the guy probably has a hand he can't call 2 streets with anyway (like a weaker ace). So I check. River brings the flush. He bets out $20. I raise to $80. He calls. Q-J. This hand was sweet, I put money in on the 3 streets I was ahead on, and checked the one street I was behind on. :-)
Hand 3 : I have AQs again. There is a straddle and 3 people limp. What I'm doing on straddles lately is simply doubling my opening raise. So I'd normally open to $12 at 1/3, and I double it to $24. Seems kinda high but whatever. Straddling effectively doubles the stakes, so I double my raise. Since 3 people limped I raised more, and made it $36 to go. I got 4 callers. MONSTER pot preflop, wow.
Flop is A-10-x with 1 diamond and 2 hearts. I don't have a flush draw. My wife bets out $75 into me. I figure she either has 2 pair+ or a flush draw, but it's hard to tell. I just fold. She ends up hitting her flush and wins a big pot.
Hand 4 : I have A-Q again. :-) Guy raises to 16. I reraise to 45. He calls. Flop K-6-5 with 2 hearts. Not the best flop. He checks, I bet $65, he calls. Turn, 4. He goes all-in. I fold, he says he had the straight.
Hand 5 : I have Q-Q under the gun and raise to $12. New player, an older Asian guy makes it $30. This might be his very first hand, he just sat down. Folds around and another guy cold calls. Back on me and I reraise to $120. Asian guy is all-in for $200. Other guy folds. I call. Turns out he had Q-Q as well and we chopped. The board was sick too, basically no other legitimate hand I could beat. It was K-K-J-10-x I think.
Hand 6 : Call $16 with 2-2. 5 people see the flop. Flop is 6-5-2. I bet out $65. Guy goes all-in for $170. I call. He has 2-5 and my set holds up.
Hand 7 : Guy raises to $12. I reraise to $35 with J-J. He calls. Flop is Q-Q-6. He bets out $60. I thought it looked kinda fishy, I don't think he would instantly bet out if he hit the queen. And I figured my hand was best preflop. I raised to $150, he folded.
After going through all of these hands, it looks like I had a pretty good session. Unfortunately though I only ended up winning $83. Another day, another dollar.
Oh and by the way above are ALL of the hands I wrote down for this session. Didn't leave any out. I guess they are all just too interesting to me to leave any on the cutting room floor. :-)
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Going blind at the Wynn
Wynn 1/3 NL - Friday, February 15nd
This day was a little crazy at Wynn, right out of the gate. Sit down in a 1/3 NL game right away and there is a guy totally going crazy. He declares that he is playing hands blind, and I believe him. Sometimes you see people do that and it's a little sketchy. A long time ago at the Golden Nugget this guy said he was playing a hand blind, it totally looked like he was, and he turned over K-K. Not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but it was a hell of a coincidence if it was. This guy at Wynn though was making it VERY obvious that he wasn't looking, and he would even drop a chip on the 2nd card when it came out as it was flying towards him so there was no way anyone could think he was looking.
Hand 1 : I raise to 12 with J-J in early position. Guy declares that he is playing blind. One guy calls my bet, and the guy playing blind makes it $50. Totally blind, for sure. I'm playing against a random hand which I obviously have crushed. J-J is a 77% favorite over any 2 random cards, based on the PokerCruncher query I just ran. So I reraise it to $150. Guy in the middle folds and the other guy calls $100 more blind. Crazy! I never see stuff like this happen, and my heart is definitely racing because I'm playing a huge pot in really weird circumstances.
Flop is Q-8-4 rainbow. He checks. What can I do? I bet out $200, my "standard" cbet here. 2/3 pot. Now he looks. He says that was either a great or a terrible flop for me. Shows me his cards. Q-2.
He calls. Turn is a blank. He goes all-in for $40. Obviously everyone at the table is thinking "insta-call with any two". And he starts cracking up (rightly so) when he throws the $40 in and I don't call right away.
I'm thinking and I show the table my cards. I'm just trying to do the math at this point. In my head, I though that there was about $740 in the pot. $300 preflop, $400 flop, $40 turn. And (based on the rule of 2) I had a 4% shot to crack his hand. So I needed like 25:1 to call. I was getting nowhere near that (like 18.5:1), so I folded.
The reality of the situation is that it was closer than I thought, but I still made the right fold. Based on PokerCruncher, I had a 4.55% chance to win. And there was a little more in the pot preflop. The $740 I calculated, plus the caller ($12). You can subtract the blinds because they got raked off.
This means that I was getting 18.8:1 on the call. I needed 21:1 to call. So technically I made the right fold. 100% correct too, no need to debate, because these are the exact numbers and odds. Sure you could argue it's worth the gamble, but that's about the only thing you could argue here. And I'm trying to just make the right decisions. Not happy about how this worked out obviously, but I'm happy with how I played it.
The guy was up a TON for a while, but eventually ended up dumping it all and leaving. In his last hand my wife put a bad beat on him actually. She got all in on a Q-Q-x flop with him. She had K-K, he had A-Q. Turn, king. Ship it.
Hand 2 : Blind raise guy makes it $18 (not blind this time). I have A-K and reraise to $60. He calls. Flop is K-x-x (don't remember the other cards), I fire $80, he folds.
Hand 3 : I call a $15 raise with 5-5. There are about 6 people that see the flop, including the blind raise guy (who again is not playing this hand blind). The flop is a dream, 10-5-3. Bingo. Checks to the blind raise guy and he bets $75. Yes. I reraise to $200. He calls. Turn is a king and he checks. I have $350 left and there is now about $470 in the pot or so. I go all-in, he folds.
The only thing I might change about this hand in the future is slowplaying the last bet a bit. He called on the flop and there aren't really any draws (2-4 or 4-6 I guess). I'm also assuming there wasn't a flush draw, I don't remember because I'm writing this on 2/27 so it's been a little while. If there weren't any other draws, I could consider checking the turn behind. I went to another WPT Boot Camp session this past weekend and one thing they mentioned is that if you have one bet left in your stack and if someone is going to call you X% of the time on the turn, but he might call you X+Y% on the river, you can hold off on betting the turn and just fire it in on the river. Might put an extra bit of doubt in their mind that could lean them towards calling. Like I raised the flop, and after he checks it twice to me (turn and river), I get the balls to fire in a huge bluff bet on the river. So he calls with top pair or whatever.
I'm not saying I should have done that, but it's an option. I'm fine with how this hand went down.
Hand 4 : Raise with A-Q, get one caller. Flop is K-K-x. Bet out 25, get raised to 50, fold.
Hand 5 : This was a fun one. I raise with 5-6 of diamonds to $15 on the button after one limper. The big blind calls. He has at least $400. Flop comes Q-10-7 with 2 diamonds. He checks, I bet $20, he calls. Turn is the king of diamonds. He checks, I bet $45, he calls. River is an offsuit 4. He checks. I bet out $115. He calls, win. Ship it.
That's about it. There was some other drunk idiot at the table later that was going crazy. He was bitching about the 2/5 game and said it sucked because he flopped a boat, basically didn't bet it, and got no money out of it when he check-raised the turn or river after some guy bet? Makes no sense. Then he was telling my wife she was crazy that she folded J-10 offsuit to a $18 raise. And at the same time, berated some other lady for calling a raise preflop with K-10 and hitting against him.
Then some other idiot calls literally 3x pot on the flop with a flush draw and hits. Then he tells the guy, if it was any more he couldn't call. LOL! Are you for real?
I ended up winning $22 over 4 hours. It was a big mental victory for me though because I started out SO far down, stuck $400 right out of the gate.
This day was a little crazy at Wynn, right out of the gate. Sit down in a 1/3 NL game right away and there is a guy totally going crazy. He declares that he is playing hands blind, and I believe him. Sometimes you see people do that and it's a little sketchy. A long time ago at the Golden Nugget this guy said he was playing a hand blind, it totally looked like he was, and he turned over K-K. Not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but it was a hell of a coincidence if it was. This guy at Wynn though was making it VERY obvious that he wasn't looking, and he would even drop a chip on the 2nd card when it came out as it was flying towards him so there was no way anyone could think he was looking.
Hand 1 : I raise to 12 with J-J in early position. Guy declares that he is playing blind. One guy calls my bet, and the guy playing blind makes it $50. Totally blind, for sure. I'm playing against a random hand which I obviously have crushed. J-J is a 77% favorite over any 2 random cards, based on the PokerCruncher query I just ran. So I reraise it to $150. Guy in the middle folds and the other guy calls $100 more blind. Crazy! I never see stuff like this happen, and my heart is definitely racing because I'm playing a huge pot in really weird circumstances.
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| Blind raise guy |
He calls. Turn is a blank. He goes all-in for $40. Obviously everyone at the table is thinking "insta-call with any two". And he starts cracking up (rightly so) when he throws the $40 in and I don't call right away.
I'm thinking and I show the table my cards. I'm just trying to do the math at this point. In my head, I though that there was about $740 in the pot. $300 preflop, $400 flop, $40 turn. And (based on the rule of 2) I had a 4% shot to crack his hand. So I needed like 25:1 to call. I was getting nowhere near that (like 18.5:1), so I folded.
The reality of the situation is that it was closer than I thought, but I still made the right fold. Based on PokerCruncher, I had a 4.55% chance to win. And there was a little more in the pot preflop. The $740 I calculated, plus the caller ($12). You can subtract the blinds because they got raked off.
This means that I was getting 18.8:1 on the call. I needed 21:1 to call. So technically I made the right fold. 100% correct too, no need to debate, because these are the exact numbers and odds. Sure you could argue it's worth the gamble, but that's about the only thing you could argue here. And I'm trying to just make the right decisions. Not happy about how this worked out obviously, but I'm happy with how I played it.
The guy was up a TON for a while, but eventually ended up dumping it all and leaving. In his last hand my wife put a bad beat on him actually. She got all in on a Q-Q-x flop with him. She had K-K, he had A-Q. Turn, king. Ship it.
Hand 2 : Blind raise guy makes it $18 (not blind this time). I have A-K and reraise to $60. He calls. Flop is K-x-x (don't remember the other cards), I fire $80, he folds.
Hand 3 : I call a $15 raise with 5-5. There are about 6 people that see the flop, including the blind raise guy (who again is not playing this hand blind). The flop is a dream, 10-5-3. Bingo. Checks to the blind raise guy and he bets $75. Yes. I reraise to $200. He calls. Turn is a king and he checks. I have $350 left and there is now about $470 in the pot or so. I go all-in, he folds.
The only thing I might change about this hand in the future is slowplaying the last bet a bit. He called on the flop and there aren't really any draws (2-4 or 4-6 I guess). I'm also assuming there wasn't a flush draw, I don't remember because I'm writing this on 2/27 so it's been a little while. If there weren't any other draws, I could consider checking the turn behind. I went to another WPT Boot Camp session this past weekend and one thing they mentioned is that if you have one bet left in your stack and if someone is going to call you X% of the time on the turn, but he might call you X+Y% on the river, you can hold off on betting the turn and just fire it in on the river. Might put an extra bit of doubt in their mind that could lean them towards calling. Like I raised the flop, and after he checks it twice to me (turn and river), I get the balls to fire in a huge bluff bet on the river. So he calls with top pair or whatever.
I'm not saying I should have done that, but it's an option. I'm fine with how this hand went down.Hand 4 : Raise with A-Q, get one caller. Flop is K-K-x. Bet out 25, get raised to 50, fold.
Hand 5 : This was a fun one. I raise with 5-6 of diamonds to $15 on the button after one limper. The big blind calls. He has at least $400. Flop comes Q-10-7 with 2 diamonds. He checks, I bet $20, he calls. Turn is the king of diamonds. He checks, I bet $45, he calls. River is an offsuit 4. He checks. I bet out $115. He calls, win. Ship it.
That's about it. There was some other drunk idiot at the table later that was going crazy. He was bitching about the 2/5 game and said it sucked because he flopped a boat, basically didn't bet it, and got no money out of it when he check-raised the turn or river after some guy bet? Makes no sense. Then he was telling my wife she was crazy that she folded J-10 offsuit to a $18 raise. And at the same time, berated some other lady for calling a raise preflop with K-10 and hitting against him.
Then some other idiot calls literally 3x pot on the flop with a flush draw and hits. Then he tells the guy, if it was any more he couldn't call. LOL! Are you for real?
I ended up winning $22 over 4 hours. It was a big mental victory for me though because I started out SO far down, stuck $400 right out of the gate.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Crushing the Valley
Friday, February 15th - Green Valley Ranch
On Friday I went up to GVR after work. My wife was hanging out at home doing homework, so I figured I'd get a couple quick hours of poker in before she was ready to go out and play later on.
I ended up running so f-ing hot during this session, it was ridiculous. Of course, most of my hot streak was when I was waiting for the 1/2 NL game, playing 3/6 limit. :P Regardless, it was a ridiculous run of cards. It is almost easy to go on tilt when you are running that hot at a MUCH smaller game than you normally play. "Why doesn't this happen at the 1/3 NL table???" But it's all good. I'll take the cards when they come without complaint. :-)
3/6 Limit
I won't even go into too much detail on these hands because who cares, it's limit and I just pound the bets in when I have it in limit. It's like playing video poker, max bet all day. But the hands I had were just so sick. And they came in rapid successsion.
Pocket 4s, flop a set. Get 3 callers on the flop, 2 on the turn, 1 on the river. Win.
Raise with A-Q, get 3 callers. Flop ace high, bet, 3 callers. I think I got 2 callers on the turn, at least 1 on the river (when I hit my queen), win.
Guy raises under the gun, I call with 8-8 in the blind, flop a set. Win.
Get pocket jacks and end up losing to flopped trips, but who cares - this run is sick.
Check with K-9 in the blind. Flop K-9-9.
I'm in with J-9. Flop nothing but one of my suit. Turn a gutshot straight flush draw. River the straight.
That all happened in a 40 minute span. So sick!!! I left the 3/6 game up $70 and got moved to the 1/2 NL game.
1/2 NL
Moved over to the 1/2 game. I was only there for just over an hour before I left to go home and pick up my wife to go to the Wynn. I only played 2 hands really, both with pocket jacks. On one, I raised preflop, bet the ace high flop, and took it down. The second one ended up being a lot bigger.
My one big 1/2 hand : Two people limp in. I raise to 15 with J-J. Both people call me. I started with a full stack, $300 (the max buy-in at GVR). The flop is good. K-J-10 with 2 clubs. Guy checks, I bet $30, and the guy in position calls me. This guy started the hand with around $250 total. Turn is a an offsuit 5, perfect. I bet $75, he calls.
River is an offsuit 8. Another great card, because that won't help you get a straight unless you are already there. Haha I guess you could have had the bottom end double gutter, 9-7, lol, but that would just be so sick. :-) The pot is huge at this point so I just go all-in. He has to call about another $150.
He is sitting there thinking about it. Obviously I'm thinking at this point, I'm good and 100% want a call. Then he starts talking. "Do you have ace queen?" Then I seriously started thinking this guy might have flopped it with Q-9, and just been scared so he called down. It sounds ridiculous but the way he was talking and asking if I had A-Q, it really felt like he might have the low end straight and be thinking about whether or not to call. So then I'm sitting there with my money in the pot, and no clue of if I want this guy to call or not!
He eventually calls. I flip up my 3 jacks. "Set?" I'm still not sure if I won. Then this guy starts going off, like he was disgusted by my hand. He says, "Weren't you scared of ace queen????" I am just thinking, weren't YOU scared of ace queen? lol. I have no idea what he had or what he was thinking. But he mucked his hand and I won a nice pot.
That was pretty much it for the GVR trip. Just shy of 2 hours, and I won $328. My next blog will be the continuation of that night up at the Wynn. There was some INSANE action, definitely some things I haven't seen in a long time.
On Friday I went up to GVR after work. My wife was hanging out at home doing homework, so I figured I'd get a couple quick hours of poker in before she was ready to go out and play later on. I ended up running so f-ing hot during this session, it was ridiculous. Of course, most of my hot streak was when I was waiting for the 1/2 NL game, playing 3/6 limit. :P Regardless, it was a ridiculous run of cards. It is almost easy to go on tilt when you are running that hot at a MUCH smaller game than you normally play. "Why doesn't this happen at the 1/3 NL table???" But it's all good. I'll take the cards when they come without complaint. :-)
3/6 Limit
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| 3/6 at GVR |
Pocket 4s, flop a set. Get 3 callers on the flop, 2 on the turn, 1 on the river. Win.
Raise with A-Q, get 3 callers. Flop ace high, bet, 3 callers. I think I got 2 callers on the turn, at least 1 on the river (when I hit my queen), win.
Guy raises under the gun, I call with 8-8 in the blind, flop a set. Win.
Get pocket jacks and end up losing to flopped trips, but who cares - this run is sick.
Check with K-9 in the blind. Flop K-9-9.
I'm in with J-9. Flop nothing but one of my suit. Turn a gutshot straight flush draw. River the straight.
That all happened in a 40 minute span. So sick!!! I left the 3/6 game up $70 and got moved to the 1/2 NL game.
1/2 NL
Moved over to the 1/2 game. I was only there for just over an hour before I left to go home and pick up my wife to go to the Wynn. I only played 2 hands really, both with pocket jacks. On one, I raised preflop, bet the ace high flop, and took it down. The second one ended up being a lot bigger.
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| Free Paycheck Cashing, lol |
River is an offsuit 8. Another great card, because that won't help you get a straight unless you are already there. Haha I guess you could have had the bottom end double gutter, 9-7, lol, but that would just be so sick. :-) The pot is huge at this point so I just go all-in. He has to call about another $150.
He is sitting there thinking about it. Obviously I'm thinking at this point, I'm good and 100% want a call. Then he starts talking. "Do you have ace queen?" Then I seriously started thinking this guy might have flopped it with Q-9, and just been scared so he called down. It sounds ridiculous but the way he was talking and asking if I had A-Q, it really felt like he might have the low end straight and be thinking about whether or not to call. So then I'm sitting there with my money in the pot, and no clue of if I want this guy to call or not!
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| Not scared of A-Q and here is the proof. |
He eventually calls. I flip up my 3 jacks. "Set?" I'm still not sure if I won. Then this guy starts going off, like he was disgusted by my hand. He says, "Weren't you scared of ace queen????" I am just thinking, weren't YOU scared of ace queen? lol. I have no idea what he had or what he was thinking. But he mucked his hand and I won a nice pot.
That was pretty much it for the GVR trip. Just shy of 2 hours, and I won $328. My next blog will be the continuation of that night up at the Wynn. There was some INSANE action, definitely some things I haven't seen in a long time.
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