Created my account (Bluff Meat), now all I have to do is deposit and get ready to rock! This is exciting.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
First 2/5 attempt
Red Rock - Monday, April 15th
I went home after work, ate some dinner, and was off to the Rock. I told myself that I would only play the 2/5 game tonight if it looked good. Called in and got myself on the 1/2 and 2/5 lists.
I got to the Rock and got my name off of the call in. Jason gave me a seat on table 8 (1/2). I said I'm also on the 2/5. Quick look of surprise, and he said there were seats open on table 3 as well.
I look over and the game is short(-ish). 6 handed. I decided to stay away from it for the time being. No need to jump in and play 7 handed, then a couple people get up, and pretty soon I'm playing short. So I just play some 1/2 in the meantime.
I sat at table 8, which is right next to the 2/5 game on table 3. I was scoping it out. Looked like a couple potentially good people, and some people that looked lousy. Completely judging based on how people look, but thats not that bad of an indicator a lot of the time.
1/2 NL
I pick up two black aces on my very first hand dealt. Gotta love that. Two limpers, and I raise to $15. Get one call. Flop 10-9-7 with 2 diamonds. He checks, I bet $20, he folds.
Next hand I get 7-6 suited, raise it to $8, 3 callers, and check-fold.
2/5 NL
Another guy sits down at 2/5. Younger kid I know from the Wynn. He is OK, nothing scary. Not a real plus for the table though. Then some other guy sits down and he looks like a good spot. Game is filling up so I talk to the desk. I buy another $200 from the counter, grab my $300 from the 1/2 table, and move over.
I'm excited. I haven't played 2/5 NL in almost a year, and it's always my goal to get back into this game. Let's do this!
Hand 1 - I play this hand bad right away. I'm in the blind with K-9 offsuit. Few people limp and we see the flop 5 ways. Flop K-10-9 with 2 clubs. First guy checks, I check (why?) and everyone else checks. Turn is an 8. Doesn't really change anything. Small blind fires $25, I call, everyone else folds. River is a 2. He checks, I bet $60, he folds.
The game looks really good so far. I'm pretty excited. Not that I thought it would be too tough, but it's nice sitting in the game and seeing that it's pretty good. Some crazy shit has been going down. Huge pots. An extreme example, one guy called $100 preflop with J-8 suited. The guy only had $200 behind. Of course, he flopped 2 jacks and won the pot. :P
Also, people have a ton of money in this game. In the 1/2 game, you are lucky to have more than a couple others with the max buy-in in front of them. In the 2/5 game, literally all but 1 person had me covered.
Hand 2 - I raise under the gun to $20 with A-K. Standard raise is much bigger so I probably should raise bigger. But I figure $20 is fine, it will probably accomplish the same thing and also lower my variance. 2 people call me. Flop comes K-8-2 with 2 diamonds. Checks to me, $40, they both fold.
Hand 3 - Guy in middle position raises to $35. I call in the big blind with 3-3. Flop is K-10-8 with 2 clubs. It checks around. Turn is an 8. Checks to the preflop raiser and he bets $100. Looks fishy for sure but I just fold.
Hand 4 - One guy (who does not appear to be that good) limps to my immediate right. I raise in late position with 10-8 suited. He is the only caller.
Flop comes out Q-10-10. BOOM. Raise with the T-8 and destroy the flop. He checks, I bet $25, he calls. Turn is a king, putting 2 hearts on board. He checks. I bet $80 and he calls. Bet sizing is pretty questionable on this hand imo. Should have bet a little more on the flop.
At this point I think the guy probably has a queen. If he checks the river, I'm just going to bomb it.
River is the 6 of hearts. Now he leads for $100. Hmmm.
I thought about this one for a while. What could he have? The queen was not a heart, so I eventually decided he could pretty easily have Q-x of hearts. Plus regardless, it didn't look like he was bluffing. I got a stack of 100 and started moving it around to get a read on him, and he just didn't look worried at all. I fold. He lifts up his cards and I can see J-9 suited. He turned the straight. This hand made me feel awesome, great fold on the river.
Hand 5 - 2 people limp, and I have Q-Q on the button. I raise to $25. They both call.
Flop is 9-4-3. First guy checks, and now the next guy (same guy from last hand) leads out for $40. I grab a stack and 4 red chips and raise to $120. I'm prepared to fold to a reraise. He folds (as does the other guy).
Hand 6 - Guy has button straddled to $10. I have J-J under the gun and raise to $35. The straddle and the big blind call. Flop comes out A-4-3. I bet $50, they both fold.
Hand 7 - Guy raises to 15 in middle position. This guy appears to be pretty good and he has been putting some big bets out. 2 people call. I'm in the big blind with A-Q suited. I decide to just call. I can play this one multiway, and I don't really want to battle that guy. I miss the flop and check/fold. I think that was fine. Could definitely raise, but especially with 2 callers already, I think calling is fine.
Hand 8 - Guy with a cigar and a lot of money raises to $20. I call with 5-3 of spades. Flop comes out Q-J-6 with 2 spades. He checks, I bet $25, and he calls. Turn is an offsuit 3. He checks again. I figure that although I have some showdown value right now, it's very likely he still has me beat with a jack, a pair between 6 and jack, or whatever. So I'm going to bet again. I bet out $75 and he folds.
Hand 9 - Limp with 5-5, call a $30 raise, miss, fold.
Hand 10 - I am in the big blind with K-3 suited. The button straddled, and I call 5 more. He checks. The flop is 10-6-4 with 2 of my suit. Small blind leads for $25 and I call. I don't think this was very good. Lot of people behind, and I'm not getting the immediate odds to call. Probably should have just folded. Raising was somewhat out of the question because the small blind only had about $150 left.
Everyone else folds. Turn is the 6 of my suit. He checks, I bet $100, he folds. Not sure why I bet that much either, just got messed up for some reason.
Hand 11 - Guy raises to $20, 2 callers, I call with J-8 suited, miss, fold.
Hand 12, 13, 14 - Bunch of hands with Q-J. I call a $15 raise with Q-J, miss, fold. Probably should never call a raise with that even in good position, it just doesn't have enough value to call a raise with. Reraise or fold.
Next, I raise to $25 with Q-J. Get a bunch of callers, miss, fold.
Next, I call $25 with Q-J... SUITED (spades)! :-) Probably not good. I'm in late-ish position, don't remember exactly where. Another guy calls.
Now a guy on the button reraises to $65 total. Original raiser calls. Arrrgghhhh. This pot is fucking huge. I decide to call, and the other guy calls. $260 in preflop, lol.
Flop is not what I wanted. :P A-7-3 with 2 hearts (and one spade). It checks to the button, and he bets $80.
This was actually interesting. I thought, there is NO WAY THIS GUY HAS AN ACE. He reraised preflop, and now he's betting small on this flop. I am putting him on a big pocket pair, JJ-KK. At this point, I'm seriously considering check-raising him.
Now, the guy to my immediate right calls $80. That threw a wrench in my plan. I figured he probably had an ace. I still thought about it for a bit. I decided that it probably just wouldn't work to get both of these guys off of their hands, and I have zero equity in this pot. So I fold.
The hand played out really interesting, btw. The other guy folded. Turn was the ace of spades (giving me backdoor spades if I stayed). Now it goes check, check. River is a blank. Now the guy who called $80 leads for $225.
The other guy sits there and thinks about it FOREVER. He finally calls. He called with 6-6, and he was good. Sick. MONSTER pot. Other guy must have been on a flush draw. I wondered how high his draw was. If I got crazy with the hand, I could have potentially shoved, got called by the draw because the pot was so big, and won a $1000+ pot with queen high.
I also wonder that if the other guy folded, if the 6-6 guy would have folded to a bet of $200 total. I don't know what I would have made it, but I think I would have fucked up and made it too small. In reality the pot was so big that I could just shove. But then, he may think I'm on a draw and call. But with 2 cards to come facing 2 probable overcards AND a flush draw, it's a flip at best and I think he has to just fold. Super interesting hand imo!
Hand 15 - Worst hand of the night. Guy in the hijack opens to $20. Cigar guy. Next two people (both lousy) call. I'm in the blind with J-J... and call. Sigh. Such a terrible call. I should reraise that all day. I was thinking, I can sort of trap this guy, but that is retarded for two reasons. First, this hand is not strong enough to trap with at all, so that reasoning makes zero sense. Second, this guy raises in late position so he does not have to have a strong hand at all. So stupid.
Flop comes 5-2-9 and it checks around. I was going to check-raise, which was again stupid. Just over-rep my hand for no reason. Turn is a 4, so at least I still have an overpair. I bet $40 and get 2 callers including 1 guy who called all in for $1. :-) River is the ace of hearts putting 3 hearts on board. I thought that this guy could easily have A-K, so I check. (Now that I say that, it makes zero sense. Why would he call the turn with A-K?) He checks. The preflop raiser had A-3, turned the straight. The all-in guy had J-9 suited, flush. If I reraise preflop I win $60, but instead decided to lose $60.
I ended up losing $202. Not terrible, and it felt great to get back on the 2/5 table and play. The game was good, people are fucking terrible at poker. I'm not great, but I'm better than these idiots.
Only thing I don't know about now is if I should continue at 2/5 or wait and build back up a few bucks. My bankroll is at probably 2900-ish now. I guess I can take one more shot at it. If I lose, back to 1/2.
I went home after work, ate some dinner, and was off to the Rock. I told myself that I would only play the 2/5 game tonight if it looked good. Called in and got myself on the 1/2 and 2/5 lists.
I got to the Rock and got my name off of the call in. Jason gave me a seat on table 8 (1/2). I said I'm also on the 2/5. Quick look of surprise, and he said there were seats open on table 3 as well.
I look over and the game is short(-ish). 6 handed. I decided to stay away from it for the time being. No need to jump in and play 7 handed, then a couple people get up, and pretty soon I'm playing short. So I just play some 1/2 in the meantime.
I sat at table 8, which is right next to the 2/5 game on table 3. I was scoping it out. Looked like a couple potentially good people, and some people that looked lousy. Completely judging based on how people look, but thats not that bad of an indicator a lot of the time.
1/2 NL
I pick up two black aces on my very first hand dealt. Gotta love that. Two limpers, and I raise to $15. Get one call. Flop 10-9-7 with 2 diamonds. He checks, I bet $20, he folds.
Next hand I get 7-6 suited, raise it to $8, 3 callers, and check-fold.
2/5 NL
Another guy sits down at 2/5. Younger kid I know from the Wynn. He is OK, nothing scary. Not a real plus for the table though. Then some other guy sits down and he looks like a good spot. Game is filling up so I talk to the desk. I buy another $200 from the counter, grab my $300 from the 1/2 table, and move over.
I'm excited. I haven't played 2/5 NL in almost a year, and it's always my goal to get back into this game. Let's do this!
Hand 1 - I play this hand bad right away. I'm in the blind with K-9 offsuit. Few people limp and we see the flop 5 ways. Flop K-10-9 with 2 clubs. First guy checks, I check (why?) and everyone else checks. Turn is an 8. Doesn't really change anything. Small blind fires $25, I call, everyone else folds. River is a 2. He checks, I bet $60, he folds.
The game looks really good so far. I'm pretty excited. Not that I thought it would be too tough, but it's nice sitting in the game and seeing that it's pretty good. Some crazy shit has been going down. Huge pots. An extreme example, one guy called $100 preflop with J-8 suited. The guy only had $200 behind. Of course, he flopped 2 jacks and won the pot. :P
Also, people have a ton of money in this game. In the 1/2 game, you are lucky to have more than a couple others with the max buy-in in front of them. In the 2/5 game, literally all but 1 person had me covered.
Hand 2 - I raise under the gun to $20 with A-K. Standard raise is much bigger so I probably should raise bigger. But I figure $20 is fine, it will probably accomplish the same thing and also lower my variance. 2 people call me. Flop comes K-8-2 with 2 diamonds. Checks to me, $40, they both fold.
Hand 3 - Guy in middle position raises to $35. I call in the big blind with 3-3. Flop is K-10-8 with 2 clubs. It checks around. Turn is an 8. Checks to the preflop raiser and he bets $100. Looks fishy for sure but I just fold.
Hand 4 - One guy (who does not appear to be that good) limps to my immediate right. I raise in late position with 10-8 suited. He is the only caller.
Flop comes out Q-10-10. BOOM. Raise with the T-8 and destroy the flop. He checks, I bet $25, he calls. Turn is a king, putting 2 hearts on board. He checks. I bet $80 and he calls. Bet sizing is pretty questionable on this hand imo. Should have bet a little more on the flop.
At this point I think the guy probably has a queen. If he checks the river, I'm just going to bomb it.
River is the 6 of hearts. Now he leads for $100. Hmmm.
I thought about this one for a while. What could he have? The queen was not a heart, so I eventually decided he could pretty easily have Q-x of hearts. Plus regardless, it didn't look like he was bluffing. I got a stack of 100 and started moving it around to get a read on him, and he just didn't look worried at all. I fold. He lifts up his cards and I can see J-9 suited. He turned the straight. This hand made me feel awesome, great fold on the river.
Hand 5 - 2 people limp, and I have Q-Q on the button. I raise to $25. They both call.
Flop is 9-4-3. First guy checks, and now the next guy (same guy from last hand) leads out for $40. I grab a stack and 4 red chips and raise to $120. I'm prepared to fold to a reraise. He folds (as does the other guy).
Hand 6 - Guy has button straddled to $10. I have J-J under the gun and raise to $35. The straddle and the big blind call. Flop comes out A-4-3. I bet $50, they both fold.
Hand 7 - Guy raises to 15 in middle position. This guy appears to be pretty good and he has been putting some big bets out. 2 people call. I'm in the big blind with A-Q suited. I decide to just call. I can play this one multiway, and I don't really want to battle that guy. I miss the flop and check/fold. I think that was fine. Could definitely raise, but especially with 2 callers already, I think calling is fine.
Hand 8 - Guy with a cigar and a lot of money raises to $20. I call with 5-3 of spades. Flop comes out Q-J-6 with 2 spades. He checks, I bet $25, and he calls. Turn is an offsuit 3. He checks again. I figure that although I have some showdown value right now, it's very likely he still has me beat with a jack, a pair between 6 and jack, or whatever. So I'm going to bet again. I bet out $75 and he folds.
Hand 9 - Limp with 5-5, call a $30 raise, miss, fold.
Hand 10 - I am in the big blind with K-3 suited. The button straddled, and I call 5 more. He checks. The flop is 10-6-4 with 2 of my suit. Small blind leads for $25 and I call. I don't think this was very good. Lot of people behind, and I'm not getting the immediate odds to call. Probably should have just folded. Raising was somewhat out of the question because the small blind only had about $150 left.
Everyone else folds. Turn is the 6 of my suit. He checks, I bet $100, he folds. Not sure why I bet that much either, just got messed up for some reason.
Hand 11 - Guy raises to $20, 2 callers, I call with J-8 suited, miss, fold.
Hand 12, 13, 14 - Bunch of hands with Q-J. I call a $15 raise with Q-J, miss, fold. Probably should never call a raise with that even in good position, it just doesn't have enough value to call a raise with. Reraise or fold.
Next, I raise to $25 with Q-J. Get a bunch of callers, miss, fold.
Next, I call $25 with Q-J... SUITED (spades)! :-) Probably not good. I'm in late-ish position, don't remember exactly where. Another guy calls.
Now a guy on the button reraises to $65 total. Original raiser calls. Arrrgghhhh. This pot is fucking huge. I decide to call, and the other guy calls. $260 in preflop, lol.
Flop is not what I wanted. :P A-7-3 with 2 hearts (and one spade). It checks to the button, and he bets $80.
This was actually interesting. I thought, there is NO WAY THIS GUY HAS AN ACE. He reraised preflop, and now he's betting small on this flop. I am putting him on a big pocket pair, JJ-KK. At this point, I'm seriously considering check-raising him.
Now, the guy to my immediate right calls $80. That threw a wrench in my plan. I figured he probably had an ace. I still thought about it for a bit. I decided that it probably just wouldn't work to get both of these guys off of their hands, and I have zero equity in this pot. So I fold.
The hand played out really interesting, btw. The other guy folded. Turn was the ace of spades (giving me backdoor spades if I stayed). Now it goes check, check. River is a blank. Now the guy who called $80 leads for $225.
The other guy sits there and thinks about it FOREVER. He finally calls. He called with 6-6, and he was good. Sick. MONSTER pot. Other guy must have been on a flush draw. I wondered how high his draw was. If I got crazy with the hand, I could have potentially shoved, got called by the draw because the pot was so big, and won a $1000+ pot with queen high.
I also wonder that if the other guy folded, if the 6-6 guy would have folded to a bet of $200 total. I don't know what I would have made it, but I think I would have fucked up and made it too small. In reality the pot was so big that I could just shove. But then, he may think I'm on a draw and call. But with 2 cards to come facing 2 probable overcards AND a flush draw, it's a flip at best and I think he has to just fold. Super interesting hand imo!
Hand 15 - Worst hand of the night. Guy in the hijack opens to $20. Cigar guy. Next two people (both lousy) call. I'm in the blind with J-J... and call. Sigh. Such a terrible call. I should reraise that all day. I was thinking, I can sort of trap this guy, but that is retarded for two reasons. First, this hand is not strong enough to trap with at all, so that reasoning makes zero sense. Second, this guy raises in late position so he does not have to have a strong hand at all. So stupid.
Flop comes 5-2-9 and it checks around. I was going to check-raise, which was again stupid. Just over-rep my hand for no reason. Turn is a 4, so at least I still have an overpair. I bet $40 and get 2 callers including 1 guy who called all in for $1. :-) River is the ace of hearts putting 3 hearts on board. I thought that this guy could easily have A-K, so I check. (Now that I say that, it makes zero sense. Why would he call the turn with A-K?) He checks. The preflop raiser had A-3, turned the straight. The all-in guy had J-9 suited, flush. If I reraise preflop I win $60, but instead decided to lose $60.
I ended up losing $202. Not terrible, and it felt great to get back on the 2/5 table and play. The game was good, people are fucking terrible at poker. I'm not great, but I'm better than these idiots.
Only thing I don't know about now is if I should continue at 2/5 or wait and build back up a few bucks. My bankroll is at probably 2900-ish now. I guess I can take one more shot at it. If I lose, back to 1/2.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Another win, and 2/5 is imminent
Red Rock 1/2 NL - Sunday, April 14th
Got up to the Rock around 7 PM or so for some Saturday night action. Table looked like your standard Red Rock table - bunch of nits sitting around, not talking, hating life.
Hand 1 : Very first hand I'm dealt. I'm in the cutoff. Guy directly to my right opens for $11. I look down at two black queens. I put out $30. Guy starts going off, this is your first hand, blah blah blah. He calls. Flop is 10 high, he checks, I bet $40, he folds.
Hand 2 : I am in middle position with a full stack ($300) and A-J. I raise to $8, get called by a younger guy with headphones. He has me covered.
Flop is A-T-6, 2 spades. I bet out $12. He calls. Turn 6. I bet $25, he calls. River 9. My kicker plays, but my hand is pretty weak. I decide to put out a blocking bet and fold if he raises. I bet $33. He calls. He has A-K. :P Typical super passive play.
Hand 3 : My wife is sitting to my right and she opens to $10. I look down at two black aces. I just call. We are playing with different bankrolls, so it's not like there is no benefit to playing against her. But at the same time, I know she's not going to give me a ton of action if I reraise, and I don't really want to bust her or anything either. So I take a non-standard line and just call.
It folds around to the blind. Older guy. He raises to $46 total. Hell yeah. :-) Dealer pulls in the $10s. She folds. I "think about it" and put out a stack, making it $110 total. He calls. I only have $140 left. Flop comes out queen high and he checks. I hollywood again for a bit and bet the entire $140. He calls and I win. He then is like, you must know each other because I didn't put you on AA and you would normally reraise. Yeah, pretty much. I don't feel bad though because I'm definitely not hiding the fact that we know each other.
Hand 4 : I raise to 10 with AhQc. Get 2 callers, including the guy who just called me down with A-K earlier.
Flop comes A-K-x, all clubs. I have the nut club draw. I bet out $20 and the A-K guy from before calls. Turn is another king. Not the best card for me because I think a king is definitely something he could have called the flop with. I bet out $35, he calls. River, the 8 of hearts. I miss the club draw. I end up doing basically what I did in the A-K hand with him earlier. I put out a smallish bet and plan on folding to a raise. I bet $45. He calls. He had A-10 with the 10 of clubs, so I win a decent pot.
The night went well for me and I ended up winning $290. My bankroll at this point is over $3000 and I'm ready to take a shot at 2/5. I'm writing this on April 15th (Monday), and I might go take a shot at the 2/5 game tonight. I'm going to go to Red Rock and scope it out. If there are a bunch of young guys in the game I probably won't play. If it's the group of terrible old guys in there, I will take a shot.
Got up to the Rock around 7 PM or so for some Saturday night action. Table looked like your standard Red Rock table - bunch of nits sitting around, not talking, hating life.
Hand 1 : Very first hand I'm dealt. I'm in the cutoff. Guy directly to my right opens for $11. I look down at two black queens. I put out $30. Guy starts going off, this is your first hand, blah blah blah. He calls. Flop is 10 high, he checks, I bet $40, he folds.
Hand 2 : I am in middle position with a full stack ($300) and A-J. I raise to $8, get called by a younger guy with headphones. He has me covered.
Flop is A-T-6, 2 spades. I bet out $12. He calls. Turn 6. I bet $25, he calls. River 9. My kicker plays, but my hand is pretty weak. I decide to put out a blocking bet and fold if he raises. I bet $33. He calls. He has A-K. :P Typical super passive play.
Hand 3 : My wife is sitting to my right and she opens to $10. I look down at two black aces. I just call. We are playing with different bankrolls, so it's not like there is no benefit to playing against her. But at the same time, I know she's not going to give me a ton of action if I reraise, and I don't really want to bust her or anything either. So I take a non-standard line and just call.
It folds around to the blind. Older guy. He raises to $46 total. Hell yeah. :-) Dealer pulls in the $10s. She folds. I "think about it" and put out a stack, making it $110 total. He calls. I only have $140 left. Flop comes out queen high and he checks. I hollywood again for a bit and bet the entire $140. He calls and I win. He then is like, you must know each other because I didn't put you on AA and you would normally reraise. Yeah, pretty much. I don't feel bad though because I'm definitely not hiding the fact that we know each other.
Hand 4 : I raise to 10 with AhQc. Get 2 callers, including the guy who just called me down with A-K earlier.
Flop comes A-K-x, all clubs. I have the nut club draw. I bet out $20 and the A-K guy from before calls. Turn is another king. Not the best card for me because I think a king is definitely something he could have called the flop with. I bet out $35, he calls. River, the 8 of hearts. I miss the club draw. I end up doing basically what I did in the A-K hand with him earlier. I put out a smallish bet and plan on folding to a raise. I bet $45. He calls. He had A-10 with the 10 of clubs, so I win a decent pot.
The night went well for me and I ended up winning $290. My bankroll at this point is over $3000 and I'm ready to take a shot at 2/5. I'm writing this on April 15th (Monday), and I might go take a shot at the 2/5 game tonight. I'm going to go to Red Rock and scope it out. If there are a bunch of young guys in the game I probably won't play. If it's the group of terrible old guys in there, I will take a shot.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Variance, you crazy bitch
Written Sunday, April 14th, 2013
Yesterday I played pretty much all day, split up between the Rock and the Wynn. Lost $70. Based on that number, you could assume that not much happened throughout the day. You would definitely be wrong.
I was up $380 at the Rock when I cashed out. Ran really good.
Hand 1 : Set vs... what?
I raise in early position with pocket tens to something like $10. Get a couple calls. Flop is 10-6-x, all hearts. I bet out $20, get called by the old guy to my immediate left. Turn is an offsuit king. I bet out $35, he calls again. River is an offsuit deuce.
At this point, I just have no idea what this guy can have. Slowplaying a flush? I don't know. Ace high flush draw? If so, I'm not going to get much value on the river. It was hard deciding what to bet because I couldn't put him on anything. Eventually I just hoped he had a king or something and could call. I bet out $75 on the river and he called. He flopped a set of sixes and lost the minimum, although I wouldn't say he played it well. Crazy though that I didn't get his whole stack. Either way, good pot.
Hand 2 : Min-raise this!
I raise with T-9 suited to $8, probably in early position because I'm playing way too loose. Get called by an old lady and someone else. Flop comes out ace high with no draws. Like A-6-2 or something. I lead the flop for $16. Old lady raises me to $32.
What can this raise mean? I doubt she has a set, probably would just slowplay it. Probably has a weakish ace. Overall I just didn't feel like it felt like strength, so I decided I was going to try to raise her off of her hand.
I make it $80. She says that's what I thought, I wanted to see where you were at, etc, and folds pocket queens face up. I flip up the 10-9, no pair no draw.
Hand 3 : Please call...
I raise with J-7 of hearts. I get it - probably not great. Same old lady calls me. Flop is good though, Q-9-8 with 2 hearts. Gutshot with a heart draw. I bet $20, she calls me. Turn is a heart, boom. I bet $40, she calls again.
River is a brick. She has about $200 left. I thought about it and decided to just go for it, and hopefully she would call me because I bluffed her earlier. I say "all in", and move out two stacks of red. Then I just sit there. She thinks and thinks... grabs her chips like she's going to push them in, trying to get a read on me, says "I KNOW I have you beat...", and finally folds. :( I still think the bet was good and if she just had something a bit stronger she could have called. The ironic part is that no matter what she had, if she was bluff catching me her actual hand strength was irrelevant. If she had pocket aces, top two pair, probably second pair, it's all the same. If she thought I was bluffing she should have called.
So I ran really good at the Rock and ended up winning $380. Then I went over to the Wynn.
Hand 4 : Kings
I limp with kings under the gun in the 1/3 game at Wynn. Not standard and I would normally not do this. However, the guy to my left was a recreational player that was drinking heavily and just went into the parking lot to smoke weed with this other guy, and he was talking about leaving in just a couple hands. So I was hoping he might implode and just go nuts raising the next couple hands or whatever. So I limp.
This girl raises to $15. Sweet. Not the person I was hoping to go against, but that's OK. Another guy calls. Comes back to me, $60. Folds to her. She says "All in" and slides her money out. She had about $70 in red and a bill. Comes back to me, whatever, I call.
Board runs out A-6-x-10-x. I'm sitting there waiting to see her hand. She says, "I think I got lucky", and flips up 6-6. Flopped a set. UGHHHHHH. She says, "Maybe I was ahead the whole way" to which I replied, "I don't think so" in disgust. She had about $170, so the pot was about $400 or so total.
Hand 5 : Aces
I raise to 11 in early position with A-A. Couple folds, and the next guy makes it $25. Perfect. I'm hoping to trap some people in the middle and reraise. Unfortunately nobody else calls. The guy has a bill and maybe 100-ish chips. I ask how many bills he has, and he slides them around and I can see he actually has 2 bills. Awesome.
I reraise to $80 and wait. To my delight, he quickly says "All in!" and I say "call". He flips up K-K, and I flip up A-A. Pretty much the situation you are hoping for all day in a NL cash game.
Flop comes out and it's terrible. A-J-10 with 2 diamonds. He has a diamond, and he immediately doubled his outs with the gutshot. Turn is a diamond and I'm like omg... this board is getting ridiculous. lol. River, diamond. Ship it. I ask how much he has, $343 total. I count it out, say "peace, I'm out" and grab my remaining $150 and leave.
Overall on the day I only lost $70. Not bad. I obviously ran great the rest of the day to balance out those two pots that totaled $1100. So sick though. I was a 80% favorite in both, so overall I was running behind expectation $880 in those two pots. Yes, I had some other hands where I could have gotten drawn out on so you can't really count it, but still. Those were pretty bad.
Yesterday I played pretty much all day, split up between the Rock and the Wynn. Lost $70. Based on that number, you could assume that not much happened throughout the day. You would definitely be wrong.
I was up $380 at the Rock when I cashed out. Ran really good.
Hand 1 : Set vs... what?
I raise in early position with pocket tens to something like $10. Get a couple calls. Flop is 10-6-x, all hearts. I bet out $20, get called by the old guy to my immediate left. Turn is an offsuit king. I bet out $35, he calls again. River is an offsuit deuce.
At this point, I just have no idea what this guy can have. Slowplaying a flush? I don't know. Ace high flush draw? If so, I'm not going to get much value on the river. It was hard deciding what to bet because I couldn't put him on anything. Eventually I just hoped he had a king or something and could call. I bet out $75 on the river and he called. He flopped a set of sixes and lost the minimum, although I wouldn't say he played it well. Crazy though that I didn't get his whole stack. Either way, good pot.
Hand 2 : Min-raise this!
I raise with T-9 suited to $8, probably in early position because I'm playing way too loose. Get called by an old lady and someone else. Flop comes out ace high with no draws. Like A-6-2 or something. I lead the flop for $16. Old lady raises me to $32.
What can this raise mean? I doubt she has a set, probably would just slowplay it. Probably has a weakish ace. Overall I just didn't feel like it felt like strength, so I decided I was going to try to raise her off of her hand.
I make it $80. She says that's what I thought, I wanted to see where you were at, etc, and folds pocket queens face up. I flip up the 10-9, no pair no draw.
Hand 3 : Please call...
I raise with J-7 of hearts. I get it - probably not great. Same old lady calls me. Flop is good though, Q-9-8 with 2 hearts. Gutshot with a heart draw. I bet $20, she calls me. Turn is a heart, boom. I bet $40, she calls again.
River is a brick. She has about $200 left. I thought about it and decided to just go for it, and hopefully she would call me because I bluffed her earlier. I say "all in", and move out two stacks of red. Then I just sit there. She thinks and thinks... grabs her chips like she's going to push them in, trying to get a read on me, says "I KNOW I have you beat...", and finally folds. :( I still think the bet was good and if she just had something a bit stronger she could have called. The ironic part is that no matter what she had, if she was bluff catching me her actual hand strength was irrelevant. If she had pocket aces, top two pair, probably second pair, it's all the same. If she thought I was bluffing she should have called.
So I ran really good at the Rock and ended up winning $380. Then I went over to the Wynn.
Hand 4 : Kings
I limp with kings under the gun in the 1/3 game at Wynn. Not standard and I would normally not do this. However, the guy to my left was a recreational player that was drinking heavily and just went into the parking lot to smoke weed with this other guy, and he was talking about leaving in just a couple hands. So I was hoping he might implode and just go nuts raising the next couple hands or whatever. So I limp.
This girl raises to $15. Sweet. Not the person I was hoping to go against, but that's OK. Another guy calls. Comes back to me, $60. Folds to her. She says "All in" and slides her money out. She had about $70 in red and a bill. Comes back to me, whatever, I call.
Board runs out A-6-x-10-x. I'm sitting there waiting to see her hand. She says, "I think I got lucky", and flips up 6-6. Flopped a set. UGHHHHHH. She says, "Maybe I was ahead the whole way" to which I replied, "I don't think so" in disgust. She had about $170, so the pot was about $400 or so total.
Hand 5 : Aces
I raise to 11 in early position with A-A. Couple folds, and the next guy makes it $25. Perfect. I'm hoping to trap some people in the middle and reraise. Unfortunately nobody else calls. The guy has a bill and maybe 100-ish chips. I ask how many bills he has, and he slides them around and I can see he actually has 2 bills. Awesome.
I reraise to $80 and wait. To my delight, he quickly says "All in!" and I say "call". He flips up K-K, and I flip up A-A. Pretty much the situation you are hoping for all day in a NL cash game.
Flop comes out and it's terrible. A-J-10 with 2 diamonds. He has a diamond, and he immediately doubled his outs with the gutshot. Turn is a diamond and I'm like omg... this board is getting ridiculous. lol. River, diamond. Ship it. I ask how much he has, $343 total. I count it out, say "peace, I'm out" and grab my remaining $150 and leave.
Overall on the day I only lost $70. Not bad. I obviously ran great the rest of the day to balance out those two pots that totaled $1100. So sick though. I was a 80% favorite in both, so overall I was running behind expectation $880 in those two pots. Yes, I had some other hands where I could have gotten drawn out on so you can't really count it, but still. Those were pretty bad.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
More bluffing excitement
Red Rock 1/2 NL - Friday, April 12th
I can't help myself. I just love playing a little crazy.
Hand 1 : Old guy limps. I think these guys are just so freaking tight that unless they flop a monster, I should be able to take advantage of them a LOT of the time. So I raise to $10 with 4-2 offsuit. He calls.
Flop is 10-8-4 with 2 diamonds. The old guy leads for $16. This is a bluff about 0% of the time. At the same time, I seriously doubt he flopped a set. Probably would check-raise or slowplay it. 2 pair makes no sense either, although I didn't really think it through at the time. He can pretty easily have a 10, maybe even J-J, or 9-9. I raise to $45, he calls.
I wasn't loving it at the time, but I think you pretty much need to expect that call 100% of the time, and it doesn't really mean anything. I just don't think people are usually folding. Probably they are going to call most of the time and re-evaluate on the turn.
Turn is a blank, 3. He checks. I bet 75 and he folds.
Hand 2 : 4 people limp. I have A-K in the big blind and raise to $20. One guy on the button calls. Flop is 5-4-2 with 2 clubs. I have a gutshot which is nice, but I figure he's calling me with a pair most of the time which is now an overpair. I bet out $26, he calls. Turn is a 2. I decide to bet big again and fire out 75. I figure with his call on the flop, he probably has a pair. If he flopped a set, he will raise me now and I can fold. But most pairs missed and a small-ish overpair (88, 99) is just going to be really uncomfortable calling. He had about 200 or so left. He folded.
Hand 3 : Not a bluffing hand, but a hand where I just sort of got screwed into getting all of the money in. I have A-A under the gun and raise to $10. Get 1 caller in middle position. He has about $130. Flop comes Q-8-7 with 2 clubs. I bet out $13. He raises to $30.
At this point I'm definitely not loving my hand, and I don't want to stack off with A-A against a set or whatever. There is a flush draw out there, and straight draw, although then again a lot of people aren't semi-bluff raising in 1/2. I decided to just call and see what happens on the turn.
Turn comes an 8. I thought it was a good card at the time because he could have 2 pair counterfeited, but that's retarded because he would have to have Q-7, which is not happening. Anyway, I check and he bets $45. He has about $50 left. I just figure I have under-repped my hand a bit and he could easily have a queen. A-Q, K-Q, and so on. So whatever, I just get it all in with him and he calls. Turns out he had K-K and I get his chips.
Over the last week, I have been absolutely CRUSHING. I'm up $1800 in the last 7 days. Super sick run. I'm going to give 2/5 a shot real soon. I hope I win, because if I do, I'm in there. No looking back. If not, no big deal and I'll keep grinding 1/2. But I really want to get back into 2/5. :-)
I can't help myself. I just love playing a little crazy.
Hand 1 : Old guy limps. I think these guys are just so freaking tight that unless they flop a monster, I should be able to take advantage of them a LOT of the time. So I raise to $10 with 4-2 offsuit. He calls.
Flop is 10-8-4 with 2 diamonds. The old guy leads for $16. This is a bluff about 0% of the time. At the same time, I seriously doubt he flopped a set. Probably would check-raise or slowplay it. 2 pair makes no sense either, although I didn't really think it through at the time. He can pretty easily have a 10, maybe even J-J, or 9-9. I raise to $45, he calls.
I wasn't loving it at the time, but I think you pretty much need to expect that call 100% of the time, and it doesn't really mean anything. I just don't think people are usually folding. Probably they are going to call most of the time and re-evaluate on the turn.
Turn is a blank, 3. He checks. I bet 75 and he folds.
Hand 2 : 4 people limp. I have A-K in the big blind and raise to $20. One guy on the button calls. Flop is 5-4-2 with 2 clubs. I have a gutshot which is nice, but I figure he's calling me with a pair most of the time which is now an overpair. I bet out $26, he calls. Turn is a 2. I decide to bet big again and fire out 75. I figure with his call on the flop, he probably has a pair. If he flopped a set, he will raise me now and I can fold. But most pairs missed and a small-ish overpair (88, 99) is just going to be really uncomfortable calling. He had about 200 or so left. He folded.
Hand 3 : Not a bluffing hand, but a hand where I just sort of got screwed into getting all of the money in. I have A-A under the gun and raise to $10. Get 1 caller in middle position. He has about $130. Flop comes Q-8-7 with 2 clubs. I bet out $13. He raises to $30.
At this point I'm definitely not loving my hand, and I don't want to stack off with A-A against a set or whatever. There is a flush draw out there, and straight draw, although then again a lot of people aren't semi-bluff raising in 1/2. I decided to just call and see what happens on the turn.
Turn comes an 8. I thought it was a good card at the time because he could have 2 pair counterfeited, but that's retarded because he would have to have Q-7, which is not happening. Anyway, I check and he bets $45. He has about $50 left. I just figure I have under-repped my hand a bit and he could easily have a queen. A-Q, K-Q, and so on. So whatever, I just get it all in with him and he calls. Turns out he had K-K and I get his chips.
Over the last week, I have been absolutely CRUSHING. I'm up $1800 in the last 7 days. Super sick run. I'm going to give 2/5 a shot real soon. I hope I win, because if I do, I'm in there. No looking back. If not, no big deal and I'll keep grinding 1/2. But I really want to get back into 2/5. :-)
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Playing Stupid
Written on Friday, April 12th
I've run better this week than I have in a VERY long time. HUGE night at the Wynn (biggest all year), two very big nights at the Nug, and I won a couple hundo at the Rock last night. Straight up crushing. I'm up around $1600 in the last 7 days playing 1/2 and 1/3 NL.
Here's the problem, and it's something I have struggled with in the past. When I was playing NL recently, I was sticking to the WPT Boot Camp plan to the letter. This week I said forget that, I'm going to do my own thing where I think it makes sense. It's been working out quite well, although I'll admit that several of the big hands I've won did not stray from the strategy I would have implemented using their system.
Straying from the system may become a problem for me, and it's something I need to be vigilant of. Here are two hands I played in the last week.
Hand 1 : Golden Nugget 1/2 NL, Wednesday April 10th
4 or 5 people limp for $2. The table has been playing relatively tight. I am in the small blind and look down at 7-2 offsuit. I decide to raise it to $20, and my plan is to show my hand for advertising purposes. I get one caller. Damn it. Flop comes Kc-Tc-x. Not awesome board texture, but I am heads up. I fire out $30, he raises me all in for $140. I fold, but I end up throwing it in face up anyway. 25 bb down the drain in a pot where I didn't have to get involved at all, nor was there any logical reason to get involved.
Hand 2 : Red Rock 1/2 NL, Thursday April 11th
I am under the gun with 8-5 of clubs (or maybe 2nd to act). I open for $8. 2 callers. Flop is a dream, K-8-3 with 2 clubs. I bet $16, get a caller in middle position. Turn is the queen of clubs. Bet $35, he calls. River is an offsuit 2, total blank. I bet $80. He thinks for a while, counts out the chips, and puts them in. The flush is good and I win a nice pot.
Hand 3 (also at Red Rock that night)
Old man limps for $2. I am on the button with 5-3 offsuit. I think, I'm going to be able to get this guy off of his hand a ton of the time if he doesn't hit. I raise to $10. He calls. Flop comes K-x-x (I don't really remember). Now the old guy leads for $27, more than a pot sized bet. He has about $130 left. I fold.
The common theme in all of these pots is that there was really no reason to get involved. In all 3 of these situations the clearly superior play is to fold preflop and not get involved. I think there is one golden rule that if at all possible, I should implement:
Don't fuck around unless you are suited!!!!
Granted, the 8-5 suited hand is a bad example because I'm out of position, so that was not a good play. But if I DO decide to get nuts with some of these hands, I should always be suited. Offsuit hands are just total junk. You can only flop straight draws. Flopping a flush draw (or even a backdoor flush draw) is so much better and gives you a lot of leverage so you can semi-bluff a lot more.
When I thought about straying from the WPT-BC style, my main thing was playing different post-flop. I had no problems with the pre-flop strategy, although I might take some of the super high variance plays out of my arsenal. Like if I raise with Q-Q and get 3 bet in that game, I don't think I'm really losing a lot of value by folding or set mining. I'm sorry, people just do NOT 3 bet light in that game at all. Yeah, you will get people to fold A-K and Q-Q in that spot. But is it worth it? I don't think so.
When I thought about the strategy though, I thought preflop was overall very solid and there was no reason to stray from it. I started stretching it a bit, but with my success this week I stretched it to the point of snapping completely in half. Sure, I've been running good and it's been awesome. But I do think I'm setting myself up for disaster by continuing to play crazy preflop, and especially out of position.
One thing that I'm going to try to focus on more is playing hands against the right people. If I have a somewhat sub-standard hand and a terrible player calls or raises, I should be more likely to call. If I have a decent hand and a good player is in, I should be more apt to fold. It just totally makes sense. It's like internal table selection. You are at your table, but there are tons of 2 and 3 handed tables within your table. If I get to pick from several 3 handed tables to play individual hands at, shouldn't I always pick the table with fish? A solid reg raises, and I have the choice to call on the button. I'm essentially playing this hand at a heads up table against him. Would I ever do that on purpose? No. Fold. Then a fish limps or raises, some average player calls. My hand is decent, but not a monster. Would I play this one hand 3-handed against those 2 opponents? Yes, so I should call or raise.
I've been thinking about putting people on ranges and applying that to hand reading at the table. I must say, it's pretty damn tough to concentrate on that. I can see how pros might really struggle and have to put a TON of effort into paying attention to everything and using max brain power all the time to practice hand reading. I don't know how many hands I see where a monster pot is being shipped to someone, and I did not pay attention to the action AT ALL. Or 2 hours into the session, I honestly have no idea of who is playing tight and who is playing loose.
That might sound bad, but I think people trick themselves into THINKING they are paying attention, when they really are not. Think about it at some point during your next session. Over the last 3 hands, do you know who called or raised preflop? Do you remember the post-flop action? My guess is no. I think I need to start actively paying attention a LOT more if I want to improve my game. Some things I could do would be:
- Know the pot size (give or take a couple dollars) on every hand. Keep track of how many hands in a row you are able to pay attention to that.
- Pay attention to the original raiser in each hand (or the first limper, if nobody raises preflop). Put him/her on a range of hands and modify that range after every subsequent action. Just pay attention to that one person.
- Focus in on one player (maybe who you think is the best player at the table, or the worst player that you are most likely to win the most from). Pay attention to him during every single hand. What is his preflop raise and call frequency. How often is he calling a flop bet. How often is he raising. Is he giving up on the river. And so on. Just focus in on one person and see what you can pick up.
I've been reading this great book called The Poker Blueprint lately. It's really good. I heard this guy Tri talking on the Deuce Plays podcast and thought he was really smart and I wanted to hear more of his thoughts, and the book has been awesome. He talks about how you really just need to continue to want to improve and focus on that, and you don't want to be a grinder who doesn't improve and is stuck at their current limit, hating life. It also encourages taking shots at higher games more often, especially when you are on a very small bankroll, so I think I'm going to try 2/5 really soon. :-)
That's enough for today! More hands to come. Hoping I destroy the tables this weekend.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Straight killin the Nug
I played a couple sessions at the Nug and absolutely destroyed. There were a couple of hands I played poorly that I'd like to highlight. I won a TON of money (almost $900) and honestly I don't remember how I won all of it.
Golden Nugget - Monday, April 8th
Hand 1 : Top-top
Couple people limp. I have A-Q with the ace of clubs and raise to $12 from the big blind and get 2 callers. The flop comes Q-x-x, all clubs. I bet $20. Next guy min-raises me to $40. He has about $80 or so more left. I raise all-in, he shows me a queen and folds. Pretty standard.
NO. I thought that was totally fine, but later I realized it was pretty bad. If he had about $80 left and raised me, I have a ton of options:
Option 1 : raise all-in. Seems fine. I might have the best hand right now, but if not, I have a ton of equity in the pot. Might as well get it in. At least that's what I thought.
But what hands can I put him on when he raises me? A flush, a set, A-A, K-K, A-Q, K-Q, Q-J? Maybe some other weak hands like Q-10, pocket tens, etc. But that is pushing it.
Some of those hands I have crushed. And others I have equity against, but they are crushing me. If I raise all-in, the hands that crush me call. Which of the rest of the hands I beat call me when I raise all-in? Probably not many. Maybe K-Q with the king of clubs, but I don't even know if he would call. I think I'm basically shutting out all hands that I beat with that reraise.
Option 2 : Call. Not bad because there really aren't any scare cards for me. An offsuit king is the only thing that I could be scared of, and we are talking 3 outs, so 6% of the time I'll see a scare card. Nothing to worry about. And I can fire again on pretty much any turn card. If he has $80 left, I could bet like $30. With over $100 in the pot, it's going to be confusing and it's hard for him to fold. And if he goes all-in, I can call because I'll be getting 4:1 on the call just with my flush draw. There would be $100 in by the flop, I bet 30, he goes all-in, I have to call $50 to win $210, so I'm getting odds to call. I just did all of that math now and didn't realize any of it at the table of course.
Option 3 : Reraise small. I think I might like this the best. I bet $20, he raises to $40. Now I reraise $20 more. lol. It sounds retarded but I actually think it's awesome. How can he fold? He's getting like 6:1 on a call. There was 30 in pre, 80 in with the 40+40, and now I put in 20 more. So $20 to win $130. 6.5 to 1. He could really only fold if he had a total bluff. And it just looks like a weird bet so he might spaz out and go all-in. If he calls, I can shove any turn, or maybe just bet half of his stack, again giving him sick odds to call.
So out of the 3 options, I picked the worst one I think.
Hand 2 : Oh, I almost forgot, ship the free money
I have J-7 of hearts in the big blind and check. 5 way action. Flop comes A-8-10 with the A-10 of hearts. So I flopped a gutter and a heart draw. I bet $7, get 2 callers. Turn is the 9 of hearts, giving me the flush. I bet $20, get 2 callers.
River : 8 of hearts. BOOM. Straight flush bitches.
What to do? The pot had like $90 in it. One guy had about $200, the other guy had $300, and I had them both covered. I shoved out a stack of $150, big overbet. Hoping to get a call from someone that couldn't lay down the nut flush. They both folded.
Unfortunately, I think I messed up this one too. I thought at the time that someone with the nut flush would call. However, the board was paired. I was too excited at the time to really think it through. After thinking about it later, I think the optimum size would have been more like $60. I think someone with the king of hearts pretty much couldn't fold there for $60.
Another option could be doing something weird like betting $10. If you had the king of hearts, I think it would be very difficult to put me on a strong hand when I do that. So I might get raised, and could reraise. I don't think that's the best play either though, for a couple reasons. First off, people just aren't raising that much. So even someone with the nut flush might call. You see people just call (or not even bet) SUPER strong hands all the time, so there is no reason to think this is different. And even if I did get raised, nobody is calling a reraise. So instead of betting $10, getting raised to $40, and having someone fold to my reraise, it's better to just bet out.
So I win the pot. Dealer mucks the cards, sweeps the board back. Then I realize - hey, this is a high hand! So I say high hand and flip up the cards. Luckily (for both me and the dealer) she didn't muck the board face down. The board was mixed in with other cards, but face up. So she was able to recover it and get me the high hand bonus. I think so little about the jackpot and high hands that I almost forgot. Unlike everyone else there, completely obsessed with that crap. I ended up winning $237 for the high hand bonus. Tipped the dealer $17.50. They use those stupid 50 cent pieces at the Nugget, so they can do shady stuff like rake 50 cents preflop if you raise and everyone folds. :P
Anyway, couple huge days for me at the Nug. Won $475 on Sunday (nothing remarkable to talk about, just a good win) and $415 on Monday including the high hand money. Pretty damn good. Sick start to the month!
Golden Nugget - Monday, April 8th
Hand 1 : Top-top
Couple people limp. I have A-Q with the ace of clubs and raise to $12 from the big blind and get 2 callers. The flop comes Q-x-x, all clubs. I bet $20. Next guy min-raises me to $40. He has about $80 or so more left. I raise all-in, he shows me a queen and folds. Pretty standard.
NO. I thought that was totally fine, but later I realized it was pretty bad. If he had about $80 left and raised me, I have a ton of options:
Option 1 : raise all-in. Seems fine. I might have the best hand right now, but if not, I have a ton of equity in the pot. Might as well get it in. At least that's what I thought.
But what hands can I put him on when he raises me? A flush, a set, A-A, K-K, A-Q, K-Q, Q-J? Maybe some other weak hands like Q-10, pocket tens, etc. But that is pushing it.
Some of those hands I have crushed. And others I have equity against, but they are crushing me. If I raise all-in, the hands that crush me call. Which of the rest of the hands I beat call me when I raise all-in? Probably not many. Maybe K-Q with the king of clubs, but I don't even know if he would call. I think I'm basically shutting out all hands that I beat with that reraise.
Option 2 : Call. Not bad because there really aren't any scare cards for me. An offsuit king is the only thing that I could be scared of, and we are talking 3 outs, so 6% of the time I'll see a scare card. Nothing to worry about. And I can fire again on pretty much any turn card. If he has $80 left, I could bet like $30. With over $100 in the pot, it's going to be confusing and it's hard for him to fold. And if he goes all-in, I can call because I'll be getting 4:1 on the call just with my flush draw. There would be $100 in by the flop, I bet 30, he goes all-in, I have to call $50 to win $210, so I'm getting odds to call. I just did all of that math now and didn't realize any of it at the table of course.
Option 3 : Reraise small. I think I might like this the best. I bet $20, he raises to $40. Now I reraise $20 more. lol. It sounds retarded but I actually think it's awesome. How can he fold? He's getting like 6:1 on a call. There was 30 in pre, 80 in with the 40+40, and now I put in 20 more. So $20 to win $130. 6.5 to 1. He could really only fold if he had a total bluff. And it just looks like a weird bet so he might spaz out and go all-in. If he calls, I can shove any turn, or maybe just bet half of his stack, again giving him sick odds to call.
So out of the 3 options, I picked the worst one I think.
Hand 2 : Oh, I almost forgot, ship the free money
I have J-7 of hearts in the big blind and check. 5 way action. Flop comes A-8-10 with the A-10 of hearts. So I flopped a gutter and a heart draw. I bet $7, get 2 callers. Turn is the 9 of hearts, giving me the flush. I bet $20, get 2 callers.
River : 8 of hearts. BOOM. Straight flush bitches.
What to do? The pot had like $90 in it. One guy had about $200, the other guy had $300, and I had them both covered. I shoved out a stack of $150, big overbet. Hoping to get a call from someone that couldn't lay down the nut flush. They both folded.
Unfortunately, I think I messed up this one too. I thought at the time that someone with the nut flush would call. However, the board was paired. I was too excited at the time to really think it through. After thinking about it later, I think the optimum size would have been more like $60. I think someone with the king of hearts pretty much couldn't fold there for $60.
Another option could be doing something weird like betting $10. If you had the king of hearts, I think it would be very difficult to put me on a strong hand when I do that. So I might get raised, and could reraise. I don't think that's the best play either though, for a couple reasons. First off, people just aren't raising that much. So even someone with the nut flush might call. You see people just call (or not even bet) SUPER strong hands all the time, so there is no reason to think this is different. And even if I did get raised, nobody is calling a reraise. So instead of betting $10, getting raised to $40, and having someone fold to my reraise, it's better to just bet out.
So I win the pot. Dealer mucks the cards, sweeps the board back. Then I realize - hey, this is a high hand! So I say high hand and flip up the cards. Luckily (for both me and the dealer) she didn't muck the board face down. The board was mixed in with other cards, but face up. So she was able to recover it and get me the high hand bonus. I think so little about the jackpot and high hands that I almost forgot. Unlike everyone else there, completely obsessed with that crap. I ended up winning $237 for the high hand bonus. Tipped the dealer $17.50. They use those stupid 50 cent pieces at the Nugget, so they can do shady stuff like rake 50 cents preflop if you raise and everyone folds. :P
Anyway, couple huge days for me at the Nug. Won $475 on Sunday (nothing remarkable to talk about, just a good win) and $415 on Monday including the high hand money. Pretty damn good. Sick start to the month!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Super blog week!!!!!!!!
I've been playing a TON lately, and writing a bunch of blogs. It's been going pretty well for me and I'm super excited.
I am deciding to make this a SUPER BLOG WEEK and I'm going to post a new blog every day! Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and even Saturday! All coming out at midnight. That won't get you quite caught up to the present day, but it will be a lot better than dragging it out over the next couple of weeks.
Enjoy! And thanks for reading! :-)
I am deciding to make this a SUPER BLOG WEEK and I'm going to post a new blog every day! Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and even Saturday! All coming out at midnight. That won't get you quite caught up to the present day, but it will be a lot better than dragging it out over the next couple of weeks.
Enjoy! And thanks for reading! :-)
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Bonus Blog - Shit & Run
Last night I got up to the Wynn after work. Played for about 15 minutes. Only really played 1 hand. Raised on the button with 8-6 suited, c-bet the flop when I missed, and ended up losing to flopped top pair. I picked up about 20 minutes later and left.
You have heard of the "hit & run" where you win a big hand and immediately leave. However, what I have described will be known as a "shit & run" where you sit down, lose and immediately leave. :-) I was laughing so hard when I thought of this stupid poker term. A much better shit & run example would be the AA hand at the Nug where I sat down, dropped 500, and immediately left. Textbook shit & run.
lol, anyway, I'm out. Going to play some more this weekend for sure.
You have heard of the "hit & run" where you win a big hand and immediately leave. However, what I have described will be known as a "shit & run" where you sit down, lose and immediately leave. :-) I was laughing so hard when I thought of this stupid poker term. A much better shit & run example would be the AA hand at the Nug where I sat down, dropped 500, and immediately left. Textbook shit & run.
lol, anyway, I'm out. Going to play some more this weekend for sure.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Pushing no limit to the limit
Wynn - 1/3 NL, Saturday April 6th
Got to the Wynn and we were determined to play some NL. Played limit for about a half hour and lost $150. Just got crushed, couldn't do anything right. It was pretty depressing. Got called for NL and moved over. I only bought in for $300. My bankroll is dwindling and I decided to only buy in for 100 BB just because it seems like I haven't been winning a ton of pots where the extra money comes into play, but I've played some big pots (set over set, etc) where it does come into play. And since I am not in the business of folding sets, I'd rather make a small mistake or no mistake by deciding to never fold a set with 100 BB, where it could potentially be a mistake with 200 BB+.
Another thing to note, I'm throwing a lot of the WPT Boot Camp shit out of the window starting with this session. :-) For better or worse. There are some good tidbits of information there. Don't go broke with one pair. Feel free to bet or even raise / 3-bet your draws. Bet your strong hands aggressively. But there are some things I don't like too. I just want to give myself the right to play hands the way I see fit. So that's what I'm going to do for a bit. We'll see how it works.
Hand 1 : I call 2 more with 7-6 in the small blind. We see the flop 3 ways. Flop is 8-5-3 with 2 clubs. I bet $7, next guy calls, and the 3rd guy raises to $27. We both call. My plan is to turn the nuts. :-) Just kidding. Turn is a 10. I check, the next guy checks, and the last guy bets $35. I'm getting a good price to call. I wait a bit and call, and the last guy folds. At this point I'm strongly considering bluffing if a club comes off. Although, I didn't really have a plan for bet sizing for that or anything. River is the perfect card, an offsuit 4. I make the nuts. I bet out $150 and he folds.
I don't love my bet size. The pot had $160 in it, so I guess it wasn't a terrible size. But I think $100 would have been a lot easier to call. I could have also gone for a check-raise, but it would have just looked really strong and it would have been hard for him to call the raise (if he even bet). I think betting out is superior, I just don't know about the bet size. Plus if I bluffed the river, I know I wouldn't have bet that much.
Hand 2 : I raise Q-6 suited on the button to 7. :P As I said earlier, throwing the WPT Boot Camp stuff out of the window. I have no idea what I was trying to accomplish here. The big blind calls. Flop is 2-4-8 and we both check. Why I didn't c-bet, I have no clue. Turn is a 6. He bets out $10, I call. River is another 6. Boom! He bets $15. I raise to $55. He calls - with the straight (5-7). lol.
Hand 3 : This crazy guy named Jamal was at the table acting weird. Every person that sat down at the table would get greeted by him and he would say "Welcome to the table! I'm Jamal, what's your name? This is a really fun table." and he would shake their hand. I sat in the 1 seat and he was in the 10, and he shook my hand right in front of the dealer. lol. Just a crazy guy. Tourist. He was playing pretty wild too.
Jamal raises to $20. I have A-K and reraise to $60. Before I get my raise out, Dan the Man calls $20. Dan is a cool guy, super nice older guy that can play pretty wild too. Me and my wife really like Dan, he is super nice. He plays pretty tight, but can put in some HUGE overbets and I've seen him get paid off sometimes in crazy spots. So I make it $60 and Dan cold calls the $60.
It comes back to Jamal. He has a ton of money in front of him and says, "This might be the best move of the night or the dumbest move of the night. I'm all-in." and he stands up.
I have $260-ish left. I'm in the tank at this point. I have no more money to buy in with. And I did NOT want to ATM at the casino, I freaking hate that. :-) Losing the pot would put me on massive tilt and I would just storm out of the casino.
What made it tough is that I KNEW Jamal had a strong hand. I was getting pretty good odds to call. I figured Dan was folding and probably had a medium/high pair (or AK, which would suck). So his 60 was dead, plus the 60 that I put in and Jamal put in. So if I call, I'm putting in 260 to win 440 (180 + 260). Not quite 2:1. If he had a pair less than kings, it's a snap call. But of course he could have aces or kings here sometimes. At least I have blockers.
I decide to call. Flop is A-10-10, so I hit my hand. Turn and river are blanks. He turns over - pocket queens. A-K, ship it all day. So I go from the outhouse to the penthouse and now I'm sitting on $700 or so. Yes!!!!
Hand 4 : I am the most proud of this hand, I think it was great. There was a straddle and I raised to 25 with pocket jacks. I get one caller in the blind. Older lady that plays tight, but can over-value a hand too. She called an all-in preflop with A-Q for $160 earlier - terrible.
Flop is T-9-x. She checks, I bet $40, she calls. Turn is a king. She checks. I decide to check. I figure if I have her beat, she is going to have a hard time calling. If she has me beat, I get to see if she bets out on the river. It's going to look like I raised with either exactly what I have (underpair to the king) or A-Q, bet the flop, and am giving up.
River is a blank (some random low card). She checks. At this point I'm convinced I have the best hand. I decide to overbet, trying to look like I'm pushing her off the hand. I shove out a big stack of $150, I think she had maybe $120-130 left. She SNAP calls. I flip up the jacks. She says it's good and folds. That was awesome, getting so much value with the overcard out there.
Hand 5 : Pretty much plays itself but it was still awesome. I limp with pocket 4s. Flop comes out Ts-9s-4. Boom, bottom set. Maureen (lady from last hand) bets out $16. Jamal calls. I raise to $60. Maureen calls.
Now Jamal goes all-in for over $300! Crazy. I call. Maureen is short stacked and she calls too. I flip up the 4-4. Jamal flips up the J-6 of spades. I fist bump him and say good luck. Turn is a 9, giving me the boat (and giving Maureen some outs, since she had A-10). River blank, and I bust both people in a massive pot. Ship it!!!!
This was the first NL session I've played in a while, and I threw some of my rules out of the window. It turned out fantastic and I had literally the biggest win I have had ALL YEAR! +$850 (although I did lose $150 earlier at limit). Sick win, just absolutely monstrous.
I was so psyched. Poker has been tough for me, and March did not go that well. Getting a giant win under my belt felt awesome and it reignited my passion for no limit. Poker is such a brutal, crazy thing. You can go forever and not win, and then suddenly - WHAM. Giant win. I don't think I did anything spectacular today. Just won a huge flip, and had a set hold up. But that's all you need to do, and before you know it you are taking multiple racks of red up to the cashier.
Maybe April is the month where I turn it around and start fucking crushing. Let's do this. Could this be the time in my poker career where I have a downswing, stick it out, and come out of the other side stronger than ever? I don't know, but I definitely hope so. The WSOP starts on May 29th, so I have a little less than 2 months to get my bankroll up and ready. I would love to get over there and play cash games the whole time. Maybe 1/2, but better yet 2/5. Let's just crush this month and make it happen.
Got to the Wynn and we were determined to play some NL. Played limit for about a half hour and lost $150. Just got crushed, couldn't do anything right. It was pretty depressing. Got called for NL and moved over. I only bought in for $300. My bankroll is dwindling and I decided to only buy in for 100 BB just because it seems like I haven't been winning a ton of pots where the extra money comes into play, but I've played some big pots (set over set, etc) where it does come into play. And since I am not in the business of folding sets, I'd rather make a small mistake or no mistake by deciding to never fold a set with 100 BB, where it could potentially be a mistake with 200 BB+.
Another thing to note, I'm throwing a lot of the WPT Boot Camp shit out of the window starting with this session. :-) For better or worse. There are some good tidbits of information there. Don't go broke with one pair. Feel free to bet or even raise / 3-bet your draws. Bet your strong hands aggressively. But there are some things I don't like too. I just want to give myself the right to play hands the way I see fit. So that's what I'm going to do for a bit. We'll see how it works.
Hand 1 : I call 2 more with 7-6 in the small blind. We see the flop 3 ways. Flop is 8-5-3 with 2 clubs. I bet $7, next guy calls, and the 3rd guy raises to $27. We both call. My plan is to turn the nuts. :-) Just kidding. Turn is a 10. I check, the next guy checks, and the last guy bets $35. I'm getting a good price to call. I wait a bit and call, and the last guy folds. At this point I'm strongly considering bluffing if a club comes off. Although, I didn't really have a plan for bet sizing for that or anything. River is the perfect card, an offsuit 4. I make the nuts. I bet out $150 and he folds.
I don't love my bet size. The pot had $160 in it, so I guess it wasn't a terrible size. But I think $100 would have been a lot easier to call. I could have also gone for a check-raise, but it would have just looked really strong and it would have been hard for him to call the raise (if he even bet). I think betting out is superior, I just don't know about the bet size. Plus if I bluffed the river, I know I wouldn't have bet that much.
Hand 2 : I raise Q-6 suited on the button to 7. :P As I said earlier, throwing the WPT Boot Camp stuff out of the window. I have no idea what I was trying to accomplish here. The big blind calls. Flop is 2-4-8 and we both check. Why I didn't c-bet, I have no clue. Turn is a 6. He bets out $10, I call. River is another 6. Boom! He bets $15. I raise to $55. He calls - with the straight (5-7). lol.
Hand 3 : This crazy guy named Jamal was at the table acting weird. Every person that sat down at the table would get greeted by him and he would say "Welcome to the table! I'm Jamal, what's your name? This is a really fun table." and he would shake their hand. I sat in the 1 seat and he was in the 10, and he shook my hand right in front of the dealer. lol. Just a crazy guy. Tourist. He was playing pretty wild too.
Jamal raises to $20. I have A-K and reraise to $60. Before I get my raise out, Dan the Man calls $20. Dan is a cool guy, super nice older guy that can play pretty wild too. Me and my wife really like Dan, he is super nice. He plays pretty tight, but can put in some HUGE overbets and I've seen him get paid off sometimes in crazy spots. So I make it $60 and Dan cold calls the $60.
It comes back to Jamal. He has a ton of money in front of him and says, "This might be the best move of the night or the dumbest move of the night. I'm all-in." and he stands up.
I have $260-ish left. I'm in the tank at this point. I have no more money to buy in with. And I did NOT want to ATM at the casino, I freaking hate that. :-) Losing the pot would put me on massive tilt and I would just storm out of the casino.
What made it tough is that I KNEW Jamal had a strong hand. I was getting pretty good odds to call. I figured Dan was folding and probably had a medium/high pair (or AK, which would suck). So his 60 was dead, plus the 60 that I put in and Jamal put in. So if I call, I'm putting in 260 to win 440 (180 + 260). Not quite 2:1. If he had a pair less than kings, it's a snap call. But of course he could have aces or kings here sometimes. At least I have blockers.
I decide to call. Flop is A-10-10, so I hit my hand. Turn and river are blanks. He turns over - pocket queens. A-K, ship it all day. So I go from the outhouse to the penthouse and now I'm sitting on $700 or so. Yes!!!!
Hand 4 : I am the most proud of this hand, I think it was great. There was a straddle and I raised to 25 with pocket jacks. I get one caller in the blind. Older lady that plays tight, but can over-value a hand too. She called an all-in preflop with A-Q for $160 earlier - terrible.
Flop is T-9-x. She checks, I bet $40, she calls. Turn is a king. She checks. I decide to check. I figure if I have her beat, she is going to have a hard time calling. If she has me beat, I get to see if she bets out on the river. It's going to look like I raised with either exactly what I have (underpair to the king) or A-Q, bet the flop, and am giving up.
River is a blank (some random low card). She checks. At this point I'm convinced I have the best hand. I decide to overbet, trying to look like I'm pushing her off the hand. I shove out a big stack of $150, I think she had maybe $120-130 left. She SNAP calls. I flip up the jacks. She says it's good and folds. That was awesome, getting so much value with the overcard out there.
Hand 5 : Pretty much plays itself but it was still awesome. I limp with pocket 4s. Flop comes out Ts-9s-4. Boom, bottom set. Maureen (lady from last hand) bets out $16. Jamal calls. I raise to $60. Maureen calls.
Now Jamal goes all-in for over $300! Crazy. I call. Maureen is short stacked and she calls too. I flip up the 4-4. Jamal flips up the J-6 of spades. I fist bump him and say good luck. Turn is a 9, giving me the boat (and giving Maureen some outs, since she had A-10). River blank, and I bust both people in a massive pot. Ship it!!!!
This was the first NL session I've played in a while, and I threw some of my rules out of the window. It turned out fantastic and I had literally the biggest win I have had ALL YEAR! +$850 (although I did lose $150 earlier at limit). Sick win, just absolutely monstrous.
I was so psyched. Poker has been tough for me, and March did not go that well. Getting a giant win under my belt felt awesome and it reignited my passion for no limit. Poker is such a brutal, crazy thing. You can go forever and not win, and then suddenly - WHAM. Giant win. I don't think I did anything spectacular today. Just won a huge flip, and had a set hold up. But that's all you need to do, and before you know it you are taking multiple racks of red up to the cashier.
Maybe April is the month where I turn it around and start fucking crushing. Let's do this. Could this be the time in my poker career where I have a downswing, stick it out, and come out of the other side stronger than ever? I don't know, but I definitely hope so. The WSOP starts on May 29th, so I have a little less than 2 months to get my bankroll up and ready. I would love to get over there and play cash games the whole time. Maybe 1/2, but better yet 2/5. Let's just crush this month and make it happen.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Vegas personalities
Middle guy is a part of the Vegas locals phenomenon that involves never being at the table. I've been playing for an hour and a half, his chips have been here the whole time, and I don't think he has played a single round of hands yet.
I don't understand the motivation behind it. He was sitting at the back of the room talking to some dealer for a long time, and he's always walking around, etc. Either play or go home! I just don't understand. I've seen this guy at my table on other nights too, same situation... Never playing. Just taking up a seat.
Just another thing you have to put up with in Vegas (and probably all other) card rooms.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
March highlights - part 1
I messed up by not writing blogs all through March. At this point I don't think I have the stamina to go back and write about ALL of those sessions. I played so many times in March, basically every day. But I figured I'd look through my notes and pick out some of the big or interesting hands from the month and write about them.
Red Rock March 5th - Playing Pocket Tens The Right and Wrong Way
I have Q-J and check in the big blind (or limp small blind, don't remember). There are about 5 people in the pot. Flop comes 10-8-6. It checks around. Turn is a blank, lady bets out, and the rest doesn't matter. But the point is that she had pocket tens (flopped a set). I had a free shot to win a big pot with a 9 on the turn, so sick. She limped on the button or in the cutoff with tens (after other people had limped), checked her set behind, and finally bets the turn. Just terrible in my opinion.
I'm against the same lady later on. Blind vs blind. I don't chop, as usual. :-) She limps in the small blind, I raise to 12 with pocket tens, she calls. Flop is a dream, T-8-4 with 2 clubs. She checks, I bet 15, she calls. Turn is an ace. She checks. I bet 40. She check-raises to 85. So awesome. I raise her the rest of her chips, she maybe had 40 more. She calls, I show the tens, and she just sighs knowing she is probably drawing dead or to the two aces. I win a big pot.
Golden Nugget - Thursday, March 7th
I'm sitting with about $600 in the 1/2 game at the Nugget. No max buy-in, so I typically keep myself at $500 or a little above.
There is a short stack limper, and an old guy raises to 12. Small blind calls. I'm in the big blind and look down at A-K. I raise to 50. The limper calls all-in for around 50. The old guy calls, and the small blind calls. The pot is out of control big.
Flop comes 2-3-4. Now the small blind bets out 50 into 200.
I made it 150. I thought that it was pretty likely that this guy could have an overpair. If I make it 150, paired up with the preflop action my hand looks really strong. I'm basically repping a super big overpair, kings or aces. And even if the guy has jacks and calls, I have 10 outs twice. There is no way someone is going to bet into me again on the turn without a set or better. It kinda sucks that I have to still show down no matter what vs the limper, but he could just have overcards where I'm still ahead.
Anyway, I made it 150, the old guy folded, and the small blind went all-in for 600. :P I fold obviously. He flopped a set of threes.
Another thing that pissed me off about this session was a high hand bonus and the chips that came with it. The guy next to me (set of threes guy) got a straight flush and won $600. Must be nice. There is no max buy-in at the Nugget game. He gets the chips. I ask, are you playing those? He says yes. Fine. I'm fine with it either way obviously, but you have to pick one way or the other. Table stakes.
He gets dealt a hand, folds, etc. Then other idiots at the table are saying, you can take those chips off, etc. So now this guy takes the chips off of the table and out of play. I'm sorry, once you get dealt a hand with those chips on the table, those chips are in play. You can NOT take them off. And I for sure want people playing as deep as possible there so I can stack them in a massive pot when I have the goods. That really pissed me off.
Red Rock March 5th - Playing Pocket Tens The Right and Wrong Way
I have Q-J and check in the big blind (or limp small blind, don't remember). There are about 5 people in the pot. Flop comes 10-8-6. It checks around. Turn is a blank, lady bets out, and the rest doesn't matter. But the point is that she had pocket tens (flopped a set). I had a free shot to win a big pot with a 9 on the turn, so sick. She limped on the button or in the cutoff with tens (after other people had limped), checked her set behind, and finally bets the turn. Just terrible in my opinion.
I'm against the same lady later on. Blind vs blind. I don't chop, as usual. :-) She limps in the small blind, I raise to 12 with pocket tens, she calls. Flop is a dream, T-8-4 with 2 clubs. She checks, I bet 15, she calls. Turn is an ace. She checks. I bet 40. She check-raises to 85. So awesome. I raise her the rest of her chips, she maybe had 40 more. She calls, I show the tens, and she just sighs knowing she is probably drawing dead or to the two aces. I win a big pot.
Golden Nugget - Thursday, March 7th
I'm sitting with about $600 in the 1/2 game at the Nugget. No max buy-in, so I typically keep myself at $500 or a little above.
There is a short stack limper, and an old guy raises to 12. Small blind calls. I'm in the big blind and look down at A-K. I raise to 50. The limper calls all-in for around 50. The old guy calls, and the small blind calls. The pot is out of control big.
Flop comes 2-3-4. Now the small blind bets out 50 into 200.
I made it 150. I thought that it was pretty likely that this guy could have an overpair. If I make it 150, paired up with the preflop action my hand looks really strong. I'm basically repping a super big overpair, kings or aces. And even if the guy has jacks and calls, I have 10 outs twice. There is no way someone is going to bet into me again on the turn without a set or better. It kinda sucks that I have to still show down no matter what vs the limper, but he could just have overcards where I'm still ahead.
Anyway, I made it 150, the old guy folded, and the small blind went all-in for 600. :P I fold obviously. He flopped a set of threes.
Another thing that pissed me off about this session was a high hand bonus and the chips that came with it. The guy next to me (set of threes guy) got a straight flush and won $600. Must be nice. There is no max buy-in at the Nugget game. He gets the chips. I ask, are you playing those? He says yes. Fine. I'm fine with it either way obviously, but you have to pick one way or the other. Table stakes.
He gets dealt a hand, folds, etc. Then other idiots at the table are saying, you can take those chips off, etc. So now this guy takes the chips off of the table and out of play. I'm sorry, once you get dealt a hand with those chips on the table, those chips are in play. You can NOT take them off. And I for sure want people playing as deep as possible there so I can stack them in a massive pot when I have the goods. That really pissed me off.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
March retrospective
I think I'm going to go back to playing NL, so I might go back and continue to recap the weeks of hands that I have recorded. For today though I wanted to go back and give you some insight into the last full month I played. So here is a report of my poker progress (or lack thereof) in March. In March, I played 97 hours of live poker.
I won $500 in tournaments. Played two tournaments, and as far as my bankroll was concerned they were freerolls. If I had paid entry into both, I would actually be up more. I think I won about $1100 in one, nothing in the other, and both were $125 entries at Binion's. Personally I want to stay away from tournaments. I don't feel like I'm that great at them, there's a TON of variance, and also I feel like you have to tip WAY too much when you win. Online tournaments are great. Rake is low, zero tip, you can play a ton so it kills the variance. But live, it is really tough. They take forever, they rake the shit out of them, and when you win you are expected to tip. So this month my wife wanted to play some and she offered me a deal where she would pay for the tournaments and I would give her half of what I win. So I did it. I realize I'm essentially giving myself that "deal", but whatever. I'm thinking of my bankroll as a separate player from my own life, so it makes sense in those terms. :-)
Cash games were not as good. I lost $1217 overall in cash games in March. I actually lost $1518 playing NL hold 'em cash. At limit hold 'em, I won $557. And I lost the other $300-ish playing 1 session of high-only 4/8 limit Omaha at Boulder Station - just a freak gambling game where everyone is freaking AWFUL. I feel like that game is a gold mine but I haven't been able to capitalize.
I did have some tough hands this month. Actually let me get into them right here. These are the two worst hands I had last month. Not trying to tell bad beat stories here, but I am trying to figure out where all of my money went this month. :P
Golden Nugget 1/2 NL - Sunday, March 10th
I sit down at the Nugget 1/2 game. Game looks pretty good. LOT of money on the table. Couple older African-American guys with a ton of chips (just mentioning it because it's a little rare), lot of other guys with a bunch of chips. Just old guys, who you would expect to see at the Nugget. First hand or two, good action. I'm excited and ready to go. I bought in for $500. There is no cap on the buy-in at the Nugget, which I love.
An older guy I have seen at the Nugget before makes it $12. I'm in middle position with A-A. I reraise to $36. Older black guy calls and says something to the effect of "I'm going to crack your aces". lol. The other guy calls too. Pot is getting pretty big for a 1/2 game, already over $100. Flop comes J-J-5.
The original preflop raiser checks. I bet $75. The black guy folds. Now I get check-raised to $225.
I think what screwed me here... I was trying to think about it. Honestly I can't think of any reason I didn't fold. I know what I was thinking at the time, and I can tell you. I thought, this guy probably wouldn't raise in early position with a jack. And he could easily have Q-Q or K-K here. And I also thought, I basically have to go all-in or fold here (which is true).
I go all-in. He snap calls. Turn blank, river jack. He turns over the A-J. I ship a $1000+ pot over to some old moron who probably doesn't play creatively at all ever. Then I make the walk of shame. I would normally have brought $1200+, but I ended up only bringing $700. WTF. That's not enough for me to continue, so I walk out and drive home. I played literally 3 hands. I spent probably 3x the time driving that day than I did playing. It was a horrible day for me.
In retrospect, it's a bad move. I hesitate to say "obviously" a bad move because when it's the heat of the moment, things get blurry and it's hard to figure out what's obvious and what is not. But let's look at the facts. What could he potentially be raising me with?
First off, could he be bluffing ever? No. Simply no. End of story, no discussion needed. So this is a value raise 100% of the time. ZERO bluff chance EVER. ZERO.
What hands could he be potentially value raising with? There is no flush draw (I don't think anyway, but semi-bluffing a flush draw there for so much money seems impossible anyway). So I figure he could have one of these hands : J-J, 5-5, Q-Q, K-K, A-J, A-A, maybe Q-J or K-J or J-T. Let's say he wouldn't raise up front with K-J, Q-J, J-T to take those out of his range.
Now what about the hands I actually beat? Q-Q and K-K. And would this old guy check-raise with those hands? No way. He would be way too scared that I had pocket aces, or just would have an unreasonable fear of a jack. He would check-call.
It's so obvious now, but it was just one of those situations where I made an awful decision in the heat of the moment. Worst hand all month.
Wynn 1/3 NL - Friday, March 15th
Won a little money earlier in the day, then went to dinner. Came back to this hand.
I have 2-2 in the big blind. Guy raises to $20 and he doesn't have a ton left, maybe $80. However, two people call and they both have big stacks. So I decide to call. Flop is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for : 9-7-2 with 2 clubs. I bet out $55. The short stack goes all-in. Now the big stack guy raises to $160. I reraise all-in (started with $500). He calls, 9-9, lights out.
I don't really think there is much to be learned from this one. Can I get away from that? I don't think so. What can I do, call and shove any safe (non-club) turn? Even if it comes a 9 or 7, it would have been better to get it in on the flop if he had 9-7. I was hating life after this hand, but whatever. I think this is just a cooler and there's not much I can do.
Realistically what is the guy making it $160 with though? A big overpair? I don't know. Might just call. So he could have 7-7, 9-9, maybe A-K of clubs if he was getting a little nuts, maybe a straight flush draw. If I put him on AKcc, 99, 77, 86cc, T8cc, I only have 24% equity and should fold. If I add AA and JTcc, I'm up to 50%. So I guess it really depends on whether I think someone would do that with a big overpair or not. I don't know. It's possible. Tough situation, I'd love to hear your opinion on it.
So if you just look at those two hands, that's 2/3 of the money I lost last month. One was a huge mistake, the other was (maybe) a cooler. I'm going to get back into the NL game this month starting today, and hopefully things turn around. I also had a pretty bad run at Venetian where I ran way behind expectation that I can probably post more about as well later.
For now though, time to jump in the shower and get back on the tables! It's a new month. The WSOP is on the way and I have also been thinking that if I can get my bankroll up to $3000 or more, maybe I'll take a big shot this year and play a $1000 bracelet event. It's a total crapshoot but I might as well take a shot at it once a year.
I won $500 in tournaments. Played two tournaments, and as far as my bankroll was concerned they were freerolls. If I had paid entry into both, I would actually be up more. I think I won about $1100 in one, nothing in the other, and both were $125 entries at Binion's. Personally I want to stay away from tournaments. I don't feel like I'm that great at them, there's a TON of variance, and also I feel like you have to tip WAY too much when you win. Online tournaments are great. Rake is low, zero tip, you can play a ton so it kills the variance. But live, it is really tough. They take forever, they rake the shit out of them, and when you win you are expected to tip. So this month my wife wanted to play some and she offered me a deal where she would pay for the tournaments and I would give her half of what I win. So I did it. I realize I'm essentially giving myself that "deal", but whatever. I'm thinking of my bankroll as a separate player from my own life, so it makes sense in those terms. :-)
Cash games were not as good. I lost $1217 overall in cash games in March. I actually lost $1518 playing NL hold 'em cash. At limit hold 'em, I won $557. And I lost the other $300-ish playing 1 session of high-only 4/8 limit Omaha at Boulder Station - just a freak gambling game where everyone is freaking AWFUL. I feel like that game is a gold mine but I haven't been able to capitalize.
I did have some tough hands this month. Actually let me get into them right here. These are the two worst hands I had last month. Not trying to tell bad beat stories here, but I am trying to figure out where all of my money went this month. :P
Golden Nugget 1/2 NL - Sunday, March 10th
I sit down at the Nugget 1/2 game. Game looks pretty good. LOT of money on the table. Couple older African-American guys with a ton of chips (just mentioning it because it's a little rare), lot of other guys with a bunch of chips. Just old guys, who you would expect to see at the Nugget. First hand or two, good action. I'm excited and ready to go. I bought in for $500. There is no cap on the buy-in at the Nugget, which I love.
An older guy I have seen at the Nugget before makes it $12. I'm in middle position with A-A. I reraise to $36. Older black guy calls and says something to the effect of "I'm going to crack your aces". lol. The other guy calls too. Pot is getting pretty big for a 1/2 game, already over $100. Flop comes J-J-5.
The original preflop raiser checks. I bet $75. The black guy folds. Now I get check-raised to $225.
I think what screwed me here... I was trying to think about it. Honestly I can't think of any reason I didn't fold. I know what I was thinking at the time, and I can tell you. I thought, this guy probably wouldn't raise in early position with a jack. And he could easily have Q-Q or K-K here. And I also thought, I basically have to go all-in or fold here (which is true).
I go all-in. He snap calls. Turn blank, river jack. He turns over the A-J. I ship a $1000+ pot over to some old moron who probably doesn't play creatively at all ever. Then I make the walk of shame. I would normally have brought $1200+, but I ended up only bringing $700. WTF. That's not enough for me to continue, so I walk out and drive home. I played literally 3 hands. I spent probably 3x the time driving that day than I did playing. It was a horrible day for me.
In retrospect, it's a bad move. I hesitate to say "obviously" a bad move because when it's the heat of the moment, things get blurry and it's hard to figure out what's obvious and what is not. But let's look at the facts. What could he potentially be raising me with?
First off, could he be bluffing ever? No. Simply no. End of story, no discussion needed. So this is a value raise 100% of the time. ZERO bluff chance EVER. ZERO.
What hands could he be potentially value raising with? There is no flush draw (I don't think anyway, but semi-bluffing a flush draw there for so much money seems impossible anyway). So I figure he could have one of these hands : J-J, 5-5, Q-Q, K-K, A-J, A-A, maybe Q-J or K-J or J-T. Let's say he wouldn't raise up front with K-J, Q-J, J-T to take those out of his range.
Now what about the hands I actually beat? Q-Q and K-K. And would this old guy check-raise with those hands? No way. He would be way too scared that I had pocket aces, or just would have an unreasonable fear of a jack. He would check-call.
It's so obvious now, but it was just one of those situations where I made an awful decision in the heat of the moment. Worst hand all month.
Wynn 1/3 NL - Friday, March 15th
Won a little money earlier in the day, then went to dinner. Came back to this hand.
I have 2-2 in the big blind. Guy raises to $20 and he doesn't have a ton left, maybe $80. However, two people call and they both have big stacks. So I decide to call. Flop is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for : 9-7-2 with 2 clubs. I bet out $55. The short stack goes all-in. Now the big stack guy raises to $160. I reraise all-in (started with $500). He calls, 9-9, lights out.
I don't really think there is much to be learned from this one. Can I get away from that? I don't think so. What can I do, call and shove any safe (non-club) turn? Even if it comes a 9 or 7, it would have been better to get it in on the flop if he had 9-7. I was hating life after this hand, but whatever. I think this is just a cooler and there's not much I can do.
Realistically what is the guy making it $160 with though? A big overpair? I don't know. Might just call. So he could have 7-7, 9-9, maybe A-K of clubs if he was getting a little nuts, maybe a straight flush draw. If I put him on AKcc, 99, 77, 86cc, T8cc, I only have 24% equity and should fold. If I add AA and JTcc, I'm up to 50%. So I guess it really depends on whether I think someone would do that with a big overpair or not. I don't know. It's possible. Tough situation, I'd love to hear your opinion on it.
So if you just look at those two hands, that's 2/3 of the money I lost last month. One was a huge mistake, the other was (maybe) a cooler. I'm going to get back into the NL game this month starting today, and hopefully things turn around. I also had a pretty bad run at Venetian where I ran way behind expectation that I can probably post more about as well later.
For now though, time to jump in the shower and get back on the tables! It's a new month. The WSOP is on the way and I have also been thinking that if I can get my bankroll up to $3000 or more, maybe I'll take a big shot this year and play a $1000 bracelet event. It's a total crapshoot but I might as well take a shot at it once a year.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Relaunch as Bluff Meat!
I decided to ditch the old name (since it was pretty lame). The blog will be known from here out as Bluff Meat!
FYI, "bluff meat" is a term me and my wife use to describe someone that can be bluffed. For example, the other day I called on the river with A-J high and won against K-Q high in a 4/8 game at Red Rock. In that situation, he obviously took me for bluff meat!
I have been playing exclusively limit poker lately. It has been a lot of fun and there has been a TON of action. I need to rethink how this blog is going to work, because I'm playing a ton of poker and simply haven't had time to write a bunch about it. Also with limit, I'm finding it harder to write down hands. Probably because I'm playing way too many hands, and writing them all down (or even 25% of them) is simply not feasible.
I did want to write about one thing that I think is pretty true about 4/8 limit, regarding bluffing on the river. Personally I think you should bluff 100% of rivers where you have the lead going into the river. I mean bluff bet the river, out of position or in position.
A lot of people say that you can't bluff in 4/8, it's no fold 'em hold 'em, and so on. I think that of all streets, people fold most frequently on the river. Even in the most gigantic pots, people will call all the way down and fold. A lot of the time they have draws, but they will even fold pairs for a bet as well.
Another big part of this strategy is the size of the pot relative to your bet. A lot of the time, people are getting 10 to 1 or more on a call on the river. However, they are still folding a ton of the time. If your bluff only has to work 1 out of 10 times, or 1 out of 14 times, etc to be profitable, betting the river with any two cards when you have the lead going into it should be MASSIVELY profitable if people are folding the river any substantial portion of the time. I think people just figure "well, he must have it" after you raise preflop and bet all the way.
I've won some sick gigantic pots lately by doing this. Sickest hand ever was at Wynn the other night playing 4/8 limit. I was in the small blind with 89cc. Someone raised, and another guy 3-bet it. I called (maybe not great, I get it). 5 or 6 people saw the flop. The flop was Q-6-7 with 1 club. I bet out. A few people called, and the guy who raised preflop says "I have A-K" and folds. Turn was the most hilarious card possible, the king. I bet out again and get 2 calls. The river is a queen and the pot is massive. I bet out again. Both people fold. I turn up the 9 high and die laughing.
Personally I think there is some good opportunity to bluff raise the river as well, especially against tight old guys that get easily flustered. Like when the flush card hits. You call all the way with a straight draw and some super tight old guy raised preflop and bet the flop and turn. Now he bets the river and the flush hit, and you insta-raise. I think you might be able to get people turbo-mucking with super anger. I haven't tried this out much, and it costs a lot more than the one bet bluff on the river. I think in the right spots though it could be massively profitable.
I might devote this blog to writing about general strategy and my thoughts for a while. Limit is insane and I'm playing waaaaaaay too loose, so it's just really hard for me to pick out individual hands to blog about. I'm having a ton of fun though and am planning on going to play more tonight.
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