Recent poker and reflections

Been playing a ton of poker lately.  I want to keep up with the blog and have been slacking a bit.

Overall I have been playing pretty solid and erring on the tighter side.  I think it's a good way to go.  It feels weak and really lame to just sit back and fold for days until someone decides to just dump a couple hundred bucks in my lap.  But I think overall it's my best bet right now.

The one thing that differentiates me from the way too tight crowd is that I really try to value bet my hands on later streets if I think I'm ahead, even if I have a pretty weak hand.

Couple hands of interest lately.  I played a monster pot the other day at Caesar's.  I limp with 3-3, guy raises to $20 (1/3 game).  There are 2 callers and I call.

I actually am trying to fold a lot more preflop for somewhat big raises.  I just don't know if it's worth it.  At a pretty tight table, should I be calling $20 to hit a set?  A lot of the time, these guys don't play very aggressive even when they DO hit a hand.  When they don't, they tend to bet once postflop and just shut down.  So it can be hard to really get paid off often enough to make a pocket pair work, in my opinion.  And suited connectors - that is even more true.

Anyway with the 3-3 I call.  Flop of dreams - 9-3-2 with 2 spades.  One guy checks, I check, preflop raiser bets $35 (sweet).  Now the next guy goes all in for his tiny stack - 3 black chips, some green, some red.  I get a count, $375.  I think for a bit but there is no way I'm folding this hand, sorry.  I go all in over the top for $500 (well, effectively just call).  Next guy is thinking forever and I obviously want him to call.  He eventually calls for $300.

Preflop raiser has Q-Q.  The black/green chip guy has K-K.  I'm sitting pretty and am about ready to triple my money.  Turn, nothing.  River - king.

That one fucking hurt.  I had to take a walk.  Walked through the Forum Shops and back, about a 20 minute walk.  On the way back, I see Mr. Black/Green Chip walking through the casino.  He immediately had racked up his chips and got out of there.  No class.  Oh well, you can't expect someone like that to have any class at the poker table.  Just have to deal with people hit & running on you.  Tilted me a bit but I kept it together.  I went from being up $175 to being down $200 in that session, and ended up only losing $11 that night.  Felt pretty decent.

Tonight we played at Venetian for the first time in forever.  My wife Beth had a crazy hand.  It folds around to the blinds and we never chop.  Guy looks over at Beth and she says that she does not chop.  He has a bunch of chips in front of him, she has about $300.  He raises to $16.  His buddy sitting next to him is mouthing the words to Beth : "Why don't you chop????" - total lack of comprehension of why not chopping is good.  Beth looks and raises to $45 total.  I know she has a really strong hand.  Now this guy grabs 2 stacks and puts them out!  Beth is just like... well... all in then.  You could see the look on his face like - oh... I fucked up.  He calls all in with A-2 offsuit, spikes the ace, wins the pot.  What is sick is that he will go home and think "she was so stupid not to chop", "that's what you get for not chopping", and so on.  Probably the whole table thinks that.  But it's so insane to ignore how incredibly profitable a situation like that is.  Nobody is EVER getting it all in preflop for 150 bb with you in a 1/2 game with A-2 offsuit unless their brain explodes, like in this situation.  It's just so good.  Going to lose sometimes, but what a great situation.

We called my poker friend Johnny (aka one of the two people that actually read this blog) to talk about it after midnight.  I felt bad about calling him so late, but I knew his perspective would really help Beth feel better.  She felt awful and was even questioning whether we should just chop like everyone else, if we were the idiots.

It really makes me wish we had a good crew of people to play with in Vegas.  Really, I just wish Johnny lived here.  I am not always into poker, but right now we're in the middle of an upswing in poker interest.  It would be so sick to have a buddy here to play poker with, talk hands with, and just hang through the good and bad times that poker provides.  Maybe play well, talk through hands until all hours of the night, and move up in stakes together.  It's not to be right now.  Everyone has a good job and that's just not the situation today.  One day though, it would be so sweet.  Even if it's when we are retired and in our 50s, I think it will be cool.  Just hanging out together, playing poker, killing it the best we can.

Poker is crazy.  It's hard to know if you are playing well or not, and it really messes with your mind.  It can be the most painful and horrible hobby to have in the world.  But it can also be amazing.  It just makes you feel so many strong emotions.  Through the good and bad, I really like poker.  Can't wait for the next session.