Poker this weekend

Played on Friday at Orleans, and Saturday at Red Rock.  Both times 4/8 limit.  I'm still way down lately, but I did end up winning a little this weekend which was great.

On Friday I basically broke even.  Lost $2.  On Saturday I won $173.  I made some adjustments in my play.  I tightened up, and I also didn't just bet all the way down as much.  I took some free cards where I thought it made sense.  And I also did something differently than I had been doing lately - I actually hit some hands.  So that was nice.  

Not the most exciting poker weekend but it was nice to not lose $1k+.  I might play some more during the week this week, but I think overall it's going to be a little slower than it's been in the past couple of months.  

More losing

Played some more $4/$8 last night.  Dropped $180.

I did some stupid things.  For example, in one hand I had 8-6 suited.  Flop gave me some backdoor outs (flush and straight) so I called a bet, maybe that was stupid in the first place.  Then on the turn an ace hit (flop was 10 high) and the ace gave me a flush draw.  Guy bet and I raised him.  He called.  Then on the river I missed, he check-called with J-10.  Pretty retarded to raise as there's really no reason to think the guy is going to fold.  And why I was in there in the first place I'm not sure, probably shouldn't have been.

Then in this other pot I raised with K-Q in early position (probably a mistake already) and got 3 bet, and I just 4 bet it since that closed the action.  Probably stupid, but there were 2 people stuck in the middle so I thought maybe it made sense, but probably not.  Then I flopped a gutshot and ended up calling him down.  On the river I hit a king (flop was ace high) and he checked to me, and made it obvious if I bet he was calling.  I bet anyway, and he had A-10.  Probably should have just checked it back.

So I probably made a ton of mistakes throughout the night.  I think tightening up preflop would help me out a lot.  Really just playing a lot more straightforward and tight would help.  I think I should probably be doing that, and then when I do get in there with a premium hand, semi-bluffing or even straight up bluffing late in the hand makes more sense.  Not getting in with shitty hands like KQ and trying to outplay people or whatever, thats just stupid.

And of course there were plenty of times where I could have hit and didn't, or got drawn out on.  Heads up I get 4 bets in preflop with K-K, other guy has A-Q, flops a Q and rivers another Q.  Getting the $68 in that pot back in my stack would have helped the bottom line a bit.

Oh well.  The pain continues.

Just keep dumping money

In my last entry I think I said I was going to take at least a week, probably 2 weeks off.  I ended up going out and playing the very next day, $4/$8 limit at Red Rock.  And I proceeded to dump off another $200.

I don't feel like I played THAT bad.  I've been getting crushed at limit, but I think you're definitely going to see some big swings in limit.  But I don't know.  It's very frustrating.  I had a bunch of hands that didn't go very well.

For example, someone raises, I reraise with JJ, get 4 bet.  3 people in.  2 bets go in on the flop, I end up calling down, and her 8-8 hits a set on the river.  :P  Or I limp with J-9, flop J-9-8, get raised on the river when an ace hits that also brings the flush, and I fold.  Various other hands... draws don't get there, etc.

It's just frustrating.  The scariest part to me is that I don't really know if I'm playing terrible or if I'm playing these hands OK and I'm just losing.  I don't really care about the losing but I want to make sure I'm not just playing completely terrible.

Then there are some spots I just don't know about.  For example, there's a raise directly to my right and I 3-bet with J-J.  Lady cold calls it.  Flop comes J-10-x with 3 hearts.  I don't have any hearts.  I bet, get called, turn I bet and get called, river I bet and get called.  She has A-K.  I figured I was going to bet the flop.  On the turn I figure I'll bet, I don't want a flush draw to get there for free, etc.  Then on the river I'm going to bet and fold if I get raised.  That's probably true of the turn as well.  But I just bet all the way, get called down, lose to A-K.  Is that bad?  I seriously have no clue.

In that hand, you have to figure she has something at least DECENT since she put 3 bets in preflop, but you never know.  People do weird shit in 4/8.  But I guess you have to give that SOME respect.  A-K is definitely a possibility.  I don't know what she could be calling me down with that doesn't beat me.  A-Q or A-J or A-T with the ace of hearts for sure, but would she put 3 bets in preflop with that?  Maybe A-Q.  I guess she could have Q-J for the straight draw, but I have two jacks and it has to be pretty hard to call with just a straight draw on the turn there.

But then again, who knows.  I guess I could have check-folded the turn, but that seems WEAK.  And on the river, if I check I'm not going to fold to a bet so I think I made the right play there (assuming I would fold to a raise, which I would have).

Maybe I'm just running bad, not sure.  I sure hope so.  I think I'm going to continue to give limit a try for a while.  It's really fun, lot of action.

Hiatus

I'll fill you in on what happened yesterday.  I'm not happy about it, and it's pretty retarded/embarassing, but whatever.  After last night I decided I need to seriously take some time off of poker.  At least 2 weeks so I can focus, reflect on things, and be ready to play my A game.

Last night I went up to the Wynn to play some 1/3 NL.  Bought in for $500.  The day started out fine.

Hand 1: Guy in middle position raises to 15.  Someone calls, and I call from the blind with A-Q.  I already don't love it.  We see the flop 4 ways.  Flop is A-10-7 with 2 clubs.  Checks to the preflop raiser and he bets $25.  Guy calls the $25 and I call.  Now the other guy in the pot raises to 133 total.  I fold.

Had some disappointing hands.  For example :

Hand #2 : Limp with 9-6 offsuit on the button.  4 people see the flop - 10-8-7.  Guy in the blind bets out $15 (little more than the pot).  Folds to me, I make it $40.  Fold.  Damn.  I figured raising was fine because I wasn't using any of the cards on the flop.  If he had a set, or an overpair, or even a 9, I figured I could pretty easily get called there.  Just bad luck he didn't have anything really good.

Hand #3: Raise with 5-5, Flop a set on a A-10-5 board.  Bet 10 into 2 people, 1 call.  Turn Q.  Check to me, 22, fold.  :P

Hand #4 : This one basically started the downfall for me the rest of the night.  I raise with A-10 suited to 11.  1 caller, and an old guy limp-reraises me to 28.  Fucking annoying.  I call, and the other guy calls.  Flop comes Q-x-x with 2 of my suit.  He bets 25, I call, the other guy calls.  Turn is a blank.  First guy checks.  Preflop raiser bets $70.  I call.  Probably should just fold here.  He has $200 more behind, but when the flush gets there he's almost certainly going to check.  I'm getting 3:1 on my money and need closer to 4:1 (little better than that) to call.  If you factor in the implied odds I guess it's fine, but whatever.  I need to make like $100 on the river to break even.  Also I thought the other guy might call, even with a worse flush draw, which would have been great for me.  Of course he didn't call.  River brick, he bets $100, I fold.  Sigh.  Another flush draw missed.

After this point, my brain just kinda broke.  I don't know what happened.  I bought in for another $200.  On that last hand, I shouldn't really even be that upset about it.  Pretty standard really.  The call on the turn, maybe I could have folded, but it's not THAT bad.

I straddle for $6 and this girl min-raise opens on the button.  2 calls and I call with 5-3 offsuit.  Not great.  Flop is 10-6-5.  Check to her, she bets 28, I call.  Turn is a 6.  Check, she bets $40, call.  River, check check.  She has K-K.

OK, that was stupid.  Call the flop, fine.  Not good, but let's say it's fine for some reason.  Once she fires the turn, give up!  Also, she's a girl.  Just fucking check/fold the flop.  Sigh.  That hand made me pretty upset, just because it was so obviously stupid.

Now I'm frustrated and I get the brilliant idea that I'm going to - wait for it - play my hands blind for a while.  HAHA!  Yes, you read this correctly.

A long time ago, I read about Annette Obrestad playing poker online, blind, and being able to win just by playing position and paying attention to good spots to bet/bluff, etc.  I think this is an article about it too.  So I think it's a good idea to pick this time to do the same thing.

It actually started out OK.  And it was fun.  I didn't look at my cards unless I was going to fold (in case I accidentally had a monster - spoiler alert, never happened).  Few hands where I did this:

2 people limp and I make it 12.  Get 2 callers including one guy behind me.  Flop is A-4-3 with 2 diamonds.  I see the guy behind me glance at his chips and I decide to check after the first guy checks.  It checks around.  Turn is a diamond.  First guy checks, I bet 22, both fold.

2 people limp, I make it 15.  I felt 15 was better than 12 because people were calling 12 too much, and both of them folded.

One limper, I raise to 8.  2 callers.  Flop is K-6-2.  First guy checks, I bet $16, 1 fold and the guy that checked calls.  Turn is a 10.  He checks, I bet 35, he folds.

It actually was going pretty well.  I lost some hands, but overall I was about even.  And one of the hands I lost was when I was going to fold, looked down at A-K suited and ended up losing about 40 bucks in the hand.  So as far as just playing blind, I think I did pretty well.

Until this hand.  I raise to 8 in late position.  This old guy reraises to 28.  I obviously should fold most of the time an old guy raises me, but I think I've seen this guy before and he plays a little aggressive sometimes.  REGARDLESS, I should still have folded.  He was playing tight today and who knows, I might not even be remembering the guy right.  Regardless, I decide to reraise to 70.  He calls.  OK, red flags should be going off at this point.  Flop comes out J-5-5.  He checks, I bet all-in, and he calls for 110.  So retarded.  If he put 70 in preflop, there is already 140 in the pot.  Even if he had A-K he might call just because the pot is so big.  Fucking retarded.  I look down for the first time and see A-8 suited.  I miss, he turns up Q-Q on the river, and I lose $200 for no reason at all.

If I'm going to play like that, I should at least FOLD WHEN OLD GUYS RERAISE ME!!!  WTF?????  And at least check it down after the flop.  Even when I reraised preflop, I was thinking this is my one shot, if I get called I'm done.  Because I thought (even though it was stupid) that this guy could be reraising me light.  If that was the case obviously he would fold.  So when he calls, he wasn't bluffing, he has a good hand, just check/fold.  Nope, I decide to throw away the rest of my chips.

I ended up losing $550 yesterday.  $200 of it was on that last stupid blind hand (and by blind I mean not looking at my cards, lol).  $80 was on the hand where I decided to be a hero against that lady with K-K, and about $120 was when I had a flush draw.  Overall not good.

Even playing blind wasn't that terrible of an idea.  I thought last night, that was so stupid.  But it wasn't that bad.  Just was bad that I completely ignored the extremely obvious warning signs and decided to throw $200 away.  Should I be playing blind all the time, no.  Obviously.  But it was actually going fine until I decided to throw away anything smart about what I was doing by raising/reraising a guy who clearly had a good hand.

Sigh.  I'm on a huge downswing right now.  Probably over $3k down.  I wish I could post a picture of this graph.  It's awful.  Looks like a mountain.  I was doing so well for a minute, now I'm in free fall mode.

The good news - I'm still in action.  I have about $5k in my bankroll, so I have plenty of time to come back.  That's probably the best thing, just to make sure that I can keep playing.  I'm going to take a little time off.  I don't know if it will be a week or two weeks, but it won't be much longer than that.  I just need to calm down, make peace with the idea that I'm down right now, and start crawling back.  Poker just happens in waves.  I had a huge upswing earlier, and now I'm in a downswing.  And I'm making the downswing worse by playing bad.  So I just need to ride it out, play well, and eventually I'll be the guy on the other side, hitting huge hands and getting maximum value out of them.

Home games

Played a couple home game tournaments over the last two days.  Just friendly type of games with people from work or other people we know.  Super low stakes.  Overall ended up losing money, although I did cash in two of the tournaments.

Played on Thursday with some people from work.  Played a $20 tournament with rebuys for the first hour.  Wound up buying in twice and taking 3rd place (out of like 8 people) for 20 bucks.  No interesting hands to report really.   I tripled up with pocket aces on one hand, and ended up going out when we were 3 handed and I pushed all in preflop with A-5 and got called by the big stack who limped in with Q-Q.

Friday home game

On Friday I was excited because we were going to this guy's house to play in a $100 tournament, which is pretty big for a home game tournament with the people I know.  And I know all of the people there would be morons.  I was half right, the people there were terrible at poker.  Unfortunately when I got there, $100 turned into $20.  So I ended up playing two $20 tournaments.  In the first tournament, I got heads up with a guy with a massive chip lead, got back to almost even, then took a few beats and got back down pretty low and ended up chopping.

I probably made a bad deal really.  The payouts were $120/$40 and I ended up taking $55 and giving him $105.  He had probably a 5:1 chip lead on me (not sure though).  At the time I thought it was decent, but now that I'm thinking about it I'm taking $15 to give up a chance to win $80.  I could have doubled up and have been around a 2:1 dog.  When you take into consideration that this guy has no idea how to play poker, I guess it probably would have made sense to just gamble and try to win it.

I generally don't like making deals, but I've been listening to a bunch of podcasts where they talk about making deals and how you can get a bunch of added value by taking deals in the right spots.  Especially when you get down to the late stages of a tournament or satellite when a ton of luck is involved and people are all in a lot, if you can get some extra value out of it by making a deal then it's a good idea.  That's what I was trying to do here but I think I messed up.  Not a huge deal obviously, there was like no money involved in this tournament.

Then I played another tournament, got all in preflop with AKs against KK (who had me covered) and A7, and did not hit my 2 outer or flush.  Weak.  I spent the rest of the night dealing that tournament which was pretty brutal.  Some drunk woman was playing and refused to understand what the chip denominations meant, so literally every hand I had to be like "if you want to call put out 2 black and 2 grey chips", it was very frustrating.

Afterward they were going to play a NL cash game.  It probably would have been the juiciest cash game that I have ever played in, but my wife wanted to leave and honestly I didn't really want to play either.  The reason being, nobody has any idea how to run a poker game there at all.  In the tournament, who cares because it's super low stakes.  In the NL game they were going to play 25/50c blinds and a $20-$200 buyin.  They would have played with the same chips that were in use in the tournament.  The table itself was shaky and people were dropping chips all over the floor.  So if someone dropped a red chip on the floor during the tournament, I guarantee nobody would have picked them all up.  In fact I 100% know I dropped one I never got back.  So what, is that now going to be used as a $5 cash chip?  My concern is that everyone puts their money in, some people cash out and get their money, and at the end of the night people fuck up the money and they are short.  And I know the guy who has the house is not going to just make up the difference.  It would just be like, oh, thats weird, sorry we don't know what the fuck we are doing.  I'm willing to deal with that in a stupid tournament but not a cash game where I could potentially lose a ton of money just because nobody is paying attention or knows how to run a cash game.  And if some decision needed to be made obviously I have zero confidence the right call would be made.  Like if a card was shown early, or string bets, etc.

So I lost $20 on Thursday and won $15 yesterday.  Not extremely lucrative poker, and honestly not that fun either.  Hopefully I get back to the cash game tables soon.

Crawling back

Played last night at Red Rock.  $1/$2 NL.  I just tried to focus on tightening up a bit and playing well, and picking my spots a little more selectively than in the past.

Hand #1:  Someone min-raises to $4, I call with T-8 suited along with 5 other people.  The flop is A-Q-4 with 2 of my suit.  I'm in late position (1 person behind me).  Checks to me, I check, last guy checks.  The turn is a blank and the blind bets $16.  I call, everyone else folds.  River is another blank.  He checks.  I thought about betting but decided to check, and he had Q-4 for a flopped two pair.  Kind of a big bet to call on the turn (only getting like 2.5:1 on the call if you factor in the rake).  Probably wasn't worth it, but it's not THAT bad either.  I'd only have to make like $30 on the river to make it worth it if I hit.

Hand #2: I have A-A and raise to $7 under the gun.  3 callers (2 from the blinds).  Flop is 9-4-2 with 2 hearts.  It checks to me, I bet $12, one guy in the blinds calls me.  The turn is the 5 of hearts.  He checks, I bet $23, he calls.  I thought I had the ace of hearts, but I wasn't 100% sure.  So I had to check and yes, I did have it.  River is money, the queen of hearts.  He checks, I bet $45.  He calls with the J-2 of hearts, so I drew out on him.  Feels good.  :-)

I was trying to be more selective with my c-bets as well.  In the past I've been betting 100% of boards (more or less), but now I'm not betting the scarier boards.  When it comes like Q-J-x with 2 of a suit, I'm just not even betting.  So many hands can hit that board with a pair or a draw, I just don't even think it's worth it.  I'm talking multiway pots.  Heads up it's a little different for sure, but most pots are multiway especially at 1/2.  I don't want to swing too far in the wrong direction where I raise and if I miss, I just check all the time.  But I do think I am probably throwing money away by betting the worst boards.

Hand #3 : Pretty fun one.  I had been playing really tight but decided to get out of line a bit and raise to $6 with T-8 suited in early position.  3 callers.  Flop comes A-7-4.  I just check, it checks around.  Turn is a 5, great card giving me the straight draw.  Checks to me, I bet $10, get 1 caller.  River is the magic 9.  Now the lone caller from the blind bets out $15 into me.  I raise to $65, he calls with an 8.  $65 was already a really big bet, but I'm wondering if I could have done something like bet $100.  Probably.  And if I am raising to $65, I don't think there's anything he's going to call me with that isn't an 8.  So if I thought about that a bit, maybe I could have gotten more money there.  Maybe even just ship it all in.  Which would have been a sick overbet, we both had $300.  But it could have worked.  Definitely $100 would have worked.  Then again, I guess he knows that he's calling to chop, so maybe even $100 could not have worked.  I'm overall happy with that one.

Hand #4: Just solid play.  Bunch of calls and I'm in the small blind with two red kings.  I raise to $15, get 3 callers.  Flop comes J-4-4.  I bet $35, they all fold.  I think here you could make an argument for checking really.  Check flop, bet turn, or check-raise if someone has A-J or whatever.  I'm way ahead and even if someone has a jack, they can't catch 2 pair.  So I really could check there a lot of the time, make it look like I have A-K, and maybe get a lot more calls on the turn when a blank rolls off.  Probably would have been the best play there because the board was so good for me.

Overall I ended up winning exactly $100.  I'll take it.  I've been struggling lately, and even yesterday I didn't get a ton of great hands.  It felt good to play solid and come out a winner.

Drop down to 1/2-1/3?

The free fall continues.  I played last night at Red Rock ($2/$5 NL) and it was absolutely brutal.  I dropped $750 in what I believe was 2.5 hours.  I feel like I played OK, but the one big call I made was maybe really bad.  I don't know.  Either way, here were some of the hands.

Guy raises to $20 in early position.  Another guy calls.  I reraise to $60 with AKs.  They both fold.  Yay.  :-)

Lady raises to $25 in early position.  I reraise to $60 with A-K offsuit.  Guy cold calls.  Lady reraises to $160.  I fold.  She ends up showing A-A.

I open to 15 with A-K offsuit on the button.  The two blinds call, including the A-A lady from the other hand.

Call $10 with 4-4 in early position (someone straddled).  Guy raises it $35 more, I call and another person calls.  Flop is T-9-3, I check/fold.

This one was a tough one.  I limp on the button with 7-7 after one or two others limped.  I have been raising this lately but I decided to just limp.  In fact lately I've been essentially raising any pair from any position.  I figure I should cut back on that, but I don't know if this is the right time to cut back.  I don't think my decision affected this hand at all, but anyway, here's the rest of the hand.

Flop comes out T-5-3 with a flush draw.  Limper bets out $15, I call.  Turn is the magic card, offsuit 7. He checks.  I bet $40.  Now he check-raises me to $130.

I felt like that was weird.  Like if he had the straight, why wouldn't he just bet it?  He already bet the flop.  I just wasn't sure.  So I called.

River was a 4.  He bets $260.

At this point, I probably should have just folded.  However, here's what I was thinking.  That was a very scary card.  Good bluffing card.  I didn't really think that card could have improved his hand.  He either turned the straight (bet with 4-6 on the flop, hit) or he is continuing a bluff.  The flush didn't get there.  The only other good straight draw could have been 6-8 (turn the double gutter) and although I wasn't thinking about that one at all at the time, it wouldn't make a ton of sense because he would have just had to bet $15 with total air on the flop with that.  But like I said I didn't really consider that.  So eventually I felt like since I felt his betting line was weird on the turn, I didn't think this card (although scary) was good enough to make me fold, and he could easily be bluffing here.  Also although I don't know how much weight I should put into it, but he was not moving at all and I didn't get a super confident feel from him or anything.  So I called.

He had 5-6.  Bet the flop with middle pair, picked up a gutshot on the turn and decided to check-raise for whatever reason, and hit the straight on the river.  Damn it.

I pick up 10-10 in the blind.  There was a button straddle.  Girl (who is pretty terrible and loose) raises to 40.  I reraise to 105.  She calls.  Flop comes out 9-8-x.  I bet $100.  She calls.  Turn is a jack.  At this point I have $300 left and there is $400 in the pot.  I didn't really know what to do, but since I picked up the draw I figured I wasn't going to be in that bad of shape, so I just pushed for $300.  She thought about it for a bit, said something like the jack was a bad card and she thinks I might have turned a set, and she folded.  She was trying to make it sound like she folded an overpair, but I seriously doubt it.

Finally, guy raises to $25, another guy calls, and I reraise to $60 with K-K.  They both call.  Flop is 10-9-x.  Checks to me, I bet $130.  Original raiser folds.  Next guy goes all-in for a min-raise.  I call obviously.  He flopped a set of 10s.  I said "nice hand" and he said "yeah, it was", which just pissed me off even more.  I followed him to his vehicle later that night and strangled him to death with his own shoelaces and took my money back, which felt great.  I also used his library card to rent several books that I have no intention of returning.

So that was my night.  Lost $750.  I think I'm going to drop down to $1/$3 at Wynn for a while, still a decently big game compared to like Red Rock 1/2, and hopefully it can get my bankroll and confidence back up a bit.