Went to the Venetian last night. The Venetian is typically the busiest place for 2/5 NL in Vegas. They will often have 4-5+ games going even during the week.
Long story short, I got beat down. Here are some of the hands:
While waiting at 1/2 NL, a short stacked guy in early position raised to 7. He had about 40 more. I look down at pocket 7s. Can't call to flop a set, not deep enough. I didn't want to fold, so I just pushed him all in. He snap calls with 88 and lose.
First hand at 2/5 I have 44 in late position. I raise to 20 and the button calls. Flop is A-6-4 with 2 diamonds. I bet out 30, he calls. Turn is the 10 of diamonds. I bet out 65, he calls. I'm worried he has the flush at this point. River is a blank, offsuit 7. Well, he could have made a straight here too potentially. I bet out $85 trying to get a call from a hand like A6 or AT. He raises to 200, I fold. Not much I can beat. I think there is no way he is raising me with 2 pair after the flush hit and I bet it twice. Any set beats me. There's just nothing I can beat there. Plus this guy doesn't look like a super crazy player so I don't have any reason to believe he's bluffing me.
We were playing 3 handed for a little while at the must move game. I don't love that, but I do feel like I should get some practice playing shorthanded. I'll be dealing with that at the bigger games.
While 3 handed I raise the button with 76o. Personally I think I'm probably playing way too loose when we are that short, but I have to learn. Big blind calls. He has maybe $200 total. Flop is 5-4-2 with 2 diamonds. I have the 7 of diamonds. He checks. I bet $20. He check-raises to $45. With 2 overs and a straight draw I put him all in. He SNAP calls with 7-4 and I don't get there. It was a flip (I had like 43% equity) but the real problem here was raising. After he check raises me, there is really no chance of him folding his hand with $100 more behind. I had outs against most everything, but overall I'm losing money by doing this.
I raise AQdd to 20 and the big blind calls. Flop comes out Q98 with 2 hearts. He leads for $30. I raise to $90. He reraises to $200 and has $200 more behind. I just don't think I beat much of anything at this point - I'm up against made hands (sets, 2 pair, straight) and big draws. So I fold.
You get the point. Just getting my ass handed to me over and over. OK one more hand of a slightly different variety:
A guy with a full stack ($1000) limps and I limp with 85dd. The big blind checks and we see the flop 3 ways. Flop is KQJ with 2 diamonds. Checks to me and I bet $15. Full stack guy raises to $35. Call. Turn is the 3 of diamonds. He bets out $60. I call again. He could have a bigger flush, but I'll find out more on the river. River pairs the king. Terrible card for me since he appeared strong on the flop and all 2 pair combinations are in his range. Sets maybe, although it seems likely he would raise preflop with JJ+. He bets out $75. At this point I tank, and it's not thinking about folding. Just whether I should raise or not. I couldn't think of much he could have that could call a raise and lose. AT I guess. And T9s now that I'm thinking about it. AK although I don't think he had AK. There aren't many other hands. No lower flushes really. So I just call. He had QJ. Flopped two pair, river counterfeited him. I think I played that one pretty well. Could raise the turn but overall I'm happy with it and I don't know that raising the turn would be the best play.
So I ended up losing $730. It was a bummer and during the session it made me question myself. Am I cut out for this? Can I win? Are these guys just so much better than me? I'll never be able to just crush these games. Why am I even trying. All of this stuff goes through your head when you start getting beat down.
I left, did my cool down routine, and felt OK. I have reacted so much worse to big losses in the past. I'm not happy about it but I also know that this WILL happen. There is nothing I can do to avoid losses periodically. In the grand scheme of things this wasn't even that big of a loss. If I'm playing 2/5, 5/10, and up, I'm setting myself up for much bigger losses in the future.
I just have to take it in stride and keep putting hours in. The beatings will happen but the good times will happen too. I'll pair the river with my set against the guy who turned a flush. The river won't pair the top card, giving me confidence to raise and get max value with my flush. I'll hit my straight when I'm all in against a lower pair. These things WILL happen.
So even though I took my biggest loss since April last night, I'm feeling OK. I know it's not the people I was playing against. It wasn't my severe lack of skill. It wasn't the Venetian. It was just one of those nights. If I want to be the real deal, I need to let it roll off my back, accept it as the cost of doing business and move on.
Looking forward to my next session. Not tonight, probably tomorrow night though.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Range calculation
I'm starting to see how creating someone's range is soooo important. It's not an exact science and it will really take a lot of practice for me to understand what players' ranges might be.
At a game like 1/2 and 2/5, I think starting with a narrower range is better. People typically play pretty tight and don't bluff a ton, so it's good to give them credit for good hands until you see otherwise. And even then, you probably don't want to adjust the range too much. Just slight adjustments over time.
This is probably why playing with the same people over and over is way more advantageous if you are paying attention. I started a note in Evernote where I'm going to take notes on individuals. Right now it's mostly for social reasons (remembering names, etc) but I could also put notes on ranges in there. Then over time as I play more with these people, it could really help.
Definitely tricky though. If someone reraises you preflop, what is their range? Like in a $1/2 game, you raise to $10 and someone makes it $30. Is it QQ+/AK+? Or is TT+/AQ+ a better range? The first has 34 combinations of hands (16 for AK, 6/6/6 combos of QQ/KK/AA). The second has almost double the hands. It adds an additional 28 combinations. Those ranges seem pretty similar but one is almost DOUBLE the other one.
And if you pick the tighter range, you might feel safer. I'll fold more because I'm putting them on a stronger range. But if the board comes out JT732 and you have 77, thoughts like "this guy only has AK+/QQ+, I have to have the winner" can screw you pretty hard if his actual range was TT+/AQ+ and he has JJ/TT in his range for bigger sets.
I guess at the end of the day there's no way to do this perfectly and that's why poker is such a beautiful game. Using ranges to determine what people have seems flawed when you walk through it like I just did, and it makes you think why should I bother? But if you don't do that, it's just worse. On the river in the example above you might just look at the board and think "what beats me? JJ, TT, 98, and I might beat JT, T7, 33, QQ+". But if it makes zero sense for JT, 98, T7, 33 to be in his range, that is not good. Even if you get the edges of the range wrong (the hands like JJ, TT), you are still better off constructing a range and going with it.
Poker is complicated. I'm loving digging into the details. Although I know there is so much I don't know, I think I'm on the path to understanding it all.
At a game like 1/2 and 2/5, I think starting with a narrower range is better. People typically play pretty tight and don't bluff a ton, so it's good to give them credit for good hands until you see otherwise. And even then, you probably don't want to adjust the range too much. Just slight adjustments over time.
This is probably why playing with the same people over and over is way more advantageous if you are paying attention. I started a note in Evernote where I'm going to take notes on individuals. Right now it's mostly for social reasons (remembering names, etc) but I could also put notes on ranges in there. Then over time as I play more with these people, it could really help.
Definitely tricky though. If someone reraises you preflop, what is their range? Like in a $1/2 game, you raise to $10 and someone makes it $30. Is it QQ+/AK+? Or is TT+/AQ+ a better range? The first has 34 combinations of hands (16 for AK, 6/6/6 combos of QQ/KK/AA). The second has almost double the hands. It adds an additional 28 combinations. Those ranges seem pretty similar but one is almost DOUBLE the other one.
And if you pick the tighter range, you might feel safer. I'll fold more because I'm putting them on a stronger range. But if the board comes out JT732 and you have 77, thoughts like "this guy only has AK+/QQ+, I have to have the winner" can screw you pretty hard if his actual range was TT+/AQ+ and he has JJ/TT in his range for bigger sets.
I guess at the end of the day there's no way to do this perfectly and that's why poker is such a beautiful game. Using ranges to determine what people have seems flawed when you walk through it like I just did, and it makes you think why should I bother? But if you don't do that, it's just worse. On the river in the example above you might just look at the board and think "what beats me? JJ, TT, 98, and I might beat JT, T7, 33, QQ+". But if it makes zero sense for JT, 98, T7, 33 to be in his range, that is not good. Even if you get the edges of the range wrong (the hands like JJ, TT), you are still better off constructing a range and going with it.
Poker is complicated. I'm loving digging into the details. Although I know there is so much I don't know, I think I'm on the path to understanding it all.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Nug Tuesday
Played a little at the Nugget last night. Didn't have much happening as far as good hands, but I ended up squeaking out a small win ($42).
Biggest hand I played was this one. I was in late position with AK and raised to $15. I had about $1000 in front of me (bought in deep, wasn't up at all). A guy across the table in the big blind raises to $50. He had a monster stack as well so we had about the same effective stacks. I call.
Flop is J-8-7 with 2 hearts (I have the ace of hearts). He checks and I check. Turn is a king. He checks and I check again. River is an offsuit 5. He checks a third time. At this point I figure I have to have the best hand and I decided to overbet it. I bet $125 (5 green chips). He calls and has pocket aces. :P
This hand pissed me off at the time. I was just super annoyed. However, when I thought about it later I think it was OK. His range preflop for reraising is pretty tight which makes this one tough. Probably TT+ (maybe even JJ+ or QQ+), and AK. Maybe AQ, the widest range I can really give the guy is AQ+/TT+. I felt like when he checked it THREE freaking times though, he had to have a pretty weak hand.
My problem was in the sizing though, I think. The only hand I realistically beat is QQ. AA beats me, KK beats me. I tie with AK. I beat TT and AQ too if they are in his range I guess (and lose to JJ). I think that all of the hands that beat/tie me would have bet at some point (JJ, KK, AA, AK). However, the hands that are left are really weak. I'm not getting a call from AQ probably. QQ and TT might call but it would have to be a really small bet. So in retrospect I should have went with a $35 bet or something on the end, maybe $25, to try to get a crying call from QQ/TT and maybe AQ. Not a huge deal though, a lot of those hands might call the overbet as well (especially QQ which seemed very likely).
One thing that was pretty funny was my interaction with the other big stack at the table. He had about 1000, won the AA hand, and I immediately put another 500 on the table. A seat to his left opened up. He was in the 8 seat (10 handed) and I was in the 3 seat. I said "I'll take that seat" and moved over. I had all green chips, with a stack of red and some bills so it was really easy for me to pick up. As soon as I got there he said "I'm taking that seat" and pointed to my old seat. So we were just going to flip flop. He had a ton of chips and started to load them up. My positional advantage was gone though, so I just said "You know what bro you don't have to move, I'll just move back". So I moved back. It was pretty funny. He didn't acknowledge it at the time but we talked about it later. I told him that was the first time anyone had moved when I moved to their left. He said it was the first time he had someone move back when he moved away! So it was pretty funny and the guy seemed cool enough. Older guy named David.
My focus at the table hasn't been great, but I'm starting to see some improvements. I'm starting to put people on ranges during hands and narrow them down. Definitely not every hand, and I wish it was more than 1 hand a round, but I bet it's less. It's SOOOO easy for me to lose focus and forget what I need to work on. My goals at this point are to always count the pot, and always pick one player (when I'm out of the hand) to assign a range to and narrow it down as the action unfolds. Yesterday I was doing this more frequently and although I can't do it perfectly in realtime, I can see it's improving dramatically just from me putting the mental effort in.
One thing I started telling myself yesterday (acknowledging the focus issues) is that at this point, my hand really needs to begin after I fold my hand. It sounds crazy but with my poker goals as it stands now, most of them are based around focus when I'm out of the hand. So as long as I'm playing solid preflop, who cares what I do in the hand. I care more about what I'm doing when I'm out of the hand. Here are my current poker goals (which I review every day before the session, on each break every 2 hours, and after each session):
I probably should change my "count the pot" one to say I should count the pot every hand. But you get the point - the most important one IMO is the last one and that takes place when I'm out of the hand. I can do that when I'm in the hand too, but I'm not practiced up on it so I really need to work on it when I'm out of the hand. And I'm out of most hands, so that's the majority of the work I'm doing in the session.
One hand where this paid off and I was SUPER confident in my read is this hand. I call $1 more in the small blind with A9o. Flop is AK9 rainbow. There are 5 people in and I bet out $10. Girl in late position calls me. At this point I'm putting her on Ax, Kx, K9, or a set of 9s. AK/AA/KK are also possible but I think less likely because she didn't raise preflop. Turn was a 6. I bet out $30 and she called again. At this point I was really heavily weighing her range as Ax and K9. AA/KK/99 seemed way less likely since I haven't gotten raised. River was a 3. At this point I was 100% confident I had the best hand. Yes, I did have a big hand but less experienced people might still be worried about AK, 99, or even more ridiculous possibilities like 66 and check. I bet out $50 and got called. She didn't show but I'm still super confident she had Ax or K9. Narrowing down her range in realtime really helped me nail exactly what she had. It also helped me tailor the bet size to one that I thought ace rag could call.
My confidence is soaring when I see myself do things like this. I have NEVER done that before even though I've heard of things like ranges, etc for years now. The information is out there but I haven't practiced it and applied it at the table. Now that I am, it's very exciting for me.
Interesting acknowledgement in my dreams of becoming a poker pro as well. I'm going to shoot for a money goal. If I hit that amount, I can just straight up quit and play for a living (if I want to do that). Right now I'm thinking that goal is $50,000 more than I currently had in my bankroll at the time. In my personal blog (which most of my readers aka Johnny and Mike have access to) I dig more into it. It's something like $63,000 total. I go into it in more detail in that blog, but I think this is a great number and works just as well if not better than something like $100k or $200k. $60k or so would give me a good bankroll to play 1/2 - 5/10 NL comfortably and endure some tough times while siphoning off $4k or so per month at first to support the family. If it starts going downhill (get down to $20k or so), I'll have to seriously start looking for a job but I'll still have enough money to get by for months in the meantime.
If I started with $100k or $200k obviously the comfort level would be higher. However, my contention is that I'm either going to make it or not. I personally think with 60k, an excellent work ethic, and continuing to improve my game via studying, I would be OK and hopefully it would take off. In that case, the additional $40k or $140k really isn't doing much besides delaying me from giving the dream another shot. And if $60k won't work for me, neither will $100k or $200k. I'll just be delaying the envitable failure and re-entry into the workforce. If that is going to happen, I should make it happen sooner than later in order to reduce the amount I'm screwing my life over by trying this out.
That's it for me today. Hopefully I'm getting out tonight to play some 2/5, possibly at Wynn. With the big boys. :-)
Biggest hand I played was this one. I was in late position with AK and raised to $15. I had about $1000 in front of me (bought in deep, wasn't up at all). A guy across the table in the big blind raises to $50. He had a monster stack as well so we had about the same effective stacks. I call.
Flop is J-8-7 with 2 hearts (I have the ace of hearts). He checks and I check. Turn is a king. He checks and I check again. River is an offsuit 5. He checks a third time. At this point I figure I have to have the best hand and I decided to overbet it. I bet $125 (5 green chips). He calls and has pocket aces. :P
This hand pissed me off at the time. I was just super annoyed. However, when I thought about it later I think it was OK. His range preflop for reraising is pretty tight which makes this one tough. Probably TT+ (maybe even JJ+ or QQ+), and AK. Maybe AQ, the widest range I can really give the guy is AQ+/TT+. I felt like when he checked it THREE freaking times though, he had to have a pretty weak hand.
My problem was in the sizing though, I think. The only hand I realistically beat is QQ. AA beats me, KK beats me. I tie with AK. I beat TT and AQ too if they are in his range I guess (and lose to JJ). I think that all of the hands that beat/tie me would have bet at some point (JJ, KK, AA, AK). However, the hands that are left are really weak. I'm not getting a call from AQ probably. QQ and TT might call but it would have to be a really small bet. So in retrospect I should have went with a $35 bet or something on the end, maybe $25, to try to get a crying call from QQ/TT and maybe AQ. Not a huge deal though, a lot of those hands might call the overbet as well (especially QQ which seemed very likely).
One thing that was pretty funny was my interaction with the other big stack at the table. He had about 1000, won the AA hand, and I immediately put another 500 on the table. A seat to his left opened up. He was in the 8 seat (10 handed) and I was in the 3 seat. I said "I'll take that seat" and moved over. I had all green chips, with a stack of red and some bills so it was really easy for me to pick up. As soon as I got there he said "I'm taking that seat" and pointed to my old seat. So we were just going to flip flop. He had a ton of chips and started to load them up. My positional advantage was gone though, so I just said "You know what bro you don't have to move, I'll just move back". So I moved back. It was pretty funny. He didn't acknowledge it at the time but we talked about it later. I told him that was the first time anyone had moved when I moved to their left. He said it was the first time he had someone move back when he moved away! So it was pretty funny and the guy seemed cool enough. Older guy named David.
My focus at the table hasn't been great, but I'm starting to see some improvements. I'm starting to put people on ranges during hands and narrow them down. Definitely not every hand, and I wish it was more than 1 hand a round, but I bet it's less. It's SOOOO easy for me to lose focus and forget what I need to work on. My goals at this point are to always count the pot, and always pick one player (when I'm out of the hand) to assign a range to and narrow it down as the action unfolds. Yesterday I was doing this more frequently and although I can't do it perfectly in realtime, I can see it's improving dramatically just from me putting the mental effort in.
One thing I started telling myself yesterday (acknowledging the focus issues) is that at this point, my hand really needs to begin after I fold my hand. It sounds crazy but with my poker goals as it stands now, most of them are based around focus when I'm out of the hand. So as long as I'm playing solid preflop, who cares what I do in the hand. I care more about what I'm doing when I'm out of the hand. Here are my current poker goals (which I review every day before the session, on each break every 2 hours, and after each session):
- Count the pot before acting after the flop.
- Ignore all physical tells and other non-betting information.
- Make consistent physical movements.
- Play solid preflop.
- Pay attention to one player during each hand when out of the hand (focus on narrowing ranges from preflop on, not physical tells).
I probably should change my "count the pot" one to say I should count the pot every hand. But you get the point - the most important one IMO is the last one and that takes place when I'm out of the hand. I can do that when I'm in the hand too, but I'm not practiced up on it so I really need to work on it when I'm out of the hand. And I'm out of most hands, so that's the majority of the work I'm doing in the session.
One hand where this paid off and I was SUPER confident in my read is this hand. I call $1 more in the small blind with A9o. Flop is AK9 rainbow. There are 5 people in and I bet out $10. Girl in late position calls me. At this point I'm putting her on Ax, Kx, K9, or a set of 9s. AK/AA/KK are also possible but I think less likely because she didn't raise preflop. Turn was a 6. I bet out $30 and she called again. At this point I was really heavily weighing her range as Ax and K9. AA/KK/99 seemed way less likely since I haven't gotten raised. River was a 3. At this point I was 100% confident I had the best hand. Yes, I did have a big hand but less experienced people might still be worried about AK, 99, or even more ridiculous possibilities like 66 and check. I bet out $50 and got called. She didn't show but I'm still super confident she had Ax or K9. Narrowing down her range in realtime really helped me nail exactly what she had. It also helped me tailor the bet size to one that I thought ace rag could call.
My confidence is soaring when I see myself do things like this. I have NEVER done that before even though I've heard of things like ranges, etc for years now. The information is out there but I haven't practiced it and applied it at the table. Now that I am, it's very exciting for me.
Interesting acknowledgement in my dreams of becoming a poker pro as well. I'm going to shoot for a money goal. If I hit that amount, I can just straight up quit and play for a living (if I want to do that). Right now I'm thinking that goal is $50,000 more than I currently had in my bankroll at the time. In my personal blog (which most of my readers aka Johnny and Mike have access to) I dig more into it. It's something like $63,000 total. I go into it in more detail in that blog, but I think this is a great number and works just as well if not better than something like $100k or $200k. $60k or so would give me a good bankroll to play 1/2 - 5/10 NL comfortably and endure some tough times while siphoning off $4k or so per month at first to support the family. If it starts going downhill (get down to $20k or so), I'll have to seriously start looking for a job but I'll still have enough money to get by for months in the meantime.
If I started with $100k or $200k obviously the comfort level would be higher. However, my contention is that I'm either going to make it or not. I personally think with 60k, an excellent work ethic, and continuing to improve my game via studying, I would be OK and hopefully it would take off. In that case, the additional $40k or $140k really isn't doing much besides delaying me from giving the dream another shot. And if $60k won't work for me, neither will $100k or $200k. I'll just be delaying the envitable failure and re-entry into the workforce. If that is going to happen, I should make it happen sooner than later in order to reduce the amount I'm screwing my life over by trying this out.
That's it for me today. Hopefully I'm getting out tonight to play some 2/5, possibly at Wynn. With the big boys. :-)
Friday, August 15, 2014
Some work I'm doing
So I figured it made sense to do some work on paper to just study and improve things like narrowing down ranges, working on combinatorics, and so on. I decided to write down a couple hands that I can work with later, and some questions related to the hands. Here's my first hand and some of the questions I wrote down for it. I just thought of a common situation (AK utg) and generated an interesting random flop with PokerCruncher.
I have AcKd under the gun and raise to $20. 1 caller in middle position and the button calls. Flop comes As8s8h. I bet out $45 and the button calls.
Turn is the 5 of diamonds. I bet out $110.
- Range for button? What range am I representing?
- How much was in the pot? What pot odds am I giving my opponent? What am I trying to accomplish with this bet? What range am I representing here?
- If my opponent calls, what range am I putting him on? What is my plan on the river if these cards hit: 4s, Jh, 5h, Kc?
- If my opponent min-raises the turn, what range am I putting him on? What do I do, and what is my plan on the river?
I started working on this, and it's really complicated. Here is the start of my thought process:
Range for button - the button could call preflop with any suited ace, two cards 10+, any suited connector, any pair, 1 gap suited connectors. AA is unlikely (probably would reraise) but I think you can’t take it out of his range. On the flop he could be calling with sets/quads, trips, an ace, a boat with A8s, any flush draw.
- Sub-question: what percentage of his preflop range is he continuing with?
Preflop range has how many hands?
- All suited aces do not have a flush draw. 12 combos of Axcc and Axdd. 11 combos of Axhh.
- Two cards 10+ (still working on this)
Even just that first question : "what is his range?" is so complex. Also my initial analysis of the suited aces combos is incorrect. I forgot to factor in the Ac and Kd I'm holding.
Sometimes things like this can seem overwhelming. These appear (on the surface) to be simple questions and when I wrote them down, I thought I could probably plow through them pretty fast and the limiting factor would be the number of questions and situations I have to analyze. However, that is not the case. Even a supposedly simple situation is very complicated when you dig in.
Is it worth it? I'd love to see any thoughts posted as a comment.
Personally I think this is beneficial. I'm honestly not sure what effect this type of practice / analysis will have on my poker game. Today, I feel somewhat helpless and overwhelmed by the potential of going through these exercises. They take a long time. It's hard work thinking through everything. I know that there is not a time in the foreseeable future where I could apply this in realtime at the table. So it's easy to want to give up. This is also a reason that I think it's easy for people (myself included) to simply say, forget practice and training. I'll just play and get my training in at the table. If I play a ton and try to play well, good things will happen.
I think this type of training/practice is something you simply can not get at the table. You don't have time to dig deep. You don't have time to come up with an answer to a tough poker question and dig all the way in and analyze it. This is stuff that simply does have to be done off the table. And someday, if I do enough of these, it will come back as a sharper poker mind at the table.
I just need to hang in there. The road is long. But I can do it. Consistent progress, not only with time at the table but also off the table. I recognized this as one of my big weaknesses and I read it a couple times per session in my warmup routine and on breaks. I wrote : "I used to study poker a lot early in my career, and I don’t study anywhere near as much anymore." This is absolutely true. I can not let this happen to me again. I need to put the hours in and study, as difficult as it may seem. Also, as low of a payoff as it seems to provide in the short term. These are things that will make me the sick poker player I need to be in a year. Fuck this week and next week, and next month. Fuck the money I'm making or losing right now. I need to play. I need to study.
I need to be the best poker player I can be and take the quickest route there. Mentally it's tough to deal with, because the quickest route there is deceptive. The apparently quickest route is a straight line, taking the highway there. Playing 2/5, win money, play 5/10, win more money, play 10/20, and so on. However, that is a classic poker mistake. It's one I've made in the past and I can not repeat it. I have time and time again put playing (and making money) above all other things. This has lead to burnout and tilt, and overall losing WAY more money than I could have made if I took the more systematic, slower approach.
I believe in my ability and natural talents. I can do it. I just need to be diligent and never give up.
Nug last night
Played 1/2 for a few hours at the Nugget last night. Lost about $400. I'm cool with it though. Didn't have much going on, and I lost pretty much every big pot I played. I didn't play perfect, one of the worse sessions for me lately. At the same time I don't think my mistakes cost me that much. I was just running into bigger hands, missing draws and missing flops.
Huge opportunities too. I sat down with $1000. There were 2 other people with that much and I sat directly to their left. They were playing pretty tight so another guy sits down with $1k, and I sit directly to his left. Then this guy sits down with like $5k, he's talking shit about playing 25/50 NL, etc. I put the rest of my money on the table so I'm sitting there with $1700 waiting for the big hit. It never materialized.
Few hands (some interesting, some I'm just venting or showing you why I didn't win):
I look at the guy to my right (who has about $900). He looks at his cards and plain as day, I can see he has two black fives. He limps. I have 86o and limp behind. We are in middle position. I think the synergy between 55 and 86o is so huge. If you flop 579, 457, you get his stack. Period. I can just overbet it and there's no way he's getting away. Or if I flop 57x, I can call down knowing exactly where I am and knowing what I can get away with.
Unfortunately the button raised to 12 and we all call. Flop is 877. Checks to Mr. 55 and he bets $30. I know 100% I have him beat at this point, and I raise to $85. Maybe could just call, but I wanted to get other people out. In retrospect raising to $60 would have been the perfect play, but oh well. Now it folds around to this other lady with over $1000 and she is like "all in". Fine, I fold. I got screwed on that though. She said she flopped 8s full.
I go to the bathroom and come back. I have to wait a hand for my big blind, or I can just come in for $4 on the straddle. I straddle. Folds around to the button (same lady as in the last hand) and she makes it $12. I look down at AQ. I reraise to $40. She asks what I have (about $1400 or so, she has about $1200), tanks for a while, and calls.
Flop comes JcTcx. I have the ace of clubs too. I bet out $65, she calls. Alright. Turn, brick. I check, she bets $100. I fold. She shows AA. She is like "what did you have? You didn't have anything right? You were just raising me because I raised your straddle?" I told her sorry I can't tell you what I had. Overall it's a good thing if people think I'm raising them light. I'm playing SUPER fucking solid so anything I can do to look bad or crazy is a good thing.
Just other hands that were annoying - I raise TT preflop and am against AK and 99, ace on the flop and 9 on the river. If the flop was T9x I double through for the full $1700 because I was against the big stack. Limp with 63hh, flop is Th5h4c, I call relatively small bets on the flop and turn and miss everything. I didn't hit anything all night long.
Overall I ended up losing $400 but like I said, I'm not worried about it. Although I could have played better (I was under the influence a bit), I didn't play terrible and looking back at my hands, I played decent. I definitely was lacking focus in some of the areas I'm trying to improve on, like watching other people when I'm out of the hand.
No biggie. Tonight I'm not playing, and tomorrow I'm going on an all day hike. Maybe Sunday. Honestly I think I was poised for a giant win if some of the hands went differently. Next time!
Huge opportunities too. I sat down with $1000. There were 2 other people with that much and I sat directly to their left. They were playing pretty tight so another guy sits down with $1k, and I sit directly to his left. Then this guy sits down with like $5k, he's talking shit about playing 25/50 NL, etc. I put the rest of my money on the table so I'm sitting there with $1700 waiting for the big hit. It never materialized.
Few hands (some interesting, some I'm just venting or showing you why I didn't win):
I look at the guy to my right (who has about $900). He looks at his cards and plain as day, I can see he has two black fives. He limps. I have 86o and limp behind. We are in middle position. I think the synergy between 55 and 86o is so huge. If you flop 579, 457, you get his stack. Period. I can just overbet it and there's no way he's getting away. Or if I flop 57x, I can call down knowing exactly where I am and knowing what I can get away with.
Unfortunately the button raised to 12 and we all call. Flop is 877. Checks to Mr. 55 and he bets $30. I know 100% I have him beat at this point, and I raise to $85. Maybe could just call, but I wanted to get other people out. In retrospect raising to $60 would have been the perfect play, but oh well. Now it folds around to this other lady with over $1000 and she is like "all in". Fine, I fold. I got screwed on that though. She said she flopped 8s full.
I go to the bathroom and come back. I have to wait a hand for my big blind, or I can just come in for $4 on the straddle. I straddle. Folds around to the button (same lady as in the last hand) and she makes it $12. I look down at AQ. I reraise to $40. She asks what I have (about $1400 or so, she has about $1200), tanks for a while, and calls.
Flop comes JcTcx. I have the ace of clubs too. I bet out $65, she calls. Alright. Turn, brick. I check, she bets $100. I fold. She shows AA. She is like "what did you have? You didn't have anything right? You were just raising me because I raised your straddle?" I told her sorry I can't tell you what I had. Overall it's a good thing if people think I'm raising them light. I'm playing SUPER fucking solid so anything I can do to look bad or crazy is a good thing.
Just other hands that were annoying - I raise TT preflop and am against AK and 99, ace on the flop and 9 on the river. If the flop was T9x I double through for the full $1700 because I was against the big stack. Limp with 63hh, flop is Th5h4c, I call relatively small bets on the flop and turn and miss everything. I didn't hit anything all night long.
Overall I ended up losing $400 but like I said, I'm not worried about it. Although I could have played better (I was under the influence a bit), I didn't play terrible and looking back at my hands, I played decent. I definitely was lacking focus in some of the areas I'm trying to improve on, like watching other people when I'm out of the hand.
No biggie. Tonight I'm not playing, and tomorrow I'm going on an all day hike. Maybe Sunday. Honestly I think I was poised for a giant win if some of the hands went differently. Next time!
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
I'm a professional player too
Last night I went to Red Rock to play. Red Rock typically has one of the best 2/5 games in town and I was super successful at it earlier this year. I called ahead and got my name on the list, and worked my way up from $4/$8 limit to $1/$2 limit as I waited for the $2/$5 game.
Major bummer, the bad beat is gone! :( Station Casinos always had the huge bad beat jackpot in Vegas. When I first came to Vegas it was at its peak, and the dollar amounts eventually went down over time, but the last time I was at the Rock if you lost the jackpot hand you'd get $40k, if you win you'd get $30k, and the remaining money was split between all players. Now it's gone. If they weren't taking the jackpot drop that's one thing, but they still are. Now they just have this progressive royal promotion so if you get a royal flush with the ace in your hand, you can get $1k, $3k, it goes up to $50k as the highest. Total ripoff if you ask me, because they were running the EXACT same royal promotion for like a year alongside the bad beat. Now they remove the bad beat altogether and are still taking the same jackpot rake. Shady.
I scooped up a quick $35 or so at 1/2 before moving to $2/$5. I bought another $1000 in green and went over there with around $1335. As it turns out, the max buy-in is only $1000 and I had to take some off. I could have sworn it was $1500.
Right away I started getting beat up. First hand I play I have AdKd under the gun. I raise to $25. 2 people call and the guy in the big blind makes it $150. He has me covered. I decided to just fold. He showed KK when everyone else folded.
I got a ton of decent starting hands and was raising a LOT when I sat down, but I wasn't playing crazy. Just had a lot of hands. This guy next to me is like "Be careful - I'm a professional player too." And something like "I'm only going to tell you once" or something about a fair warning or something. What a joke! I remember this guy. I had seen him at the Golden Nugget recently and he played AWFUL. I basically didn't say anything. The guy was so annoying and he wouldn't shut up, but I luckily had some headphones and put them on to block him out. That guy ended up making some TERRIBLE plays, like he went all in on a JTx flop with KJ for like $800 (and maybe $200 in the pot) when this other guy that had him covered was still in the hand. Whatever.
So back to getting beat up. I raise to $20 with AJ in the cutoff. This annoying guy insta raises to $60. At the Nugget I had seen him do this before with nothing, to try to be cool and prove a point. However, I figured fuck it, I'll let this go right now. I fold and he shows KK. Then later I reraise preflop to $45 with AQ, same guy calls along with another guy. Flop is 987, I check, annoying guy bets out 120, we both fold, he shows 99.
Couple hours in and I'm down, but I'm playing solid and feeling fine. The breaks are really helping me out, and the warm up routine is really great. It helps me remember what I'm trying to do and focus.
Then it started to turn around. Some new old guy in early position makes it $15. The annoying guy calls. I reraise to $50 with AQ. They both call. Flop comes out 764. Not the best flop. They both check. I bet the minimum I thought I could get away with, $65. They both fold. Yes.
I raise with AQ again to $25 after 1 limper. 2 calls including this old lady on my left. Flop is Q92 rainbow. Decent flop. Checks to me, I bet $50, the lady calls. I figure she could have a set, JT for the straight draw, or a queen. Not much else. Heavily weighted towards the queens for sure just based on combinatorics, although I didn't actually do the math at the time. There are 6 combos of sets, 16 combos of JT, and if she could have AQ, KQ, JQ, QT, that's 30 combos of queens.
Turn is a queen. Now I'm feeling pretty good. I bet out 5 green chips - $125. She goes all in for maybe $150 more. I call. River is a king. She eventually shows QT and I win a decent pot. Sweet, I'm back in black for the session.
Later an old guy raises in early position. I look down at two red aces. I raise to $50. Kind of a big raise but why not? People will call anyway if they have a big hand, so there's no good reason to make it less. Now the button makes it $125! YES!!!
The old guy folds. The reraiser has about $900 more. I reraise to $300 total. He calls. Obviously he has a big hand, but I figured no matter what happens after the flop, I'm doing OK overall because I got so much in preflop.
Flop is K-x-x with three diamonds. I have the red aces so I also have the flush draw. I don't love the king. I'm not going to check fold though especially with the flush draw. So I bet out smaller hoping that he would come along with AK or QQ or whatever (although realistically I didn't think he would have AK). I bet $300, he goes all in, I call. It was about $700 in on the flop. River is the diamond and I flip up my hand. He flips up his KK in disgust and walks out. MONSTER pot!!!!
Not much else happened from there. I had a great session and luck was on my side. That's a great feeling. Won about $1100, but better yet I think I played great and stayed in control. Can't wait for the next session!
Major bummer, the bad beat is gone! :( Station Casinos always had the huge bad beat jackpot in Vegas. When I first came to Vegas it was at its peak, and the dollar amounts eventually went down over time, but the last time I was at the Rock if you lost the jackpot hand you'd get $40k, if you win you'd get $30k, and the remaining money was split between all players. Now it's gone. If they weren't taking the jackpot drop that's one thing, but they still are. Now they just have this progressive royal promotion so if you get a royal flush with the ace in your hand, you can get $1k, $3k, it goes up to $50k as the highest. Total ripoff if you ask me, because they were running the EXACT same royal promotion for like a year alongside the bad beat. Now they remove the bad beat altogether and are still taking the same jackpot rake. Shady.
I scooped up a quick $35 or so at 1/2 before moving to $2/$5. I bought another $1000 in green and went over there with around $1335. As it turns out, the max buy-in is only $1000 and I had to take some off. I could have sworn it was $1500.
Right away I started getting beat up. First hand I play I have AdKd under the gun. I raise to $25. 2 people call and the guy in the big blind makes it $150. He has me covered. I decided to just fold. He showed KK when everyone else folded.
I got a ton of decent starting hands and was raising a LOT when I sat down, but I wasn't playing crazy. Just had a lot of hands. This guy next to me is like "Be careful - I'm a professional player too." And something like "I'm only going to tell you once" or something about a fair warning or something. What a joke! I remember this guy. I had seen him at the Golden Nugget recently and he played AWFUL. I basically didn't say anything. The guy was so annoying and he wouldn't shut up, but I luckily had some headphones and put them on to block him out. That guy ended up making some TERRIBLE plays, like he went all in on a JTx flop with KJ for like $800 (and maybe $200 in the pot) when this other guy that had him covered was still in the hand. Whatever.
So back to getting beat up. I raise to $20 with AJ in the cutoff. This annoying guy insta raises to $60. At the Nugget I had seen him do this before with nothing, to try to be cool and prove a point. However, I figured fuck it, I'll let this go right now. I fold and he shows KK. Then later I reraise preflop to $45 with AQ, same guy calls along with another guy. Flop is 987, I check, annoying guy bets out 120, we both fold, he shows 99.
Couple hours in and I'm down, but I'm playing solid and feeling fine. The breaks are really helping me out, and the warm up routine is really great. It helps me remember what I'm trying to do and focus.
Then it started to turn around. Some new old guy in early position makes it $15. The annoying guy calls. I reraise to $50 with AQ. They both call. Flop comes out 764. Not the best flop. They both check. I bet the minimum I thought I could get away with, $65. They both fold. Yes.
I raise with AQ again to $25 after 1 limper. 2 calls including this old lady on my left. Flop is Q92 rainbow. Decent flop. Checks to me, I bet $50, the lady calls. I figure she could have a set, JT for the straight draw, or a queen. Not much else. Heavily weighted towards the queens for sure just based on combinatorics, although I didn't actually do the math at the time. There are 6 combos of sets, 16 combos of JT, and if she could have AQ, KQ, JQ, QT, that's 30 combos of queens.
Turn is a queen. Now I'm feeling pretty good. I bet out 5 green chips - $125. She goes all in for maybe $150 more. I call. River is a king. She eventually shows QT and I win a decent pot. Sweet, I'm back in black for the session.
Later an old guy raises in early position. I look down at two red aces. I raise to $50. Kind of a big raise but why not? People will call anyway if they have a big hand, so there's no good reason to make it less. Now the button makes it $125! YES!!!
The old guy folds. The reraiser has about $900 more. I reraise to $300 total. He calls. Obviously he has a big hand, but I figured no matter what happens after the flop, I'm doing OK overall because I got so much in preflop.
Flop is K-x-x with three diamonds. I have the red aces so I also have the flush draw. I don't love the king. I'm not going to check fold though especially with the flush draw. So I bet out smaller hoping that he would come along with AK or QQ or whatever (although realistically I didn't think he would have AK). I bet $300, he goes all in, I call. It was about $700 in on the flop. River is the diamond and I flip up my hand. He flips up his KK in disgust and walks out. MONSTER pot!!!!
Not much else happened from there. I had a great session and luck was on my side. That's a great feeling. Won about $1100, but better yet I think I played great and stayed in control. Can't wait for the next session!
Monday, August 11, 2014
Playing bad and winning
This weekend I played a decent amount of poker. About 10 hours total. On Friday at the Wynn I think I played pretty well. I was frustrated because the table wasn't great and there were some people playing pretty good and aggressive. On Saturday I played pretty bad but ended up winning.
Quick note, I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite poker podcast episode ever. I listen to a ton of poker podcasts (2+2 podcast, Tournament Poker Edge podcast, Thinking Poker, etc), but my very favorite episodes are the Limon episodes on the Deuce Plays podcasts. You can still get them on iTunes for free and it looks like you can download them here as well : Deuce Plays Podcasts. Episode 37 is an episode I've listened to a ton of times, and I love all of the interviews with that guy. Just a live poker grinder and I love his perspective on things. It's a must listen episode. :)
On Saturday we got super drunk and played some at the Nugget. I bought in really deep and I was playing against others that had a ton of money as well. There were maybe 3 others at the table with over $1000 in the 1/2 game.
Right away I played a big hand. I raised in early position to $10 with two red nines. 4 callers. Flop comes 8d7d2x. I check. I think I was just confused and didn't really know what to do. Not a bad board for me, but there are a lot of people in and I want to see what's going to happen. A guy bets $30 and he only has about $100 more. Another guy calls $30. I thought he was also somewhat short, but it turns out he had about $200 total. It folds back to me and I went all-in. I had a decent hand and didn't have a good reason to think these other guys have monster hands. Reraising less wouldn't do much... there's already about $100 in there and these guys don't have that much more. So I go all in, they both call. :P The guy who bet $30 has pocket aces. The other guy has pocket 7s for a set. So I lose a big pot right away.
I misread my hand in a pretty big pot too. First time I've done that in an extremely long time. I've played a lot drunk but never misread my hand. I had 7d5d and either limped or called a raise. Flop had a 5 on it, I bet out. Flop was 8-5-2. Turn was a 7, so I make two pair. I bet out $80, guy calls. River is a 4. Makes a 1 card straight, but I went for value and bet $100. He calls. I flip up my hand and my 7d5d has turned into 5d3d. I was shocked and couldn't believe I misread my hand. As it turns out, the other guy had 6-4 and turned a straight so even if I had 2 pair I would have lost, but still. Pretty bad mistake.
Later this cowboy guy is playing insane and I got into a monster pot with him. Leading up to the hand, he realized there was no max buy-in and put his entire roll on the table - something like 4-5 thousand. I had everything I brought with me on the table as well. At that point it was probably around $1400. I had AA and raised to $20. Few people call. Flop comes T-9-2 (can't remember if there was a flush draw). Cowboy bets out $80. I thought about slowplaying it, but I decided to raise and threw in two $100 bills. Folds back to him and he immediately grabs his stack of bills, counts out 11, and throws them in.
At this point I took some time to think about it. I knew this guy was capable of bluffing. He had been doing it constantly. However, would he bluff this much? It was a huge bet and anyone is capable of waking up with a hand. For better or worse, I went all-in for my remaining few hundred dollars and he calls. We got around $1400 EACH in on the flop. Such a huge pot in a 1/2 game, it was crazy.
I flip up my A-A. The cards run out, and he says he missed. He had J-8. To be honest I can't remember if the flop was T-9 or something else like T-7 or T-6. I don't think he had an open ended draw, I thought he went all in with more or less nothing. Maybe he had a gutshot. With the alcohol and the overall excitement of the situation it's hard to remember. All I know is that I won probably my biggest 1/2 NL pot ever.
Overall I don't think it was a very good play. I got lucky and I know I was stubborn to get all in there. One pair for $1400. I'm happy I won and it was my biggest win in a while, but it doesn't mean it was a good play. That type of move should be reserved for when you flop a monster hand - a set, straight, maybe 2 pair, etc. I was just flipping a coin that this guy didn't flop a big hand. Yes, he was bluffing a lot, but I hadn't seen him bluff exactly like that for a huge portion of his stack.
Oh well, sometimes you just run good. :) I ended up winning $870 on Saturday.
I went through and reconciled my bankroll so I know exactly how much I have at this point. We spent some gambling this summer and I wasn't recording everything so I knew my records were a bit off. At this point I have almost $13k. I'll be playing some 2/5 but I think I can start playing some 5/10 again soon too if there is a good looking table. I'm looking forward to getting some hours in this week.
Quick note, I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite poker podcast episode ever. I listen to a ton of poker podcasts (2+2 podcast, Tournament Poker Edge podcast, Thinking Poker, etc), but my very favorite episodes are the Limon episodes on the Deuce Plays podcasts. You can still get them on iTunes for free and it looks like you can download them here as well : Deuce Plays Podcasts. Episode 37 is an episode I've listened to a ton of times, and I love all of the interviews with that guy. Just a live poker grinder and I love his perspective on things. It's a must listen episode. :)
On Saturday we got super drunk and played some at the Nugget. I bought in really deep and I was playing against others that had a ton of money as well. There were maybe 3 others at the table with over $1000 in the 1/2 game.
Right away I played a big hand. I raised in early position to $10 with two red nines. 4 callers. Flop comes 8d7d2x. I check. I think I was just confused and didn't really know what to do. Not a bad board for me, but there are a lot of people in and I want to see what's going to happen. A guy bets $30 and he only has about $100 more. Another guy calls $30. I thought he was also somewhat short, but it turns out he had about $200 total. It folds back to me and I went all-in. I had a decent hand and didn't have a good reason to think these other guys have monster hands. Reraising less wouldn't do much... there's already about $100 in there and these guys don't have that much more. So I go all in, they both call. :P The guy who bet $30 has pocket aces. The other guy has pocket 7s for a set. So I lose a big pot right away.
I misread my hand in a pretty big pot too. First time I've done that in an extremely long time. I've played a lot drunk but never misread my hand. I had 7d5d and either limped or called a raise. Flop had a 5 on it, I bet out. Flop was 8-5-2. Turn was a 7, so I make two pair. I bet out $80, guy calls. River is a 4. Makes a 1 card straight, but I went for value and bet $100. He calls. I flip up my hand and my 7d5d has turned into 5d3d. I was shocked and couldn't believe I misread my hand. As it turns out, the other guy had 6-4 and turned a straight so even if I had 2 pair I would have lost, but still. Pretty bad mistake.
Later this cowboy guy is playing insane and I got into a monster pot with him. Leading up to the hand, he realized there was no max buy-in and put his entire roll on the table - something like 4-5 thousand. I had everything I brought with me on the table as well. At that point it was probably around $1400. I had AA and raised to $20. Few people call. Flop comes T-9-2 (can't remember if there was a flush draw). Cowboy bets out $80. I thought about slowplaying it, but I decided to raise and threw in two $100 bills. Folds back to him and he immediately grabs his stack of bills, counts out 11, and throws them in.
At this point I took some time to think about it. I knew this guy was capable of bluffing. He had been doing it constantly. However, would he bluff this much? It was a huge bet and anyone is capable of waking up with a hand. For better or worse, I went all-in for my remaining few hundred dollars and he calls. We got around $1400 EACH in on the flop. Such a huge pot in a 1/2 game, it was crazy.
I flip up my A-A. The cards run out, and he says he missed. He had J-8. To be honest I can't remember if the flop was T-9 or something else like T-7 or T-6. I don't think he had an open ended draw, I thought he went all in with more or less nothing. Maybe he had a gutshot. With the alcohol and the overall excitement of the situation it's hard to remember. All I know is that I won probably my biggest 1/2 NL pot ever.
Overall I don't think it was a very good play. I got lucky and I know I was stubborn to get all in there. One pair for $1400. I'm happy I won and it was my biggest win in a while, but it doesn't mean it was a good play. That type of move should be reserved for when you flop a monster hand - a set, straight, maybe 2 pair, etc. I was just flipping a coin that this guy didn't flop a big hand. Yes, he was bluffing a lot, but I hadn't seen him bluff exactly like that for a huge portion of his stack.
Oh well, sometimes you just run good. :) I ended up winning $870 on Saturday.
I went through and reconciled my bankroll so I know exactly how much I have at this point. We spent some gambling this summer and I wasn't recording everything so I knew my records were a bit off. At this point I have almost $13k. I'll be playing some 2/5 but I think I can start playing some 5/10 again soon too if there is a good looking table. I'm looking forward to getting some hours in this week.
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