Well, Friday night at the American Legion. I have been playing poker literally all day and frankly not exactly lighting it up if you know what I mean. My best finish was 5th place in a 7 card stud game (97 players), but just getting trounced in holdem. I briefly think about not even playing as just not feeling the love, but it is sort of a ritual, and I do like many of the players there, so here goes.
I manage to not lose all my chips early on with pocket jacks (versus KK and a turned flush), and actually only lose 160 chips. Please see attached youtube video on how to play jacks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP9CBtSW0kA&feature=related
Basically running card dead and tired of seeing every possible combination of small cards with a three (7/3, 8/3, 6/3, etc.). I shove a couple of times with big aces and get lucky with either folds or one double up, my A/7 vs. K/10 suited. We are down to two shorthanded tables, but I am definitely the shortest stack with blinds of 300/600, in the big blind with 900 behind. The luckiest player at the table, Carl, is dealing and he has just knocked out another player who slow played his flopped two pair, aces up vs. Carl's QQ. Carl of course hits his two outer on the turn.
I am in the big blind with 300/600 blinds and only 900 behind. A late transfer to our table holds the game up on the button, and he finally limps in. Carl was just enquiring as to my chip count before he showed up, so I am expecting a raise to put me all in...which is just fine with me with ace/ten. Carl disappoints by just completing and I sense the futility of shoving, so I check my option. The flop is 10/j/q with two clubs. This gives me bottom pair, gutshot straight draw and backdoor nut flush with my ace of clubs. Excellent. I shove my last 900 in and both players call, giving me a great shot at tripling up. They both knock the meaningless turn card, and when the 8 hits on the river Carl bets 2000. RUT-ROW! The other player comments that he believes Carl hit his straight, which he did with a 9/4 offsuit!!! Carl hits his unbelievable 4 outer (although he believed he had 8 outs, the king would give me the nut straight), however I may have been beaten by the button as well. Just not my day.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Haunted by Donkeys
Like the movie, "The Sixth Sense", I am haunted by donkeys everywhere. At the Legion tournament last night my problems began when I agreed to deal as well as play. It is very distracting to me, and I never cash when I deal. Nonetheless, no one else wanted to, so I took the $10 playing discount and the 3 free drink tickets and dealt table 2. I took a couple of early pots, so I imagined the curse was off (did I mention the date? Friday the 13th). My first problem was limping in with 8/9 offsuit...one of my favorites. The flop had a 9 & 10 with two of a suit. It was checked to me and I bet second pair with the button, immediately to my right calling me. The turn was a blank, so I bet again, with another call. When the third diamond hit the river....thanks dealer (oops, that's me), I checked. The caller bet $400 into the $600 pot and I suspected a missed straight draw (turned out that was true), so I check raised to $1200 which he called with the Q/J of diamonds. He was on a straight (flush) draw, and made the flush. He didn't reraise me without the nuts, but it left me with only $1000 in chips. Here is where the donkey part comes in, though one could argue that my check raise was a donkey play. We broke one of the tables and went down to the final 2. A couple of plays into it, with 100/200 blinds, I pushed with QJ offsuit. Yes, you could argue that it was a donkey move, but with only 5 times the blind, and opening the pot for an 800 raise, I thought I had a good chance of everyone folding. However, one of the bigger donkeys in our game had a decent stack, not huge, but maybe 5000, and made the call with A/10 offsuit!!! That has got to be a huge donkey call. What is he expecting to see? I will push with many aces, true, but probably with AJ or better, or any pair. As it was, I had 2 live cards, flopped an open ended straight draw, and he had only one overcard...which ended up being the best hand. Rats!
My next donkey story was an online 45 person SNG. We were down to around 18 players, and I had the 5th largest stack, around 6500. The second chip leader was at my table with around 10,000. He had been playing very donkish all along, playing virtually every hand and calling big bets with marginal hands, but getting very lucky. I was under the gun with pocket 10's and I mini-raised the BB (200) up to 400. I realize this is not a huge raise, but an UTG raise from someone who doesn't play many pots is usually a big red flag for everyone. True to form, the donk, on the button, called me which encouraged the small and big blinds to call as well. The flop was excellent, 9 high and rainbow, with no connectors. Check, check, bet pot, call, fold, fold. The turn, another small card, pot bet, raise, reraise allin, call. River pairs the 5 on the board which actually came as some relief to me as I thought he may have flopped two odd pairs and gotten counterfeited, or was holding two overcards hoping to hit. He had called 400 cold with 9/5 suited and flopped two pair, then rivered the full house. I was out. In retrospect, I may have underbet preflop, but got exactly the flop I wanted to get the A/9's, or smaller pocket pair's chips. I still think his call was donkey, even though it was only 4% of his chips.
My next donkey story was an online 45 person SNG. We were down to around 18 players, and I had the 5th largest stack, around 6500. The second chip leader was at my table with around 10,000. He had been playing very donkish all along, playing virtually every hand and calling big bets with marginal hands, but getting very lucky. I was under the gun with pocket 10's and I mini-raised the BB (200) up to 400. I realize this is not a huge raise, but an UTG raise from someone who doesn't play many pots is usually a big red flag for everyone. True to form, the donk, on the button, called me which encouraged the small and big blinds to call as well. The flop was excellent, 9 high and rainbow, with no connectors. Check, check, bet pot, call, fold, fold. The turn, another small card, pot bet, raise, reraise allin, call. River pairs the 5 on the board which actually came as some relief to me as I thought he may have flopped two odd pairs and gotten counterfeited, or was holding two overcards hoping to hit. He had called 400 cold with 9/5 suited and flopped two pair, then rivered the full house. I was out. In retrospect, I may have underbet preflop, but got exactly the flop I wanted to get the A/9's, or smaller pocket pair's chips. I still think his call was donkey, even though it was only 4% of his chips.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Update on Poker
It has been a while since I have written, so here goes. My week in the Tri-Cities was fairly disastrous. I had one bad loss in the cash games, and my only wins were smallish ones, with two cashes in the 10 a.m. tournaments. The last morning tournament was played with a maniac who was calling any raises with absolute junk and getting blind lucky. I missed my big opportunity with 5 players remaining when he went allin with pocket 2's. I laid down my pocket jacks because I was 2nd largest chip stack and there were at least 2 short stacks that I felt would bust out shortly. I reasoned that moving up in the payout was worth folding versus a possible coinflip situation. Oh well.
At Wildhorse, I made a last minute decision to play in the first hold em tournament. I was getting very poor cards, and frankly not playing too well. I also managed to lose a big chunk in the Omaha 4/8 kill game. One player could not lose, and had at least a $1000 in front of him. I tried to play fairly tight, but just could not get draws to come in or good flops to hold up.
On Thursday, my good friend Bob and I played in the horse tournament. I had a fair run on the omaha game before & after the tournament, paying for about 1/2 my buyin. My last hand was a holdem against a pro, Debbie Leinhos. She raised preflop (she raised a lot), and I called in the blind with Q/10 offsuit. The flop was Q/10/x, and I check/called as there was another player involved and did not want to drive him off. She bet, we both called. The turn was a 9, and when she bet after my check, I reraised all in. She had K/J for the turned straight and I was gone.
At Wildhorse, I made a last minute decision to play in the first hold em tournament. I was getting very poor cards, and frankly not playing too well. I also managed to lose a big chunk in the Omaha 4/8 kill game. One player could not lose, and had at least a $1000 in front of him. I tried to play fairly tight, but just could not get draws to come in or good flops to hold up.
On Thursday, my good friend Bob and I played in the horse tournament. I had a fair run on the omaha game before & after the tournament, paying for about 1/2 my buyin. My last hand was a holdem against a pro, Debbie Leinhos. She raised preflop (she raised a lot), and I called in the blind with Q/10 offsuit. The flop was Q/10/x, and I check/called as there was another player involved and did not want to drive him off. She bet, we both called. The turn was a 9, and when she bet after my check, I reraised all in. She had K/J for the turned straight and I was gone.
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