Just returned from the morning tournament. Just a quick note about an unusual hand. On the final the under the gun player raised to $700. I have pocket 8's and flat call. The small blind and big blind both call. The flop is 2/2/2. The small blind checks, BB (Clark) shoves for 1300 more. UTG flat calls, I call, and small blind shoves for 3000 (he is big stack at the table). UTG ponders, then calls. With everyone else all in, I fold my pocket 8's face up. Small blind shows QQ, Clark has 55, and UTG has AA. Great fold except I had unbelievable pot odds, two outs, and am left with only a couple of blinds. The aces hold up and he becomes the massive chip leader.
Online just had a horrible beat. I was cruising along with great chip count, only 150 players remaining out of 455 when the player to my right raised. I had 7's and thought about shoving to isolate him (had twice his chips), but just called as did another player. The flop is small, original raiser bets, I reraise, limper calls for all of his chips and better calls. Turn pairs the board with 4's, I put better allin. Limper calls. Limper wins main pot with full house (he had 4/5 offsuit), side pot goes to original better with his q/9 hearts flush. I screwed up big by not reraising him, but not sure that it would have made any difference with the donkey. The limper knocked me out a few hands later when I shoved with a bunch of limpers (him included) with my Q/10 suited. He had pocket 8's and they held up.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Random Thoughts
1. The good news is that I came in 3rd in Sunday Moose Tournament ($420 win).
2. The bad news is that it only partly made up for my losses the previous 2 days.
3. Running pretty card dead.
4. I think that I am making fairly good decisions most of the time....again trying not to focus on the money or the results. Example: folded pocket 3's to Tim the Postmaster's usual $7 raise and Tu's $20 re-raise (he showed pocket aces). Flop came small....with my 3. Probably would have made well over $100 on the hand, but think it was the best decision, although the thought of cracking both of those guys is very tempting. The problem is not the calling of the $27, it is getting in the crossfire of a raiser and reraiser. It could have cost me much more to see a flop with a probable 2 outer. I showed my hand to Miguel, sitting next to me, and after the hand was over he went nuts...said I should have played it (he definitely would have). But you see this is the problem with Miguel's game. He does not respect raises and reraises and thus usually gets his money in with the worst of it. He was up $1200 on Saturday and lost it all (plus whatever he had bought in for). Again, got to focus on making good decisions.
2. The bad news is that it only partly made up for my losses the previous 2 days.
3. Running pretty card dead.
4. I think that I am making fairly good decisions most of the time....again trying not to focus on the money or the results. Example: folded pocket 3's to Tim the Postmaster's usual $7 raise and Tu's $20 re-raise (he showed pocket aces). Flop came small....with my 3. Probably would have made well over $100 on the hand, but think it was the best decision, although the thought of cracking both of those guys is very tempting. The problem is not the calling of the $27, it is getting in the crossfire of a raiser and reraiser. It could have cost me much more to see a flop with a probable 2 outer. I showed my hand to Miguel, sitting next to me, and after the hand was over he went nuts...said I should have played it (he definitely would have). But you see this is the problem with Miguel's game. He does not respect raises and reraises and thus usually gets his money in with the worst of it. He was up $1200 on Saturday and lost it all (plus whatever he had bought in for). Again, got to focus on making good decisions.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Best Online Tournament Win
Last night I had my best ever online win. I was running very good in Omaha cash games, which I have been playing mostly, but decided to enter a dreaded rebuy turbo tournament while playing the cash game. This type of tournament does not favor my type of play. First of all, I hate rebuying because unless you finish very high you often don't even get your rebuys back. Secondly, I like to play a patient game and it is pretty wild in rebuys. I saw one player rebuy 3 times in a half hour, then do a double add-on. I just refuse to play that way. The other thing I don't like is the turbo. Blinds and antes just go up too fast to wait for premium hands. That said, I bought in once...got lucky on a pocket queens all-in against two players, tripling up early. I was as high as 6th early on but saw my stack slip down quickly (139 total players). They were paying 27 spots and I was hovering around 30th with 40 players left, but knew that many players would gamble and get knocked out, so I just hunkered down determined to get into the money (paid 3X buy-in). Once I got "in the money" I loosened up a little, went all-in several times and won every coin flip except one...but had them covered extremely well. By the time I hit the final table I had bounced back and forth to the payout schedule many times, calculating that if I could just outlast one or two players I would move up in payout.
On the final table I was the 2nd or 3rd shortest stack, with the big stack around 15x my stack. With several all-ins with pocket pairs I climbed up finally ending up heads up with a 2 to one advantage. The final hand I had pocket 4's (my least favorite pocket pair), but great heads up. He had AQ and the flop came x/q/4 and he was drawing almost dead. After the turn he was. My win? 100 times my buy-in. Awesome! I am making progress on the Chris Ferguson $10,000 challenge (taking online bankroll from $0 freeroll to $10,000). Will let you know when I get there.
On the final table I was the 2nd or 3rd shortest stack, with the big stack around 15x my stack. With several all-ins with pocket pairs I climbed up finally ending up heads up with a 2 to one advantage. The final hand I had pocket 4's (my least favorite pocket pair), but great heads up. He had AQ and the flop came x/q/4 and he was drawing almost dead. After the turn he was. My win? 100 times my buy-in. Awesome! I am making progress on the Chris Ferguson $10,000 challenge (taking online bankroll from $0 freeroll to $10,000). Will let you know when I get there.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Terrible Play, mine especially
Sometimes I am just amazed at the level of bad play that I see in tournaments. Last night was a great example. I saw people needlessly going all in with K/8 offsuit ( I knocked her out with KJ), another player failing to call a mini-raise early with pocket 9's (the raiser had 8's, and the flop was 9/8/x. He would have gotten all the chips.
My bad play was reraising an early position raiser (he had demonstrated poor judgement and was raising light usually). I had just won a couple of pots and had about 4000 from a very short stack earlier. The blinds were 100/200, and when he min-raised, I reraised on the button to 1200 with AQ suited. The big blind, an excellent player, who was also dealing, reraised me all-in. My problem was not taking time to see how "pot committed" I really was. Had I thought longer about what she would need to reraise, and realizing that I would still have 3000 left, I would have folded. As it turned out, I am not sure who was dumber, me for calling her reraise (she had AK suited), or her for not flat calling and seeing what the flop brought (none of her suit, and the king came on the turn). Dumb and dumber. I have seen this with her before though, she takes a bad beat poorly and donks off her chips quickly, so maybe I am giving her play too much credit. I just know that in a similar situation with AK I am not putting in the third raise.
More information on my poker buddy who passed away. They think he died 5 days before his body was found. Another reason not to be a loner.
My bad play was reraising an early position raiser (he had demonstrated poor judgement and was raising light usually). I had just won a couple of pots and had about 4000 from a very short stack earlier. The blinds were 100/200, and when he min-raised, I reraised on the button to 1200 with AQ suited. The big blind, an excellent player, who was also dealing, reraised me all-in. My problem was not taking time to see how "pot committed" I really was. Had I thought longer about what she would need to reraise, and realizing that I would still have 3000 left, I would have folded. As it turned out, I am not sure who was dumber, me for calling her reraise (she had AK suited), or her for not flat calling and seeing what the flop brought (none of her suit, and the king came on the turn). Dumb and dumber. I have seen this with her before though, she takes a bad beat poorly and donks off her chips quickly, so maybe I am giving her play too much credit. I just know that in a similar situation with AK I am not putting in the third raise.
More information on my poker buddy who passed away. They think he died 5 days before his body was found. Another reason not to be a loner.
Friday, March 19, 2010
RIP Mike
Over the past 3 years it has been a sad thing to watch some poker players fade away and die. I am thinking of Jim, Old Jim, Dick, Mr. Wilson, Ray Ray and others who I have forgotten. Early this week I was driving home from the coffee shop and noticed a couple of policemen and others in front of Mike Taylor's house. I was concerned because I did not see Mike, but did not stop. The next day I found out that he had passed away. Mike was fairly regular at our American Legion Friday night game and was an avid online player. He was the one who introduced me to Spade Club, telling me of his regular monthly checks. We had talked many times about doing a day trip to Spirit Mountain together, but had never done so. He retired from roofing and siding work a couple of years ago and was pretty much a loner. He loved his dog, even removing the front seat of his car to accomodate it. I will miss talking poker with him.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Felting
I really love the phrase coined by Phil Laack, "I got felted". It really summarizes what happens to you when you lose all your money at the poker table; you get taken down to the felt. Playing Omaha today that happened to me twice. The first time I flopped a full house with my pocket 6's on a AA6 flop. O.K., no lectures on underfulls, but the action was bet, raise to me so I knew no one had quad aces, and with only the case 6 out, did not think that I was facing a made full house, so I reraised all in. They both called me with their A/5, and of course a 5 came on the turn. Granted, I was walking a mine field as any of their kickers were live, but jeesh. They both hit.
Second felting took place when I got a great flop for my pocket 10's with a 10/8/5 . I bet pot and got one caller. He was playing an A/3 of clubs and I really didn't understand the call with only a low draw. However the turn brought another low card (2) and a second club, so he had the nut low and flush draw. I bet pot again with him calling. The river.....a lousy 4 giving him a wheel and a hogger. Sick. He had to go runner runner to get there. You can argue for his outs, but on the flop he was drawing to half the pot at best. On the turn he locked the low, so I can understand the call, but he really doesn't have a ton of outs for high since I have one ten, 3 8's, 3 5's, and 3 2's to fill up or make quads.
On a more positive note, I did recover my lost felting by tripling up later, so it was a break even day for me.
Second felting took place when I got a great flop for my pocket 10's with a 10/8/5 . I bet pot and got one caller. He was playing an A/3 of clubs and I really didn't understand the call with only a low draw. However the turn brought another low card (2) and a second club, so he had the nut low and flush draw. I bet pot again with him calling. The river.....a lousy 4 giving him a wheel and a hogger. Sick. He had to go runner runner to get there. You can argue for his outs, but on the flop he was drawing to half the pot at best. On the turn he locked the low, so I can understand the call, but he really doesn't have a ton of outs for high since I have one ten, 3 8's, 3 5's, and 3 2's to fill up or make quads.
On a more positive note, I did recover my lost felting by tripling up later, so it was a break even day for me.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Bad Behavior at the Table
I would first of all like to compliment the management of the the Moose for dealing strongly with inappropriate behavior at the table. Last week I suffered with one player's rudeness and nasty comments for 3 days in a row. I have to take part of the blame for it's continuing because I did not complain the first two days. His discussions were with other players and did not directly affect me, but the third day it got personal. I was happy when he was spoken to in no uncertain terms. The bottom line for me is that I enjoy a lot of the banter at the table, but when it gets too personal and abusive then it really destroys my enjoyment of the game. I have decided that when it gets like that I will ask the floor to bring me a tray and to either pick up my chips or the abusive player's. I will either leave the game, or let them kick him out.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Big Day
Saturday was a big day for me. I was stuck about $300, then made a huge comeback to cash out for $850. Won some huge pots with flush and two pair. That is about the biggest swing I have ever had in poker. I find it very difficult to come back when you are down that far. I just crept back and kept on going. I did manage to give a chunk back yesterday, but have made up for that today by chopping the morning tournament, and winning $100 in an hour in the cash game.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Eerie flop
Last night I was playing in the Moose 2/20 game when something very strange happened. My friend Lynne had given me a card protector with QQ on the top (thanks again Lynne, (an I'm sorry for the bet when I made my straight flush gift). I had it in my pocket and was not using it when I remembered that I had it. So, I removed it from its pouch, and put it on my cards before looking at my next hand. Lo and behold, the cards were QQ!!! This was interesting, and since I hate QQ because I have found it impossible to win with it, decided maybe, just maybe, this was a "sign". So, I made a small raise with it....something I just seldom do with queens. With 4 callers, the flop came 7/Q/Q!!!! With a quad flop I was just dumbstruck, and I checked when everyone checked to the raiser. I then checked the turn, and it was bet into me on the river, which I raised and he folded. Wow.
I wish I could report that the rest of the evening went well, but it did not. My biggest problem seemed to be Frosty. He was chasing everything and getting lucky on the river. He snapped my flopped two pair with a straight, Paul's hands twice with a/2 offsuit, and two low hearts. He is willing to put any amount of money in the pot with seemingly any two cards. He called a three bet (mine) with 5/6 offsuit, and my turned flush was beaten by his full house. Last hand of the night for me.
I wish I could report that the rest of the evening went well, but it did not. My biggest problem seemed to be Frosty. He was chasing everything and getting lucky on the river. He snapped my flopped two pair with a straight, Paul's hands twice with a/2 offsuit, and two low hearts. He is willing to put any amount of money in the pot with seemingly any two cards. He called a three bet (mine) with 5/6 offsuit, and my turned flush was beaten by his full house. Last hand of the night for me.
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