Kings at the Legion

Kings were my salvation and my undoing tonight at the Legion tournament. The first time I got them an early position player raised and I flat called to make sure there was no ace on the flop. With a 9/10/3 flop the early raiser bet and I raised 3x his bet and he called my raise. The turn was another small card, he checked and I bet 300 into the 700 pot, he called. River brought a jack and he declared all-in. I questioned him, jacks??? 10's??? With a possible straight on board with KQ I folded my kings face up and he showed.....pocket queens. Bad fold as you will learn later.

My next experience with pocket kings was an aggressive young player raising big in early position. I check my cards and hmmm, pocket aces. I re-raise all-in and he tanks but finally calls (I have him covered) and he shows.....pocket kings. My aces hold up and he is gone. Our table breaks down shortly afterwards and I go to a new table. A few hands in I look at .....pocket kings in the big blind with about 4 limpers. I raise big (to 1700 with blinds at 100/200) and an early position limper reraises me all=in. Everyone folds except for the small blind who goes into the tank. Finally someone calls time on him and he folds sheepishly, since he thought it was my action. I call having the reraiser covered, and he shows....pocket aces. They hold up and I am back to original chips.

A few hands later, I am in the big blind again with 3/5. The pocket ace guy, Don, limps again and I am suspicious. Erik, the guy I should have knocked out earlier also limps on the cutoff. The flop comes queen/3/4. I check and so does everyone else. The turn is a 6 which gives me an open end straight draw plus my pair of 3's. I go all-in for 1500 with the pot at 1400 and both limpers call. The turn is a 9, they both check, and the early limper shows JJ (another trap), while the button who I should have knocked out earlier takes the pot with AQ.

One last KK story. I am playing tonight after getting knocked out of the live tournament in an online tourney. I am down to almost nothing and pick up KK in the blind. My allin is called by JJ and 33 and A5 suited. The jacks hit the two outer and I am eliminated. Two tournaments out with pocket kings.

Good Beats for a Change

I know that it can be very tiresome for my small but dedicated blog followers to keep reading about me whining about my bad beats, so in the interest of fair and balanced reporting, here are some good beats from today.

1. I am all-in with AQ and called by AK. Queen on the flop saves me.

2. My all-in with AA holds up against KQ and 3/6.

3. My all-in with KQ suited is called by AA. I flop an open ended straight draw and two hearts. River the heart for the flush. Aces cracked.

4. Not really a bad beat story, but my AK is called all-in by Q/8. Flop is JJA, with turn an ace.

5. Last story not a bad beat, but just a horrible situation. 3 all-ins, I have KK, bigger stack has AA, and biggest stack has QQ. Flop is 8/8/Q. Youchers!

How to fail at poker

I am actively finding new ways to lose at poker. Some examples:

1. In the blind I am playing 9/2. The flop is 2/2/6. A player bets, another raises, I go all-in and they both call. They have JJ and 5/6. There is a 6 on the river and I am gone.

2. Player goes all-in with 9/9, I call with K/Q. He catches a 9 on the flop, I get my king on the turn. I am gone.

3. I flop a straight with A/10 on a K/Q/J flop early in tournament. JJ hits a queen on river for full house. I am gone.

4. 9/10 hearts raises (big stack), I reraise all in with KQ hearts (small stack). He hits a 10 on the flop and....I am gone.

5. I raise all-in from the button and a short stack with Q/10. Small blind (barely covering me) calls with Q/6 suited. Flop is Q/6/x and .....I am gone.

Lest you think this is just some bad beats accumulated over a long time, they are not. They all happened to me today..........WTF!!!

Finding Pocket Aces

My WSOP dreams were crushed yesterday. First off, it was Father's Day, and my kids were visiting. Not a good scenario for uninterrupted concentrated play. I got off to a slow start and lost 20% of my chips to a big stack with top pair, good kicker (KJ with king high flop) when he flopped two pair playing a suited 10/3. My next hit came from an ill timed bluff on the cutoff with 5/2 suited. The button stayed with me on a 2 barrel bluff (raise preflop, bet on flop and turn). I gave it up on the river as only an all-in would possibly have won. My last hand came when I was down to about 2500 in chips with 100/200 blinds and I pushed with A/8 suited in clubs. The massive big stack came over the top and another player called. I considered folding, but with the other caller went for pot odds, realizing that I needed to chip up fast to have any chance at this point. The big stack found pocket aces with the ace of diamonds. Running diamonds with two on the flop found me drawing dead, and he eventually made the flush as well.

Later, playing in another tournament I also ran into a big stack with pocket aces. Go figure. My other two tournaments were unusual in that I ran into bad luck with the same player in different tournaments. Jimtrout is a very good player, and as it turns out very lucky against me. In the first tournament, I was cruising along with a good chip count, but he had me slightly covered. Playing pocket 8's I flopped a set with a 10,8, 5 flop. I bet, he raised, we go all-in. He is playing j/9 for the open ended straight draw and he hits a queen on the river to knock me out. Later, in another tournament basically the same thing happened, I went all-in with a made hand and he caught runners for another straight. Sometimes one player just is super lucky against me. The second tournament where he knocked me out I did cash for 4th, but it was my only cash of the day.

WSOP Tournament Finals

Today I am playing for my World Series of Poker $10,000 seat plus $2,000 in expenses. I won entry into the semi-finals yesterday by winning a satellite tournament, then finished 66th in the semi's (top 100 won a seat). The placement didn't really matter after the 101st was eliminated, and everyone just sort of started going all-in...I was eliminated with 3 others with my A/9 offsuit.

Anyway, there are 343 finalists so my odds aren't really that bad. It would be awesome to win the seat and achieve my dream. I played last year in a cash game with someone who had won an online seat like that and he ended up cashing for $27,500, so it can happen. The top 600 or so at the WSOP get their buy in back, so even $10,000 isn't bad. You can even sell the seat for face value if you want, which probably isn't a terrible idea. But, I just want the experience.

Examples of weak play/ combined with luck

1. Player limps in with A/4 offsuit.
2. Same player calls my 4x blind raise (pocket 9's).
3. Same player callls pot size raise with 2/3/4 flop. (Hey, I've got top pair! and a gutshot draw!)
4. Same player gets lucky when a 4 comes on the river after reraising me all in.

Example 2:

1. Player with a big stack calls my pot size bet with KJ on a QJx flop (I have QJ). Also called by Q4.
2. Both players call my all-in bet on turn with a blank.
3. Big stack knocks us both out with a 10 on the river for his gutshot.

Very Unlucky

The morning Moose tournament has been cruel to me. I started well, with lots of small pocket pairs, some good bluffs, and an early decent stack. I then ran into trouble with an early position raise with JJ. I am called by a very loose aggressive player who calls with A/10 offsuit. The flop is 10/10/9. I continuation bet and he calls. I bet the turn as well with another small card, commenting that one of us is stringing the other along. With the straight draws, I then fire a final bet which he raises on the river. I foolishly call. Down to about 1/2 original stack. My next debacle comes with J10 hearts. I flop a double gutshot straight draw with an AQ8 flop and one diamond. Dr. Dave bets and I call. The turn gives me a pair of jacks and another diamond on board, Dave bets, I call. The river is the 10 of diamonds and I figure, two pair and I can bluff for the straight. I bet 500, leaving me 475 behind and Dave raises me all in. I fold face up and he shows the Q/9 diamonds for a straight flush. Good fold. Good hand. Very unlucky.

My last hand I go all in with K/Q offsuit and get 3 callers (why not call the unluckiest player at the table if you are loose with A7 offsuit?). The flop is AA6 and they all check. Hope. The turn is a king and checks around. More hope. The river pairs the 6 and checks again. Sick.

Good News for Lynne

O.K. Lynne, here is the good news. I know that I am a big crybaby whiner about my bad beats, so here is my take on it. I am playing good poker lately and am up about 500 or so in cash games. Tournaments continue to be bad for me, but am probably money ahead even if I had cashed a couple of times. My cash results tell me that I am playing o.k. The problem with tournaments is one bad beat or decision and you are out permanently. With the cash game you can either rebuy or just watch your stack take a hit, then come back.

To try to improve my tournament results, I am studying a "new" poker theory on short stack play called "push-bot charts". It basically analyzes your position on the table (blind, button, cut off, UTG, etc.), your chip stack "M" (number of big blinds), and the card holding, as well as whether the table is loose, tight or average. It sounds much more complicated than it actually is. For instance: pocket 8's or any larger pockets in any position against any table are a good shove with 10 BB's (down to pocket 4's except for tight tables), pocket 2's only on the button (shove 2's in any position with 2 BB's). You can google poker push bot and download the entire PDF file if you are interested.