This is Me!!!

Playing in the legion tournament tonight, pretty card dead.  I won only one hand all night with pocket 8's.  Got short stacked when I raised from BB with AQ and was called by 10/J offsuit.  The flop was A/J/10 all hearts.  Without checking my hole cards, I thought I had the queen of hearts (nope), and C-bet 600, the caller reraised all in for 350 more and when the bricks came on the turn and river I was short stacked with 600 in chips and blinds now at 100/200.  I went all in utg with 77 and got two callers.  The flop was terrific 5/2/4, the turn paired the 2, then the river came with a king.  One of my two callers goes all in and shows KJ offsuit when the other player folds.  Goodnight.

Update to last night.  Played in 3 tournaments simultaneously, NL Holdem, PL Omaha HL 8B , and Razz.  Made the final table on all three, placing 1st in Omaha, 2nd in Razz, and 6th in Hold-em.  Wish my luck had been as good at the Legion.   

Why Play Money Poker is For Idiots

Due to the federal ban on internet gambling I am reduced to playing free money play money games.  Try 90% of players seeing flops in a "cash" game.  Try pushing all in 5 from the "money" in a tournament with a medium pocket pair and getting called by.....A7 offsuit and overcalled by K8 offsuit.  That is the level of donkdom that you encounter.

Had one interesting hand in a tournament...should have done a screen capture.  The player to my immediate right raised to 120 with 20/40 blinds.  I reraised to 500 with my pocket kings, the player to my immediated left reraises all in.  The first raiser reraises all in, and I call having both of them covered.  The hands?:

AA  first raiser
KK me
QQ  re-re-raiser

I flopped a king and knocked both of them out.  Have never seen top 3 pairs right in a row like that before, and in order no less!!!

Tonight is the legion tournament, should be a big tournament with the holiday weekend.

Withdrawl pain

I am officially off internet poker.  A few days ago I checked in to Ultimate Bet and encountered a software update.....required to continue.  When I checked in after loading it, there was a new message stating that I was being geographically blocked from playing in real money games.  So now I can join the donks playing free poker....interesting if you like seeing 90% of players seeing flop irregardless of their starting hands.  And, particularly nice if you like to enter tournaments where the prize is.....more play dollars.....

Well, have been saying for a while that I play too much online, so for now, nothing to report.  No Legion game this week due to a yard sale they are running, no trips to Spirit Mountain, and will not be back in the Tri-Cities for another week.  

Premonitions

Sometimes you just do not feel the love.  I considered not playing the Friday night Legion tournament because my online game was running pretty bad and my wife beat me in a game of spite and malice (fun couple card game if you are not familiar).  But, having missed last week decided to go for it.  Right away I got a horrible table draw.  The dealer was my arch nemesis, Carl, and seated to my immediate left was a very nice unnamed man who is widely known as a loose calling luckbox.  Also to my left was a good tight player, another player who has been known to get very lucky against me, an Hispanic man known for loose wild and lucky calls, plus an unknown quantity woman that I have never played with.  I had a bad feeling.  The first or second hand I won a small pot and later almost doubled up when hitting a straight on the river (open end flop playing QJ vs. 4/4 early position raise).  I was playing very few hands getting mostly unplayable cards when this occurred.  With blinds at 60/120 and two limpers ahead of me I was dealt AK suited.  Raising to 300 all folded to the limpers who both called.  With a king high flop it was check, then the unknown lady bet 500, I raised to 1000, the other limper folded and she called.  With most of her chips in the pot, when another face card hit we both checked (I probably should have put her all in, but I think she was pot committed, so not tooo bad on my part).  The river was a queen and she bet only 200 into me.  I called and she announced 2 pair, KQ.  Done in by her 3 outer.

At this point I was below original chip stack and slightly on tilt, so when it was folded to my small blind a couple of hands later I see A/10 and overbet the pot, making it 630 to go.  Mr. loose caller calls and the flop is 8 high.  I check, he checks, no point in betting with my short stack and the loosest caller on the planet in the hand.  The turn is a jack, I check he bets 200....I call.  The river, blank, he fires another 200, I fold.  He is incapable of bluffing I know from previous experience and incapable of folding any pair.  Now really short stacked I have only one move.  After the break with 100/200 blinds I am dealt AQ of hearts in early position.  Shove, call from big blind.....AK.  One heart on the flop, along with a king, king on the turn, done.

Going home early I play in two SNG tournaments, coming in 3rd in one and winning the other.  Below is a great hand that ruled, but my last winning hand was pocket queens vs. J8 on a flop of 9/10/Q .  I rivered a 10 for the full house.  Why can't I get that lucky live?

  

Another Mixed Message Day

This is officially getting silly.  I got crushed in a deepstack (50 Big Blind buy-in) cash omaha game.  Lost almost 3 buy-ins as it was way too wild a game, with one player raising pot every hand and my draws not coming in plus opponents draws seemingly always arriving.  I like to see a lot of flops (57% according to my stats) and rely on my board reading to play from there.  My online stats show that I win over 50% of the time if I see a flop, and almost 60% of showdowns.  These stats are skewed however because of the number of tournaments I play and my heads up play, where you are playing nearly every hand.  I think the real numbers on cash play are much lower.  With a wild player in the mix it is important to go into a flop really strong as you may have to put all your chips in after the flop.  It is a really poor strategy to raise every hand and before long the maniac was felted and gone.

Anyway, tournament play was also pretty bad...until my last one.  It was a larger buy in than I normally play and ended up winning so I "almost" broke even.  Because of the lack of ability right now to rebuy it is very important that I stay within my bankroll.

Mixed Results

Somehow my luck runs strange.  For instance, I can destroy the single table SNG tournaments that I love to play, but go stone cold in the multi-table ones.  Or, I can be red hot in cash games and frigid in tournaments, or visa-versa.  Yesterday the cash games were very good to me with four winning sessions including a quadruple up when I filled up against a smaller full  house and a flush draw.  Tournaments were a mixed bag for me with two cashes, one 3rd place and one 2nd place.  I was leading in the third place but got interrupted by Mrs. Hall, so sat out and coasted in to last cash.....shame.  The other one I was chip leader by 4 to one heads up in Omaha but just could not put him away.  Blinds get very large and you play every hand and usually go all-in with lots of split pots.

This government crackdown on the websites is starting to really affect online play.  I noticed that most of the players were from foreign countries and there is lots of chat about the change.  I would estimate that perhaps traffic is down by 1/2 or more.  It is hard to get a game going at some times.  Heard yesterday that Ultimate Bet had cancelled the contracts of their pros.  There were comments from some of them that they are very hard hit, losing both the income from the contract and their profit from playing.  My hope is that they get this thing settled soon and legalize it.  We all know what happened during prohibition.

Example below of me getting lucky from a couple of days ago (just to shut me the F___ up about others getting lucky against me!).

Poker Dream 2

Every once in a while, particularly after taking some horrible beat, I dream about poker.  Last night playing on line I doubled up hitting quad jacks against a flopped set over set queens and jacks, and was on cruise control, tripling my buy in for the pot limit omaha game.  Then disaster struck.  I flopped top set with my JJ on a flop of J/7/5.  I bet to protect from the low  and straight draws.  I was called by a big stack player with two pair, 7/5.  The turn was wonderful, a 7 putting two flush draws on board, the other player's underful, and my big full house.  I bet, he raised all in and I called for all my chips.  The river......his one outer case 7 for quads.  This put me on major tilt and unfortunately I was simultaneously playing in a small buy in holdem tournament, played back at a raise all-in with 6/7 suited and got knocked out on the bubble after pairing my 6 and losing to AK when an ace hit.  The hand below is one I did not get paid off for (small pot).  This is the guy who knocked me out.

Back to my dream.  I was playing in a short handed game with a short stack when I flopped a full house, Kings over 8's.  It was bet into me, I call and another player also calls.  He bets again when another king falls giving me quads and he proudly says, 10's full.  The dealer starts to shove the pot to him and I protest, then look at the board again and there are no kings on it, plus he has not brought the river card.  I cause a big stink, demand he bring the last card but he has already mucked the deck.  I loudly announce that I am "so done with this game" and leave.  It has become a full table, played on what appears to be a long dining table, and one of the other players is a former saleswoman who worked for me at Macy's.  Weird, huh?   

Don't Shoot Back

A great quote from NCIS Los Angeles.  Deeks and his childhood ganster friend are talking and the buddy says, " Remember, don't shoot back", and Deeks replies, "Always shoot first".  I think this is excellent advice for poker players.  It is far better to be the aggressor than to be the caller.  I had an opportunity to put this into practice last night.  Tim, an aggressive player with weak cards raised in early position and I found myself with AK suited.  Normally I try to see a flop fairly cheap with this great drawing hand but figured that I probably had the better hand and wanted to see if I could isolate him, so I reraised, I think to $35 and got a hitchiker along who also was overplaying his hands and calling light.  The flop was wonderful rainbow ace high with no straight draws.  I bet $20 and they both called.  The turn and river did not complete any draws obvious, and paired 6's on the river.  I bet and "Neanderthal", as I will call the other player, called me with AJ.  Nice pot.

The Neanderthal and I played a couple of hands which I could not believe that he called me.  I had a straight draw, he bet I raised, and he called with bottom pair.  The turn brought 3 spades and paired his king (he was playing k/2 offsuit, lol).  He checked, I bet, he called.  A fourth spade hit the river and when he checked I fired again with no pair, no spade.  Like the donk he was, he called and took the pot.  Unbelievable that he could not lay that hand down.  He demonstrated many times that night that he would call to the river with bottom pair and won several nice pots, but eventually as he must when you play every single hand he went from big stack to felt several times, but always getting bailed out on 3 outer draws.  I was just waiting to get a big hand against him when this one came up.

TJ had entered the game from another table with $300 in chips and raised preflop with AQ.  Neanderthal and I plus probably another player or two called, me with A/10 suited.  The flop was the monster I had been waiting for :  A/A/10.  I checked, TJ fired $20 and the other guy and I called.  The turn was a small card and put two flush draws on board....awesome.  TJ bet $15, the other guy called and I check-raised to $35.  The river card paired the board with 8's which guaranteed a TJ call when I bet.  Nice pot, Sir!

Had a couple of nice suckouts, filled up against pocket Aces with my K/10, and also hit a straight against aces.  Lost a few close ones and ended up down $50 after being stuck over $300, so I considered it a moral victory if not a financial one.

Soft, Soft, Soft

Some games are so soft that when you sit down you honestly believe that you have arrived in poker heaven.  When you cannot be dealt a playable hand you change your opinion that you may have landed in poker hell.  Last night at the Moose was very frustrating to me.  Table two was filled with weak players and I could not get a hand!  An example, a guy raises  $20 with pocket 2's (pocket 2's, LOL), and gets a couple of callers.  With lots of action and no improvement he continues to bet to the river and gets raised....and calls!!!!  He did the same thing with the same hand a little later.  I just patiently sat there and waited for a big hand that never came.

Moving to the main game, I hated leaving that one, it was more card dead night for me.  I gradually dwindled down, losing a huge pot to a bigger straight and eventually down to $25.  I fought my way back and when one of the most massive bluffers in history....wearing sunglasses, lol, moved over I found an opportunity to get back to my $150 buyin when he raised preflop (surprise, almost every hand), and I called with AJ hearts.  Flop was small with 2 hearts and I called his $20 C-bet.  Turn brought a jack and you could not have moved me off the hand with dynamite as we were heads up.  I failed to make the flush on the river, but my pair of jacks took the pot.

My last hand, ready to leave anyway, the bluffman raises to $18 and a young kid, very bad player who had sat down with almost $400 and was down to $150 reraised to $38.  I see pocket 8's and decide to fold, figuring I am up against overcards and/or bigger pair.  The flop....2/2/3, turn 3, river 3.  The bluffmaster bet it the entire way and they chopped the pot with his A/8 offsuit and reraiser's KJ offsuit.  Unbelievable.  Decided to cash out for a net $25.00 win after that having "lost my gamble" and a $200+ pot.