How can People Play so Bad?

My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.
- Rodney Dangerfield
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Back to the Moose morning madness.  I watch player after player self-destruct and luckboxes take turns getting lucky and unlucky.  A player gets knocked out early after flopping a set of jacks against 6/7 suited.  The suited flops 2 of his suitel, bets, is raised by the set, re-raises all-in and is called.  Naturally he hits a flush on the turn.  Later he gives all the chips back on an A/7/8 flop with two of a suite, naturally he goes all-in, is called by the draw, but wait.....another player has flopped two pair A/8 vs. his A/7.  The flush fails to hit, players down.

I watch crappy hands go all-in on draws and fail.  Finally, with blinds at 100/200, and me with about 2200 in chips, an early position player shoves his last 800.  I have pocket 5's and call rather than re-raise (a mistake it turns out).  For some unknown reason the small blind, who has about 2600, also calls.  The flop is:  9/9/10.  It is checked to me and I shove 1400.  The pot was approximately 2600 and with my bet is now 4000.  The blind almost snap calls with 8/Q for a gutshot straight draw and one weak overcard.  Now, if it is me, I calculate that I have to call almost 3/1 odds on an at best 6/1 draw (assuming his queen would be enough to win....which given the board might not be enough), and more likely a 10/1 longshot.

Sure enough, Kevin brings a queen on the river and both of us are eliminated.  I don't recall what the other player had, but obviously no pair...maybe a weak king. 

Vegas, Baby

Our winter vacation is coming to an end.  We left Arizona yesterday, stopping in Las Vegas for the first night.  We got there super early, around 2:00, but if you know much about driving in Nevada, it is a really long drive to any towns North, and those are tiny.  So, short driving day and lots of time to fill.  Hmmm, wonder if Helene & Milo would mind if I wandered over to the Venetian for a little poker?  Guess not.  Luckily, they had a free shuttle to Harrah's, which is right next door to the Venetian.  Awesome.

Arriving about 3:30, the only open seat was in a 4/8 game.  It was extremely "soft", and I won a couple of small pots, but like all low limit games the chasers got me most of the time.  Down about $35, a seat opened up on the 3/6 omaha kill game.  I quickly took my seat and found myself in the big blind the first hand.  Winning that one, I was now even and never looked back.  The game was awesome.  Usually 7 players saw the flop and players were playing either garbage or calling with non-nut hands.  I was a little concerned with a smart-mouthed punk kid at the other end of the table, but never lost a pot to him.  He had about 400 in front of him and the guy next to me said he hadn't missed a lucky river yet.

Three hours later, I cashed out for $314 on my $100 original "investment".  Love that game!  The only downer was waiting a half hour for the shuttle, arriving at the hotel (La Quinta....they deserve the complaint to follow) to find the hot water was not working in the shower.  Plus, there were ants crawling all over the bathroom, including the towels.  My call to the office brought quick action, which involved schlepping all of our stuff to the room next door.  Problem solved....until the next day when we discovered the toilet would not flush.  Another visit to the office, they apologized and offered some compensation.  I was hoping for more than the 1000 points they gave me toward my rewards program.  Rough equivalent in dollars = $8.00, as it takes about 11,000 for a free room.  I can hardly wait to receive my request to evaluate the stay!!! 

Arizon Poker Frustrating Me

So far, no winning sessions in Arizona.  Arriving early at the Wildhorse Casino I checked into a 4/8 game to earn some extra chips for the noon tournament.  2 hours of play doubles your starting stack from 1000 to 2000 chips.  The structure is 25/25 starting blinds, with 20 minute levels.  Getting stuck $64 bucks, I was running super card dead.  At the 5th level, with blinds at 200/400 I had only 2 big blinds, so shoved 2 UTG with A/10.  Called in two places I saw a queen high flop, which bet out all in, not a good sign, particularly when he was called by another player who had him covered.  The caller had pocket 6's, and hit a set on the flop.  2 players down.

Signing up for a 3/6 game, I just kept getting drawn out on.  It was like the Moose, only worse.  My AK went down to 5/7 suited that hit a river flush (king high flop).  Then, my flopped set of 6's also fell to a flush.  Finally, stuck $120, got on a mini-heater, winning with AK, then tripling up with the biggest pot of the day with KK vs. QQ and two other hands in a kill pot.  It was my kill, and when my option came around, I raised and was re-raised by another player.  I capped, and two players were all in with $2 in the side pot.  I just kept betting with no overcards and scooped the whole thing.  Now up about 20, I played a few hands and cashed out even for that session.  not a good outing, but avoided disaster. 

Long Night of Poker

I decided to go for the cash game at the Wild Horse Pass last night.  No omaha game just an interest list, so signed up for the 4/8.  An hour later, down $55, they start the omaha.  The game was pretty sane with very few preflop raises (at first).  I lost some massive pots on the river, and to be fair also won a few there.  The rake is huge, with $3 being dropped in the freaking bonus slot, as well as the regular rake, which I think was $4.  In a split pot game, it makes it very hard to beat.  I kept getting "felted", but was rebuying small, either $60 or $40 as it made it easier to chase if need be.  A new player stepped into the game, raised a kill pot (this was 4/8), so made it $16 to go.  The pot got crazy big with nearly everyone in it, and he ended up hogging the whole thing with a miracle river card for a wheel (he had raised preflop with 4/5/x/x, no pair unsuited...basically a muck preflop hand).  Dumb luck.  I raised and he reraised ($48) on the river with second nut low as I just could not believe that anyone would preflop raise with his garbage...so I put him on a set or two pair with the A/2/3 on the board.  My bad.

They have a "rolling thunder" drawing every week.  You get an entry card for every full house, or in omaha, quads.  If it is not collected (they call a name every 2 hours), it rolls over and $100 is added.  Last night it had grown to $1900.  You must be seated in a game to win, so lots of regulars showed up late.  One guy hit it, as they continued to draw names until a winner on the last night.  I earned one entry in the new one with quad 3's, which also won a nice pot.  Helene called me a half hour before the 1:00 a.m.drawing to enquire about my health and casually ask when the hell I would be "home".  She was actually very nice about it, but was keeping her up late, so with only a handful of entries in the drawing, I left before I had a chance of the $100 that would have gotten me even for the night.  One of the other players, hearing my side of the phone call asked me how long I had been married, when I told him 40 plus years he said, "You get an extra 5 minutes for every year", when I racked up, he said, "That is why you have remained married for 40 years".

One very bad pot for me was playing pocket 10's on a flop of K/10/x with the king and ten suited in spades.  I bet the entire way to protect against the draws and was dismayed to see the Jack of spades on the river.  Another player bet, but with a big  pot, you can't automatically dump a set on the river to a scare card.  He definitely had THE flush, holding the Q/A in his hand for a royal.  Nice hand sir!  That earned a spin of the wheel, giving him another $100 (the minimum prize).  Found out I was behind and drawing to one out the entire way as another player had KK for a flopped overset.

Overall loss, about $100 as I cashed out for $202 after going on a mini heater at the end, short handed in the game of 5 players.  Pretty sure the game broke after I left.

Well, despite the above, making plans for the day to have lunch with Don and his wife, Penny.  This would be an excellent evening for me to cruise over to the Wildhorse Casino and play some 2-100.  You heard right.  Unlike our 2/20 spread game at the Moose, this is a 2/100 betting structure.  I think the reason for it is some misguided legislation preventing true "no limit" games.  At first, I thought it was a crazy structure, but upon further review it makes more sense than the Moose game.  The buy-in is limited to $300, and I will probably go for $150, giving me 1 1/2 big bets, LOL.  Will have to see how crazy it is, but suspect that it will be similar to the Moose with limps, but able to protect your hand better and get it all in when you are strong.

My theory about when I am running good online translating to running good at the casino best be working today.  Hit a straight flush last night, and consistently winning today. 

This is how you make money in Omaha

This hand came up this morning.  I flopped a set, one player ended up with trips, the other one got the "under-full" house on the river.  Everyone had a little something/something.  This is a hand I just would not have lost much money on.  You really have to dump these hands if there is a lot of action (I was raising and re-raising on the river...betting all the way).

Playing in a tournament today with Don, and we have a "last man standing (er sitting)" side bet.  Don claims to "play to win", not to last a long time but is making an exception for me on this side bet.  I got to thinking about my playing style and why I final table so often, but seldom win tournaments.  Here is the deal:  pay attention Don.  I go deep in tournaments so often because I am a "nit" early in a tournament (for definition of nit, look up "Randy" in your poker dictionary, this is an inside joke, Don, he is the tightest player in the universe).  My feeling is that I need to wait for premium cards and/or premium situations to play hands.  You cannot win a big pot with your pocket aces or kings if you are never dealt them because you played K/10 UTG, or 4/4 against a big raise and got knocked out early.  Those times when I have had super hands and/or super flops early in a tournament and doubled up, I pretty much know that I will be sitting in the money.  Now, here is the flaw in my tournament strategy.  When I chip up early through luck/great cards, I seldom turn into the big stack bully and accumulate massive chips.  This is bad, though I will temper the statement with the observation that often you see the bully donk his/her chips off making marginal calls of raises (think calling a big raise from a conservative player out of position with A/7 offsuit, or with any two suited cards).  I see that stuff a lot.  What I should be doing is being more aggressive in general, particularly in late position.  When a big stack, you need to be open raising on the button or cutoff more often than not, particularly when attacking medium stack hands that aren't forced to defend or will play back at you very often.  This is important.  Note that you are not donking off your chips by calling raises.  You are forcing other players to play out of position and bluff re-raise, or take the easier route and fold to your pressure.  This gives cover to those times when you actually have a real hand, and then you can stack them.

So, in conclusion today, I am planning on playing my usual game, but watch out for me Don if I chip up early.  

Tournament Cancelled

I was looking forward to playing in the $50/$1000 added tournament last night but had to cancel.  Long story, my brother in law ended up in the hospital.  I was not sure if I would be needed so ended  so Don and I took a rain-check.  John had some foot surgery recently and was on antibiotics delivered through a pick line (guess that is how you spell it).  He has to go in every morning to have it cleaned, checked and refilled.  Anyway, somehow got a blood clot....they thought.....that had to have an MRI, which confirmed it, which led to the ER, which led to admission overnight.  Anyway, I tried to offer my services or companionship but sis did not need/want.  Hoping for some good news today, yesterday was hard on both of them.  

How To Be The Dick at The Table

Checking in to the Wyndham Suites Hotel this afternoon, I found myself caught in traffic on the highway.  Just my luck that the Wild Horse Pass Casino was one exit down.  Hmmm, that looks like a great place to sit out for a while.  There is a 4/8 Omaha game with an open seat, so I buy in for $100.  One hand too late it turns out, as they have a $50 "splash pot" at the beginning of each quarter of the basketball game.  Dang.  The game is pretty lame with a huge rake (particularly bad in a split pot game), tight players (read smaller pots and not much action), and frankly too much table talk among the regulars, who appear to be everyone but me.

I play for a half hour or so with little variance then the guy in seat 8 asks the table if we can play a mix game with 7 stud/eight or better hi/low.  He claims to have not played it for a long time but I am calling bullshit on him.  You just don't come up with that stuff if you are not pro level.  At 4/8 levels, this plays huge with all of the betting levels, and of course the hi low is a killer as you can easily get caught in the crossfire between nut hands.  So, the entire table votes yes except for me.  He says, "We will just bust this guy and change".  I thank him for transferring good poker karma to me and think, "we will see who busts who".  About then, my wife calls wondering where I have gone to, and I tell her I will be home soon.  I play a few more hands, gather my chips (up $14 thank you), and head for the cage, just as they announce another splash pot next hand.  Oh well.

Playing their 7:30 tournament tomorrow with my buddy Don.  It is a $50 buy in, with $1000 added but have no idea of the rake or how many players normally show up (there are 24 poker tables). We'll see.  Hoping that it is a good one as it is convenient to our hotel and reasonable costs.  Think I will skip the Omaha for a while.

    Wild Horse Pass
POKER PROMOTIONS
No-Limit Hold-em Tournaments
Monday & Thursday at Noon
$150 Per Table Added. $30 buy-in
Tuesday & Wednesday at 7:30pm
$1000 added to prize pool. $50 buy-in
Sunday No Limit Texas Hold'em
$30 buy-in
1 optional $20 add-on before first break
Starts at 3:30pm

Arizona Tournament

I played today for the first time since arriving in Arizona.  The 11:15 Talking Stick Casino (Casino Arizona) was a $70 buy-in, plus $10 fee.  In addition, there was a $10 "dealer appreciation" option to double your starting chips (from 2500 to 5000).  Duh, guess I will do that.  In addition there was an "add-on" option before the first break (1 hr./3rd blind level of 20 min. each) for another $20 to get 2,000 more in chips.  You could also re-enter if knocked out during the first 40 minutes for full buy-in.  We ended up with 144 entries and re-entries with 15 places being paid.

I enjoyed my usual card dead tournament, with only 5 pairs dealt to me, the largest being 7/7.  I got 2/2 twice and 4/4 twice.  Big cards?  AQ twice....shoved with both as a short stack and no callers....I had been playing squeeky tight as most of my hands were 5 high or big/little combinations.  Saw only a couple of hands that I would have won with any of them if played to the river.....with A/4 suited the best missed opportunity but folded pre-flop to a raise and re-raise all-in.  That one flopped two pair and turned a full house.

My 7/7 got me tripled up from my 2 big blinds, woo-hoo!, but still in deperate shape I finally called with my remaining chips a raise from AQ with my 2/2.  I hit a set on the river, but he turned the nut flush.  Insult to injury.  My final place was 41st, something of a miracle in itself but I was never much over starting chip stack.  I did outlast my friend, Don, who got booted a couple of hours earlier. Don is a great tournament player so for now I get bragging rights.  We will probably play a couple more tournaments together while I am in town.

After losing in the tournament I sat down at my old friend, 3/6 limit, and lost about $35...most of it on the last hand when I turned two pair and was counterfeited on the river.  A seat opened up in the 4/8 omaha game where I lost the remainder of my $100 buy-in from the other game.....all of it on my last two hands.  It is a great poker room, saw some really big games in progress.  How about a 50/100 game for you?  Several people had $10,000 stacks.  That is like 4 racks of $25 chips.  Monster games like that all over.  Also, I think they were playing a mix game, you know, a round of stud, then holdem, omaha, etc.  Yowsa!

Bet Sizing

This is probably the most difficult post I have written mostly because it is a subject that I do not claim to be an expert in, or even have a faint clue at times.  I have a hunch that bet sizing is probably one of the most difficult skills to master in no limit poker, whether it is a cash game or tournament.  I cut my teeth on limit games, so this is something I have had to learn about later in my life.


In a limit game it is sometimes important to build a "protected pot".  By this I mean that you increase the size of the pot so that it is impossible for someone to give you incorrect odds for your draws.  For example, in my old friend, the 2/20 spread game (as explained earlier the worst of the worst hybrid games), with nearly the entire table limping for $2, or sometimes $4 from a straddle, the pot may be $15-30 preflop.  This is a great opportunity to raise from the button with your suited connectors, which usually need a big pot, lots of players and multiple streets to make your hand.  By raising small here you can build that protected pot.


If you have a big made hand, say kings or aces, with a bet limit of $20, if you bet the maximum and get even one caller, any subsequent player is getting pretty good odds to call with their draws.  Once the pot reaches $100, the $20 maximum bet is giving 5/1 odds....plenty for those flush and open ended straight draws, and even enough given "implied odds" for overcards, backdoor draws, gutshots, etc.  That is why the game is so difficult.  If you raise, the game is so loose that you get multiple callers and cannot protect your made hand.  If you don't raise, you just encourage all sorts of riffraff to join the party.  What's a player to do?




One thing I think you can do in this situation is simply play very tight.  Refuse to limp in early position, fold to raises, and re-raise early position raisers.  That is just playing smart, solid poker.  A quirk in this strategy is the "Monte Carlo" board.  With quads or straight flushes paying anywhere from $150 to $500, it is too tempting for lots of bingo players to justify calls with suited connectors or small pairs.  Often you will put in a big raise with your kings, only to be called by 6/8 suited because "you can make a straight flush" ha, ha.  But then he hits either a weak flush or a straight or two pair and snaps you.  The answer is simple.  Make them pay for their draws.  On an uncoordinated "dry" board you just keep betting.  On a scary coordinated "wet" board, you bet and see what the response is.  Calls on more than one street turn on the caution or stop light.




But let's leave this discussion and move onto no limit bet sizing.  Here we have the opportunity to really price draws out.  Some of the biggest mistakes I have made in tournaments have been pricing draws in or out.  Small bets on coordinated boards beg the draws to call.  Big bets beg them to fold.  I personally tend to lean towards the fold size because I want to win a small pot rather than lose a big one.  I am thinking this is very erroneous play.  What you really want is a bet that encourages your opponent to call with incorrect odds.  An example might be betting a pot size on a two-flush board.  This gives your opponent 3/1 odds on a 5/1 draw (pot = 100, you bet 100, now the pot is 200, he must put in 100 to win 300), while his flush draw (assuming no other outs), is 9/47 or over 5/1.  If you made the bet 1/2 pot size, pot =100, you bet 50, he now must call 50 to win 200, or 4/1.  Still not correct but closer and given "implied odds", not a horrible mistake for the draw to call.



Tip: Bets of around two thirds to three quarters of the pot show the best risk/reward ratio when considering a bluff or punishing drawing hands.


What I often see is players willing to call much larger bets on their draws.  They take horrible odds to try to get lucky.  I also see players way over-bet their made hands trying to eliminate the draws from calling.  Both of these are mistakes in my (humble) opinion.  The drawing player is taking the worst of it and relying on luck, while the other player is giving up equity, particularly when the other player is willing to call any bet on his draw.  By controlling the pot size, keeping it smaller, you can give the player willing to "gamble" incorrect odds and yet also give yourself room to fold the hand to bad turn or river cards.




Another bet sizing error that I see a lot is shoving or over-betting with small/medium pairs or AK.  There are points in a tournament that this is the correct play, particularly with small stacks or even 10 big blinds.  Both hands are essentially shouting "don't call me"!  The correct play seems to be a fold with most hands or a re-raise with your big hands (QQ,KK,AA), unless you have the monster stack at the table and the player is very short and desperate.  Your correct bet size if this happens is nearly always a re-raise rather than a call if you are late position as you do not want to get caught in a squeeze situation from an early position player.  It really takes a monster hand or chip stack to call a shove and re-shove or re-raise.  You really need to pay attention to stack sizes of limpers or blinds here because now that the pot is gianormous you may get other short stacks willing to gamble or big stacks looking to take out multiple players.  If the money is near the bubble you have a much better shot at isolating.


Well, that's about it today on bet sizing, other than my renewed vow to not over-raise.  I am leaning towards 2.5x the big blind on an opening raise with no limpers, and adding a 1/2 bet for every limper.  My goal is always to get the blinds out of there and make the limpers pay for their weak- ass play.  

Did Good, Coulda Done Better

There were a ton of players this morning at the Moose.  There were 3 full tables, and probably 10 alternates.  I got hurt early on, getting down to about 1/2 my starting chips.  Moving tables when we broke down the third one, I was looking to chip up soon.  Managed to double up, then tripled up with my KK vs QQ and suited connectors.  I gave some back when Clark rivered a straight with his 10/A vs. my KK.  I then doubled again with AQ vs KK, hitting trip queens.  I was taking turns getting lucky.

At the final table, I was chip leader and tried to just stay out of trouble.  We agreed to pay 5th & 6th bubble money and soon were down to 3 of us.  Because of the large number of alternates, blinds were brutal.  We were up to 2,000/4,000 with only 80,000 in play.  Tom was his usual aggressive self, and I made two huge mistakes.  The first was raising from the button with KJ suited.  He called from the small blind, and when the flop was queen high we both checked.  The turn looked harmless, but Tom bet large and I was forced to fold.  He later told me he was jack high.  Oh well.  The second mistake I made was raising all-in from the small blind with A/A.  He tanked and folded AJ face up.  If I had just limped he definitely would have bet, then I could have re-raised all-in when he was pot committed.  Sigh, either hand played better would have left me the tournament winner.

Last mistake was offering to give Tom first and splitting 2nd and 3rd place with Rafi.  We each got $155 rather than $190 and $120.  Since I was only giving up $35, it would have been better to play on and hopefully get lucky (or have Rafi get unlucky, or combination of the two) to win $390 or perhaps get close enough to chop $290 each.  Dumb choice.  Rafi and I had about the same chips, I had perhaps a few more....that said, we chopped after a hand was dealt, but before anyone looked at their cards (I was in the big blind) and Rafi had A/5, while I had 6/2 and Tom had junk.....so it probably worked out better for me.

So, now I leave for Phoenix after 2 consecutive cashes, though not for much money.  But, I like the start of the new year!!!!!