Bad Plays, Damn Ace Queen again

The Sunday a.m. Moose tournament was really disappointing to me. This is a "sorta deep stack", with 5000 starting chips and slow blinds. I really like the format. I nearly doubled up early when I flopped a set of 9's and doubled up a couple of hands later when my aces met queens. As chip leader early I like to play a little more aggressively and see more flops. I managed to give back some chips like this and when the table broke I had about 9,000, still a very good stack. I was on a table that had knocked out a lot of players and Joe had the big stack and was running very hot. Example: pocket kings, ends up calling an all-in by a good player who has flopped an ace and hits his king on the river. Also got quads early with 3 of them on the board and a non-believer. Anyway, I make one mistake, raising early with suited QJ and getting reraised by a semi-short stack who has pocket 10's. I folded to the re-raise, which brings me to the p0int: if you are going to raise early, ya better be prepared to throw the chips in to a reraise. I should have just limped/folded or better yet folded. I managed to make the final table with a pretty short stack (7,000), and just went card dead. Ended up going all in for my last 2500 (blinds 1/2000) with KQ suited. With 3 callers a good opportunity but missed and lost to A/10 hitting his 10.

My worst play of the weekend was at Jokers deep stack. 10,000 in starting chips and I was doing very, very well. When our table broke I had about 30,000 in chips with blinds at 500/1000. With 30 times big blind and moving to a new table I should have just been patient, getting reads on the new players, but nooooooooo. About 3 hands into the new table I re-raise the under the gun raiser (3000) all-in with AQ. He had 25,000, so my play was very, very dumb. My thought (if you could call it a thought) was that he would lay down almost any pair and AK for all of his chips. Unfortunately he is holding AA so that is just not an option. So, the very next hand, I am down to 5000 chips and a short stack (7500) goes all-in with one caller (a top player) just calling. I decide that my Q10 suited probably has two live cards, plus straight and flush options and is a good spot to triple up. Wrong. I run into pocket aces again (how sick is that), and two of us are gone. What can I say except how stupid can I be!!!

Last comment. Playing the 3/6 game at the moose is just getting to be stupid most of the time. I played last night and lost $10 after about an hour and got up and left. The idiot next to me played every hand, raised most of them, sometimes didn't even look at his cards, overtipped the dealer so that when he did win took the chips out of play (tipped dealer $10 on a $40 pot). Idiot!!! Plus he went broke twice and didn't rebuy immediately, but also sat at the table so the dealer kept dealing him in accidently. I finally could not handle it anymore so I left. Horrible, horrible game.

Bubble Boy

After winning (3 way chop) the Friday morning Moose, I was feeling in good tournament shape. The Saturday morning went well for me, making the final 6, with a deal cut to pay 4th & 5th $50 each. I went out on the bubble with AQ. I raised under the gun to $3500 with the blinds at $500-1000 and the big blind called me with 8/9 offsuit. The flop came king/Jack/9. He checked and I went all in for another $3500 with 10 outs (3-aces, 3 queens, 4 tens). He makes the hero call with his pair of 9's and they hold up. Unbelievable! Even though he was in the big blind with "only" $2500 more to call, it was still a very weak call. Then, with my preflop raise in mind and the big card flop, it was just dumb to call the all in. I am ahead of him with almost any hand you would raise with including pocket 10's up, the ever-popular AK, AJ, and almost a coin toss with my AQ. Oh well. I should however in honor of the fairness doctrine and truth in advertising tell you that I knocked Derek, a very good player, out of the tournament with a 3/5 offsuit. I was running very card dead early so I took a chance by limping in the small blind. The flop came out with a 10 , queen and another small card. Everyone checked around (4 players). The turn brought the 3 and Derek bet 500. I thought long (and probably wrong) and eventually called. The river brought the 5 and I checked, Derek went all-in with his pair of 10's and I called to knock him out. Lucky me. You just have to "adjust" sometimes and switch gears. The mistake that I made with my AQ was not just going ahead and pushing with them, as the blinds would have folded to that sized bet, though I commented that I was happy with the call cause I did need action to chip up. Ya gotta be careful what you wish for sometimes.

Omaha High Low

I am an admitted Omaha fan. I play online almost every day for small stakes, and do fairly well. The Wednesday night Cable Bridge Omaha tournament is not one of my favorites, though I did go through a time last Fall when I could not lose. The problem is two-fold. First, there are never more than two tables, so the ultimate prize is just not that much. Second, with a 1500 chip stack and moving quickly to no limit you must connect early to get some chips and are frequently short stacked and forced to move all in or committ a big chunk of your chips to play any hand. I really prefer bigger stack, slower blind tournaments. I played o.k. I think, but never really got going. I lost a big pot with pocket aces against a two pair flop and it just went downhill from there.

Playing in the 3/6 kill cash game afterwards I quickly lost $100, only to end the evening up $90, so it was a net win of $62 for the day.

Stuck and Unstuck

Things have not been going well for me pokerwise the past few days. I played in the Sunday morning tournament and went out in 11th place. I do think that was an amazing finish as I never had more that around starting chip stack (except for a few minutes when I won an all-in and got up to around 8,000 very late when the blinds were huge). I have basically been "cold-decked" most of the time. During the tournament I only had 4-5 pocket pairs, and most 7's or below (did have pocket aces late and won a small all-in pot). I did not even see many face cards. Most of my hands were of the big/little unsuited type or the small non-connected 6/2 variety. It is very difficult to get any chips with those cards unless you are very lucky and very bold in bluffing. Gus Hansen could win with those hands, but few others. When I am cold decked in the future I think that I will push hard when in position and hope for the best!

I may be turning around on my fortunes with a small ($100) cash win last night in the 4/8 game. I got stuck $100 faster than it has taken me to type this blog with some great starting cards, lots of callers to my raises, and either missed flops or chasers with almost no draws who got incredibly lucky. Example: Raised preflop with AJ suited in early position, Anh calls from the small blind with 7/3 offsuit. Flop is 7/3/Ace. Sick! Next example: Raise in late position with pocket jacks. Flop has one overcard, but I bet it, 3 callers, continue betting and one caller with a 5 on turn. 5 on the river, I bet and caller raises...with 4/5 offsuit! He had no straight draw, No flush draw, and no overcards on the flop, picked up a 5 on turn and miracle on the river. Unbelievable! The only consolation I have is that those who live by runner runner, die by runner runner.

Update on step tournament. Back up to step 3. Have decided that this is definitely a tough way to earn a wsop seat as you have to finish in top 4 every time to either advance or stay at the same level. If you think about doing this 10 times in a row it is extremely tough!!

Misdeal at the Legion

I missed the action week before last, but got a great story last Friday. The dealers at the American Legion tournament also play in the game. I have dealt several times, so obviously it is a little amaturish, though all the dealers are competent. When you deal you receive several benefits: $10 off your $40 entry fee, 3 free drink tickets, and a chance for a big tip at the final table (if you are the first dealer to request dealing it). The trouble started I think with the free drink tickets. The final table dealer had pounded down at least 3-4 beers when this situation came up. They were down to the final 3 players with one all-in in the big blind for $2000. The button, who is the chip leader, looks down at pocket aces so he reraises all in to isolate the big blind. When they turn over their cards, she has 4/6 offsuit. She walks away from the table over to the bar and the dealer, rather than running the board like he should, mucks her cards and awards the pot. Someone then calls for a discussion of the action and the decision is somehow made by "committee" that they will give everyone back their chips and redeal the hand. The big blind doubles up, doubles up again and again and ends up winning the tournament. The big stack was on tilt the entire time. The dealer? He ended up with a $10 tip because everyone was upset with him! Toooooo funny!!!

Rotten Luck in Step Tournament

My first bit of rotten luck was trying to sign up quickly for a step 5 ($10 buy in). I forgot to check the free buy that I had won, so my account was charged $10 plus buyin. Ouch. Then, I get short stacked with 7 players left and go all-in with suited diamond AJ. I get called by a big stack with suited AJ clubs. Great, chopped pot coming except for one club on the flop. You guessed it, runner runner clubs. Man, how bad is that! I also got bounced out of another step 5 when my all-in A8 is called by queen 8. You have to love the call with the dominating hand, but he spikes a queen. How can these guys continue hitting their 3 outers on me?

Time Off From Poker

Helene and I traveled to Seattle this weekend for Meg & Vinay's wedding. A happy break from poker, though I did take Vinay's father & grandfather to the Tulalip casino on Friday & managed to get a little table time on a very soft 4/8 game. I made about $50 in less than an hour, but disciplined person that I am got up with my winnings, bought lunch for us, and got out with a small win after disaster at the Let It Ride table. Small winning at the Spanish 21 game and home for dinner.

The wedding was very nice, on a rooftop overlooking the city and Puget Sound. Everything went off without a problem except for the barbeque guy who was cooking there when we arrived. Despite having reserved the space, he claimed there was no notice and needed another 15 minutes to finish his cooking. We took photos and he waited uncomfortably before scooting out when his steaks were done. All in all, the wedding was well done (I think the steaks were medium rare!).

We went as a group to the Dahlia Lounge for a very nice dinner. It is one of the finest restaurant's in downtown Seattle, and a favorite of Meg's. I brought some wine that had been given to us by the owners of the winery who had stayed with us the previous weekend. The food there was wonderful and we had a very good time before walking back to the condo for wedding cake, one of my old favorites: Red cake.

We are kicking back today, enjoying some more delicious Indian food prepared by Vinay's mother and will watch the Oscar's tonight. We are all pulling for Slumdog Millionaire!!!