OK I Get It, Not the Dealing

Last night I was bound and determined not to deal.  Fortunately a willing player showed up at the very last minute and agreed to take my usual table, #2.  I would have to say (and Mike, the dealer, would probably agree), I opened my game up considerably, playing many more pots than usual.  I also chased a "pair plus" hand way to far, but got lucky and chopped on the river....4/6 in blind hit the river in a big pot.  I lost a customer with AA, I raised, she re-raised, I  4 bet big and she folded (she would later lose lots of chips, shove twice, get back ahead of me in chip count and ultimately knock me out.

My two regrettable hands were Q/10 and A/4.  Not great starting hands but again in the blinds.  The first hand flopped 5/5/9, we both checked.  The turn gave me the gutshot straight draw, an 8.  I bet, representing either a slow played 5 or a good 9.  The player called with A/J.  The river was an ace and as I recall bet around 300.  He called.  I whined about how he could have possibly called the turn bet, and he replied, "I had 2 over cards".  I helpfully pointed out that his jack would have given me a straight.  I am such a whiny bitch.

The next hand was my un-raised big blind, one limper, a calling station that everyone dreads being in hand with.  I had A/4 off, no spades, and checked the flop of A/8/x all spades.  The station bet 300 (blinds probably at 50/100), and I check raised to 600.  I think this was the right play and should have elicited a fold.  That is, from any player but this one.  He had x/8, no spades and of course called.  The turn?  Another 8.  I checked, he bet, I called.  This is a suspect call on my part as of course he had to have either an 8 or a flopped flush.  Nonetheless, the river brought another spade and we check-checked.  There is no use trying to bluff a calling station and my bet would have to have put me all-in.  He rakes the pot.

Last hand, down to around 600, the early position player raises to 350 or so with 10/10.  I am on the button or cutoff with KQ suited.  Re-raise all-in.  She hesitates perhaps remembering my AA shown earlier but with me covered and pot committed she calls.  I have not won a coin flip for a while, and my final hand was no exception.  I really felt like the other two hands really should have been mine, and this was just the icing on the shit cake I was eating.

Mike, if you read this, feel free to weigh in.  Bad play on my part?  Bad play by my opponents?  Bad luck?  Wish I knew.  

Understanding Odds, or Why I am a Whiny Bitch

One thing that you often hear around the poker table is a discussion about odds.  Sometimes players will carefully count the money in the pot and then fold saying they "don't have the right odds to call", or "I had to call with the odds the pot was laying me".  I heard a lot of that last night, and I generally respect these players as they are rational, thinking individuals who try to take the emotion (I feel lucky, or a lot of 8's have been hitting the flop, it's my favorite hand, etc.) out of their decision making process.  Last night as running card dead and missing every flop, I was most definitely the tightest player on the table.  Surviving with only $250 less than starting stack of 1400 and blinds at 50/100, a player made it $300.  I had AK suited, so re-raised all-in for $1150.  Normal players would factor in that it was the tightest player on the table and also calculate pot odds, but this player called the bet with his 6/6.  Naturally I missed and was eliminated.  He later knocked two all-in's out, both with 5/5 by calling with weak aces (A/8, and A/9), and also 10/10 with A/9.  I saw good players folding AQ to re-raises all-in, and small pairs folding to big raises as well.  This player was running good as they say and ended up chopping first and second.  So what are the odds?

6/6 vs AK suited     52% vs. 48%
Since the player has no way of knowing this, it is possible that he is against a pair.  So, there are 13 possible pairs (including the other 6/6).  He is ahead of 5 of them, and behind 7 of them.  If it is a smaller pair, his odds are 80% vs 20% in his favor, or 20% vs. 80% if the raiser has an overpair.
If the card is duplicated, say I have a 6 in my hand, then he becomes a 60% vs. 40% favorite.

So now, we have to look at the pot size.  With limpers the pot is 50 + 100 + 300 + my 300 = 750.  My raise to 1150 means that he must call an additional 850 into the 750 pot, giving him 88% equity.  So, if he believes that my reraise is based on overcards, he will be right to call only if he wins more than 50% of the time.  Since I will have an overpair some of the time, and an underpair some of the time, we must factor in that as well (I am getting a headache, are you?).  So if I have the underpair, his call is brilliant, the overpair, not so much.  Really, the only "good" call he can make in this scenario is me having an underpair, which given my tight play is not likely.

So, given this information, would you like to flip coins for a while with me?  I will pay you $750 if you win, you pay me $850 if I win.  Or maybe you would like to flip with me getting $80 and you getting $20?  I think that factoring all of this in, there is no way I should have gotten a call here, as his best case scenario is worse than a break even.  But some folks just don't think logically.

An argument could be made for me flat calling here and then shoving on the flop (there were 2 9's, so doubt it would have worked as he would not think I would shove trips but rather let him commit chips first).  In any case, I believe that I played correctly and watched him make bad call after bad call and just plain get lucky.

The Big Game Hunter

The Quarterly "Big Game" was last night at the Legion.  I had agreed to deal as in the past the tips had covered most of my buy-in, and with a $100 entry that seemed to make sense.  We agreed to split the tips 3 ways as we had before, with all 3 dealers staying to the end and rotating on the final 2 tables.  That ultimately did not make sense.  I chose table 2, my usual one, while Scott took 3 and Gail #1.  As table 3 broke down first, Scott was still in the game and was seated at my table.  Ultimately he was the one who knocked me out when I was down to a single blind.  What hurt me was an early play by the luckiest player at my table.  She made horrible decisions early on calling straights (one very obvious one, the other, mine, not so much) with her 2 pair.  The big hand with me was K/K.  With limpers to in the blind, I raised pretty big.  She called.  The flop was jack high, so when she bet, I called to keep her in and also on the off chance she had called with JJ (I wish).  The turn brought 3 hearts to the board and she fired a similar size bet (500), which I also called.  The river was a 4th heart, and knowing I had the king of hearts I said, "I know I have a heart, you better check your cards".  She didn't look at her hand and we check/checked.  I turned over my king high flush, she turned over pocket aces....with the ace of hearts!  Missed opportunity for a value bet, unless she was looking for a check raise. (Ultimately she took 5th place after killing our table hitting every flop but going card dead on the final table).

As luck would have it, the other 2 dealers lasted until the very end, with our local poker pro, Ray Zee taking first and the other 2 dealers splitting 2nd and 3rd with some sweetener from 1st.  I ended up dealing for 5 straight hours.  Zowee.  Tired today plus figuring I made minimum wage for my time.  

Redraws, Arguments, Silly Dealing

Have you, dear readers, ever noticed how the one guy who calls your raise has exactly the hand that can beat you?  Playing last night (and dealing), I min-raised on the button with A/10.  The limper who had me well covered called with K/10 suited.  The flop was pretty good for me 9/8/7 rainbow with my two over cards and open ender, I bet small when checked to.  He called, having the same straight draw.  The turn brought the jack, so when he bet, I re-raised all-in.  He called.  The river?  How could it be anything but a queen giving our previously chopped pot to him.  Honestly, there were only two hands that were beating me, 10/J or 5/6 on the flop (both in his calling range), then only 10/Q on the turn, with a 3 outer to beat me on the river.  Gadzooks!!!

Unfortunately, this happened fairly early in the evening so I had to deal for at least an hour or so after this.  There was some arguing at the table, as usual coming from the young loud hotshot that talks non-stop all tournament.  It had to do with him getting involved in a hand verbally that he had folded.  Later, at the final table he got into it again (new subject) and the dealer came very close to stopping the game.  There was a discussion at the end with the tournament director about how to deal with him in the future.

My bad as a dealer.  Guess I was just bored and with a player all-in, did the cutesy JT thing putting out the flop, turn card upside down, then the river.  The river card got him, but he was pissed at me for the way I had done it.  I apologized profusely and he ultimately was cool with it as it did not change any results, just made them weird.

I told everyone that it was my last Friday to play.  When they asked why, I told them that my plans were to win the powerball and just play big games in Vegas.  We will see. 

Misread Board Sauce on Side

For starters at Wheeler I like to sip a strong beer.  They serve a nice Old Chub Scottish ale (the name could also apply to me).

 I also sometimes have a menu item called "hog wings".  These are tasty little chunks of pork on the bone, think short ribs.  It comes with a fairly spicy sauce they call "tsunami sauce".  Justin, our regular bartender knows to serve this on the side, but unfortunately he was off and I forgot to specify this to the waitress.  My bad.  This is the reason I am writing this blog in the very wee hours of the morning.

Thus fortified I began playing the tournament.  Things went well at first with pocket aces winning a smallish pot from AK.  I could not get all of his chips with a 10 high flop, but he gave them away the next hand (same holding), vs AQ on a queen high flop.  I lost my early chips and after the break had only 1200 with blinds at 50/100.  The second hand dealt I had Q/10 in the big blind.  With limpers, the button min-raised.  I, along with everyone else called.  There was probably 1000 in the pot.  The flop came down J/8/X.  It was checked to the raiser who bet 100.  Normally I would not chase a gunshot draw, but his weak continuation bet and the excellent pot odds made it an easy call.  Everyone else folded. The turn was the 9 needed for my straight, so I led into him for 300 of my 900 stack.  He tanked for a moment or two then called.  I should have picked up on his tell, as earlier I had read him for trips with the same hesitation, and was able to dump my AQ overcards.

The river brought another jack.  Ordinarily, my spider sense would have led me to check/fold a large or check/call a small bet here.  Not this time.  I led into him for half my remains chips and watched him re-raise all in.  With only 3 blinds remaining I called and watched him turn over AK suited.  What I had failed to observe was that the 9 which gave me the straight was a heart and there were two of them already present.  His suited cards?  Hearts, what else?  I had not only ignored his tell, I had misread the board as well.  The paired board should also have been a red flag for me, but being pot committed and hoping to see KJ or AJ which would be in his range, nothing I could do but go home early with indigestion and feeling like I had played very badly.

Best Hand of 2016 so far

I love omaha.  Big hands, big draws, lots of fun.  Have been discussing the fun and subtleties of omaha with my friend Mike who rocked some omaha free rolls lately for real money.  What most folks don't understand that with hold em there are only 169 different starting hands.  With omaha, there are 270,725 possible different hands.  Big difference.  When you factor in the high/low situation you can see that it becomes a little crazy.  Little wonder that it is a game that has been described as "designed by sadists and played by masochists".

This hand came yesterday.  I flopped the nut straight, while my opponent hit two pair.  This is the usual start of a big pot and we certainly rammed and jammed right away.  I knew that I was dodging a possible set or two pair, but with the nut flush draw I was good to go.  The turn was air, but brought another flush draw.  Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound.  Ram and Jam again.  The river paired the board (thankfully not with the ace) so my opponent thought he had hit the gin card.  Not so much. Perfect storm giving me the royal flush and a monster pot.  I must admit that my starting hand choice was not optimal as the 6 of spades is a "dangler", not fitting in with the other 3 cards.  Really good omaha players are fairly tight and some won't play a hand without an ace/2 or A/3, or double suited.  Analysis has shown that there is a fairly small set of cards that will show a profit over the long run, and all of them contain an ace.  The game I was playing was 6 handed, which I believe changes your hand selection dramatically.  I like to see a lot of flops, but tighten up after the flop or turn.  It seems to work with me and have rocked some big pots with sub par hands like this one.

The top 30 Omaha starting hands are as follows:

1. A-A-K-K	11. K-Q-J-T	21. Q-Q-A-K
2. A-A-J-T	12. K-K-T-T	22. Q-Q-A-J
3. A-A-Q-Q	13. K-K-A-Q	23. Q-Q-A-T
4. A-A-J-J	14. K-K-A-J	24. Q-Q-K-J
5. A-A-T-T	15. K-K-A-T	25. Q-Q-K-T
6. A-A-9-9	16. K-K-Q-J	26. Q-Q-J-T
7. A-A-x-x	17. K-K-Q-T	27. Q-Q-J-9
8. J-T-9-8	18. K-K-J-T	28. Q-Q-9-9
9. K-K-Q-Q	19. Q-Q-J-J	29. J-J-T-T
10. K-K-J-J	20. Q-Q-T-T	30. J-J-T-9

There is Always That One Guy

I have discussed the nemesis we face on the poker table ad nauseum, but here goes again.  Two weeks ago a player nearly knocked me out of the tournament and ended up severely short stacking me.  Naturally, he got it in bad with A7 vs. my AQ suited and hit a 7 (or made a straight using the 7, I forget).  So last night he struck again.  This time it was a coin flip issue on the final table.

Will have to interject at this time that I was very very lucky to get there in the first place.  I was down to 500 with blinds at 300/600 at tripled up with my A/10.  I then doubled again, then once again (plus some) with my AA vs. 88 and K/10.  I was short stacked early mainly to my nemesis chasing a flush vs. my flopped set of 6's.  That hand cost me half my chips.



So, hitting the  FT, I had a respectable chip stack, around 11,000.  My nemesis was to my immediate left.  Oh, I forgot that also 2 weeks ago he was the one who priced the other player in by just calling rather than re-raising and isolating on my last hand on the FT.!!!!!!!!  With KQ suited in the small blind (500/1000) and folded around to me, I raised to 5000.  I had him covered with about 3500 remaining after he shoved with 10/10.  I lost the coin flip and now was short stacked.  A few rounds later he had lost a chunk and I had gained some and now had him outchipped by about 1200.  With blinds at 800/1600 I had around 5000 and shoved with 2/2 in early postion.  He had AK off and snap called.  Again I lost the coin toss to him and was all-in a hand or two later.  Unbelievable.

Final story, I finished in 6th place for a win of $71.  Dealt table 2 so should net close to that.  A respectable start to the new year, but could have been so much better without the nemesis.