mixed bag

First, the good news, I played in a $20 ten man last night and won again. I honestly can’t remember many details from that tourney, though, except that I made a good call on the last hand with a 6-high flush (4 hearts on the board, 6h in my hand), and my 2-1 shortstacked opponent (6500-3500) only had the 2h.

Now, the bad news, before that tourney, I entered a 26 man tourney last night to practice for tonight (the monthly, live 50-man in my neighborhood). The results did not go well – I totally tilted off and went out in 24^th place. The funny thing is that I got tilted without even being in a hand!

This was a strange tourney that starts off with ultra deep stacks (5500 chips, blinds 10-20), but after 3 rounds the antes start kicking in and it gets pretty fast in a hurry. I was playing tight and not getting any of the right cards in the right positions (A5s, but UTG, KTs late, but facing a raise. Low Pocket pair early, limp, then let go after a big raise). This had me mildly irritated, but of course nothing I had ever seen before, and stacks were big enough that I had plenty of time.

What was bugging me was this total donk who was playing every hand and then flopping monsters, over and over and over and over. He would play K5 suited and hit the nut flush on the river. He played 34o, against a raise, and the board comes 25xA for the wheel on the turn (and the A on the turn gets opponents putting lots of money into the pot with AK). He had no regard for card quality or position, he was playing every hand and winning many of them. Then he started pushing people around with his big stack, and if he got everyone to fold, he would show his cards. Sometimes he would show total crap that he had bluffed, and of course this would piss me off, but what really got me pissed is when he showed KK twice in a 6 hand span. I’m sitting over here folding 9-4 and 7-2 and at least three occurrences of J-3, and the donk who doesn’t know how to play is getting KK twice in one circle of the table! Dammit!!!!

After showing the second KK, he pushes someone out of some other hand, but doesn’t show. He then says “from now on, you’ll have to pay to see them”. I reply “too late, I already know how you play”. His answer “that’s my plan”. Like he has a plan – his plan is to play too many hands and luck into the nuts over and over.

Soon after this, I finally got a playable hand, QQ in the big blind. Donk limps in (of course), so do two others. I make it 4x the big blind. (Could have been bigger, but I wanted the donk to stay in). Donk calls (of course), everyone else folds. Before the flop, I’m thinking “please just show me a third Q so I can take this guy down”, but my wish is not granted. Flop comes 8-7-5, no suits. I’m in the blind, so I lead out. Pretty big, too, I think. (need to check the hand history for the details, they are fuzzy right now, still tilting). He calls. Great. I’m already overheated, though, from all the previous action, and I barely care at this point (how could I put him on a hand anyway, he played every hand!). Turn is dangerous – a 6, I don’t even care anymore, I push all in, fully ready to go broke on a pair. And I do – donk flips over 8-9, offsuit, and I’m drawing nearly dead. Gone in 24^th place out of 26 entrants.

To review, donk limped in early position with 8-9 offsuit, then called a 4x raise with it, flopped top pair with a gutshot (9 outs to beat me, and 8, 9, or 6), and hits the gutshot on the turn. Sweet Jesus.

They say knowledge is power, I think in poker sometimes it’s a curse. 6 months ago I wouldn’t have even noticed what cards he was playing, and would have been sitting happily folding waiting for my big hand.

one memorable hand

We played an abbreviated session this Friday night, as I was hosting a cocktail party with my wife on Saturday and most of the poker guys and wives were invited as well, and we didn't want to be dead-tired-hungover from cards the night before.

I came away from the table down $11, but played pretty well overall. I was probably even-money on the night until I chased an open ended straight flush that didn't come, but ended up paying off a very loose player who ended up with a boat that floated. Without that hand I was probably even.

One other hand from the night was memorable to me - I raised from under the gun with pocket queens. The player to my left (we'll call him Frank) has never seen a hand he didn't like (his favorite hand to play is 3-4, 'nuff said), called me, along with 2 other players.

The flop came all diamonds, with a K. I had the Q of diamonds. I checked in first position, fully ready to give up the hand if the action got wild early. My loose-aggro friend Frank bet and everyone else folded. Knowing that Frank's bet didn't mean much - he could have a low flush, a 4 card flush like myself, or nothing at all, I called with my pocket queens.

The turn didn't appear to help anything - I checked again and he bet. Again I called - I was looking for a relatively cheap showdown if the 4th flush card didn't come, and if it did, I was willing to pay off with the 2nd nut flush. If he happened to hold the A, I would shake his hand and move on to the next hand.

But then, the best of all cards came on the river - the Ace of diamonds - giving me the nut flush. Woohoo! Now, what to do? My loose-aggro friend Frank can be tricky to play at times - he will often bet the max in our little $1-$2 game whether he has a hand or not - you might decide to butt heads with him with second pair or some other mediocre hand and find out he boated up or happens to be holding the nuts this time. But when you have the nuts, obviously, everything is easier.

I decided to check one more time to see if he would bet. I knew that if I suddenly woke up and bet the $2 max on the river when the 4th flush card came, he probably wouldn't call me without at least decent flush. He certainly wouldn't call me if he had been bluffing the whole time, something he has done one more than one occasion. I figured he would be much more likely to put another $2 into the pot with whatever he was holding than to call/raise my initial bet. To my delight, he bet the $2, I called and raked in a big pot.

(Side note: we have one rule in our little home game - no checkraising allowed unless we're playing a tourney. We have one player who insists we would come to fist-fights every other week if we allowed checkraising in our cash game. I'm not sure I agree with this, but in the interest of keeping the peace, I vote along with him here. This is why I just called at the end instead of checkraising).

The player to my right, by far the best player in the group, (we often discuss hands and situations after the fact) asked me why I didn't bet once I hit the nut flush on the river, and I explained why. I think he was impressed with my reasoning and my ability to play my opponent correctly. Truth be told, I was pretty impressed with myself. I feel like I'm slowly getting better at moving outside of my own cards/hand and more into reads and changing styles based on opponents. This hand gave me evidence of that growth.

weekend poker

Two Tourneys on Poker Academy last night - the first was a 6 man that was unremarkable – I lost a second best hand on a kicker that took a hunk out of my stack and got knocked out early (4^th).

Soon after, started a 10 man. Very first hand of the night, UTG+1, get dealt the 2 red Aces. Ok, this could be a short one. I hate getting dealt a premium hand first, everyone wants to play the hand and I’ll end up getting calls who have no business being in there.

I decide to raise a bit higher than normal for these reasons. I make it 70 with blinds at 10-15. One guy 2 to my left calls (I quickly look up his stats, he’s never played online before. Not good). Table folds around to the button, who reraises more than the size of the pot. Ok, then, do I want to call and try and drag along the bad player, or repop? I decide to shove all-in – pretty much advertising “I have aces”. I figure if I get them both to fold, fine, it’s the first hand of the tourney and the pot is nice already. Bad player folds, good players calls, with KK. Yes! I avoid the dreaded suck out and double up on the first hand, and I know KK guy is off kicking his dog or something, getting knocked out on the first hand, like I thought I was going to.

Tourney ends up being great – everyone is friendly, some good players (above me on the Poker Academy money board) and I’m getting cards. QQ in the big blind, 4 limpers. Healthy reraise, they all fold. I show to prove I’m not just the bully with the big stack. This helps me later with some rasies/reraise bluffs since everyone thinks I’m running hot. Then, AQo in early position, get a caller (same bad player who called the AA), flop top two pair AQx. Out of position, bet healthy for value, he calls me all the way down and auto-mucks at the end. I ask “A-T?”, he replies, “close, A-J”. Another AA vs KK, I’m not involved this time, AA holds up again.

I spend the whole tourney in first or second place. 3^rd place player is one of the good ones – he makes it tough, but finally bows out on a good second best hand. My heads up opponent is not experienced – checks when she doesn’t have a hand, bets when she has one, overbets/shoves when she has a good one. Final hand of the night – I have J4 of diamonds as the big blind, she completes I check, flop comes Qd 8d 5x. She bets pot (she’s got a Q, I figure), I decide to call and see if I can hit the flush. (I feel she’ll shove if I reraise to buy a free card). My draw comes in with the 3d, I decide to lead weak, she shoves, I call and get the win.

Friday night live game was profitable +19 in the cash game, took 2nd in the tourney for 20 more. Best hand of the night was a heads up opponent with AT with KKQ on the board. He leads, I
know him to be a decent player who will lead at flops he thinks I haven't hit, regardless of his cards, so I raise. He thinks for awhile and calls. Turn/River don't bring anything, we both show down, and my A kicker wins it. He had JT for a straight draw. Anyway, my raise bought my 2 free cards that won me the pot. Thinking back, he got himself 2 free cards to try and hit his draw as well, but I wasn't going to lead out with A high anyway.

Multi-Table, some success

Well, I played a 24 man last night, and came in 4^th, just into the money.

My cards were good early – I was able to go to war with some inexperienced players with good hands. At one point I got AKs on the button, then AKo the next hand, then TT the hand after that. The first two times I raised out a bunch of limpers, got one caller, then aggressively bet and took down the pot without a fight. Someone reraised me on the TT (I think they thought I was a maniac and were getting sick of me), but the flop came down all cards under a T and he checked to me, and I took down the pot again with a pot size bet.

I was chip leader with twice an average stack for a good part of the tourney, then my cards turned to dogmeat, and was often unable to play late position poker because of earlier raisers. I ended up tightening up too much and the field caught me.

It was looking iffy there at the end – 5 players left, no real short stack, but I was the lowest and had an M of about 5.2. The guy 2 to my left was the chip leader and being hyper aggressive – I knew if I could get one hand, ONE FRIGGIN HAND, I could checkraise his ass and leap back up into 2^nd place. But the hand never came. Luckily – an experienced player went to war with him with AK on a 992 flop and the chipleader somehow had K9 in his hand, and I was in the money, but with barely no chips. I took my last stand with an all in raise with 89s, the chipleader looked me up with K3 of diamonds, and flushed out on me to knock me out.