The $456 T-Shirt

Well, we made it there and back. Mountaineer Casino and Racetrack in West Virginia, only 108 or so odd miles from home. 3 hours poker on Thursday night (just the whet the appetite) – 15 hours on Friday, then 3 more on Saturday to wrap it up. A thousand things happened on and off the tables – and I learned quite a bit about live poker in the process. Unfortunately, I paid a pretty high price for this education - $456 bucks at the tables to be exact. But hell, I got a free T-Shirt for my troubles, so we’re even, right?

My first problem – I was severely under-bankrolled. I don’t know what I was thinking. I showed up with $300 and hoped that was going to get me through the weekend. The lowest no-limit tables offered at Mountaineer are $1-$2, so I had shown up for 20 or so hours of poker with a buy-in and a half. Nice. I have no excuse for this – I simply didn’t think it through.

I decided I was going to buy in short for $100 and play similarly to the way I played at Wiley’s house – wait for my premium cards and push them hard, and hopefully I would build up my bankroll up to an amount where I could loosen up and play a wider range of hands. The first hand of the night, I got K9 in middle position, and folded it just as easily as you please. No thought to open-raising, no thought to making moves the first hand at the table, no thought of anything but my super-tight style and being patient, waiting for my cards.

I didn’t have to wait long. Hand number two, here we go – pocket rockets. A red one and a black one, looking up at me so nicely. Someone in front of me raised to 12. That’s twelve, as in 6 times the big blind. Then someone right before me called. Ok, there’s $27 in the pot, and I need to re-bump it. To what? Should I shove? Nah, that’s a big overbet, won’t get any value for that – so I raise it up to $40. As I’m doing it, I’m thinking to myself “ok, we’re on the second hand of the night, and you’ve got 40% of your stack in the pot preflop. Great. Fortunately, both people folded and I was ahead!

I stayed ahead for a couple hours, but then I lost a small pot and a few blinds and was down to just under my $100. During this time, I found out quite a few things about my table. Firstly, the standard raise at the table was $12, just like I saw with my Aces. Why the standard raise was 6x the blind, I have no idea, but this was a common theme throughout the weekend. $12 would get you callers, $15-$18 was “serious” and would usually take the pot down. Basically, the $1-$2 table was playing like a $2-$4 table. All this made my $100 buy in almost laughable – I had only 25 “effective blinds”.

My demise in the first night came early in hour 3. I got JJ in the big blind. I was hoping for a lone, late raiser that I could re-bump all-in, but instead the raise came early, $12 like always, and then 4 people called the raise. This threw me for a loop, and when it was my turn to act, I decided to switch gears at the last second and play the Jacks for set value and just call. Maybe I’d hit my set and take down a monster. There were 6 to the flop, which came a glorious 8-2-2.

The small blind bet $10 into an $87 dollar pot. He was constantly taking stabs at pots of every type, and this move didn’t mean anything to me at all as far as what cards he held. I looked at his bet, then the board, and then the 4 people left to call, and then finally thought about my shortstack strategy – “hit a hand and push it hard”. I shoved my $60-odd bucks into the pot with my overpair.

The original raiser, who was under the gun, thought a long time about calling me, which wasn’t a good sign. I figured he had either Tens (good) or Queens (bad). Kings or Aces would have been a snap call. Then he folded. Nice! Then a second fold, and then a third. But the last guy to act called and my heart sank. The small blind stabber went away, and we turned over – he had A2 suited and had trips. I was dead.

After the hand, the original raiser told me he actually did have KK, but he also had a short stack and didn’t want to just call and then have other callers come in and crack him, too (he also thought it was reasonable that I had aces). This means that I think I was dead no matter what – if I had shoved preflop, he probably would have called and I would have went down that way (although it’s possible he would have laid the Kings down for the same reasons he laid them postflop).

I decided not to play anymore that night – my laughable bankroll had to be preserved for a huge day of poker tomorrow, and I was stinging trying to figure out if I had made a bonehead play or if I was just destined to go broke on this hand. The concept turned over and over as I sat at the bar waiting for Tony to finish up. He decided to call it a night around 1 and we went to our hotel.

I spoke with Tony about the hand. He said he would have played them differently. His idea would have been to reraise the $10 to $25 or so – and then if the Kings came over the top, or you got callers, you would just shut it down. It sounded like a reasonable way to play the hand, except for one thing – I asked him “aren’t I pot committed if I put $25 + my original $14 (raise and big blind) out of my original $80-$90? He explained that I was thinking like a tournament player. You don’t worry about pot commitment in a cash game. If you bet off half your stack and then decide to lay it down, you reach into your pocket and reload. The light went on in my head. Ding! Of course, chips aren’t precious in a cash game – it’s just money. If you’re sufficiently bankrolled like you’re supposed to be (not like me), you can donk yourself all the way down to $1 if you want and then fold – then just reload for more. Duh. Consider this lesson number 1.

Soon afterward, I learned lesson #2 of a live poker trip - bring Tylenol PM with you. I was hopped up on poker-drenaline (I just made up that word, don’t steal it), laying in bed thinking about the night, and couldn’t fall asleep. I knew that sleep deprivation would not serve me well for the marathon tomorrow, but I could not get into a deep sleep.

To be continued…

see you soon - ROAD TRIP!

I hope you've found the new site ok - I moved the blog onto the blogspot servers to take advantage of some of their new features/gadgets. Expect some more changes down the road.

Tony and I are going to the Mountaineer Casino and Resort tonight to spend 1 day and 2 glorious nights playing poker. I will have a full report upon my return. Until then, be good!

alrighty then

A nice 1st place finish last night in a $30 9 man. I finally got to take one of the fishey's money at the table - I raised it up with JJ, he shoved, I called - he had 99 and my overpair held up. This doubled me up to 2200 and I was in the hunt.

I endured an overly-long bubble - there was enough calling of raises that steals were not profitable, so I was picking my spots. I knocked out the 4th place finisher, but my headsup opponent knocked out the 3rd place finisher - he had an 8K to 5K chip lead at the start of headsup play, which soon went to 10.5K - 2.5K. I then went to work and soon had this flipped around, where I was the one with 10.5K.

In the last hand, I raised K5o enough to make an all-in call correct, he did shove, and turned over Q5o. Domination! I avoided the lady on the board and took the 1st place money.

I'm now at a bankroll/stakes crossroads - my Full Tilt account has enough in it to allow me to play $50 tourneys comfortably. However, I looked at my sitngo performance by buy-in last night - my ROI is only 4% at the $30 level. I think I need some more time at this level before moving up. Too bad there aren't $40 sitngos on FullTilt...

Sheriff Equity - patent pending

I tried a move last night. I had been stealing the blinds from button/cutoff fairly often, I knew someone was going to get sick of it pretty soon. Then I got AKo on the button, and it folded to me. I decided to raise again, really big this time (5x), to make it look like I was trying to steal again, but this time with some garbage that I didn’t want called.

As I thought might happen, the small blind shoved all in. I nearly had 2-1 odds (1.9, actually), meaning I had to win 34% of the time to make calling correct. The only way calling with AK wasn’t correct was if he held AA or KK (and KK was close). I called – he turned over 88 and won the race.

This is an interesting move. Of course you have lots of fold equity if the blinds have nothing. Add onto the fact that you’re almost no better than 55-45% for all but the 2 biggest hands, and the fact that someone may decide to play sheriff with something you dominate (AQ/AJ/AT) – and I think this is a strong play. One might argue that it's just another race for all your chips, but I think the fold equity and the "sheriff equity" more than compensate for the time he's holding a pair like this time.

After my race, bombed out of that tourney in 6th (which was a a $20), then took 3rd in a $30. Net result – minus 1 dollar. Hah!

sometimes they just have it

Took 2nd in a tourney last night - I played well. The guy who took first place had an amazing winrate over 2000+ hands - it looked unreal to me. I had further suspicions when he raised a late position hand with 94o and then hit the old 994 flop. (his opponent didn't like that much either - he stayed around to bark about it for about 5 hands after he was knocked out).

There was another bubble that I thought I would fall victim to once again, but the 2nd place chip guy decided to tangle with Mr. luckycards and put me and the other shortstack into the money. I was able to double up and hold on for second place. I played exceptionally well heads up - even took the lead for awhile, but a crap run of cards and a steady, good, aggressive opponent overtook me.

However, it was still early so I hopped on another one.

Twice in this second tourney, I got AA in one of the blinds. In both cases, a late position, good player raised it up and I reraised small. Twice the villain called. The flop came and in both cases I lead out around with a 2/3 pot donkbet and the villain folded. I probably could have gotten more value by checking or leading smaller, but I hate getting my Aces cracked when I give opponents free shots at draws, so I was happy to take them both down.

I was thinking about what my opponent thought of me after doing this the second time. Here he was, trying to steal in late position (or maybe he had a legitimate raising hand that didn't catch a flop), and some knucklehead in the blind was defending his blind hard and pushing him off the hand twice, without position. I know that would piss me off.

The reason I know is because the same thing was happening to me on the other side of the table, in the same tournament! I watched a player call an under the gun raise with 88, hit his set, and then break the under the gun player who caught an ace. Then I watched the same player limp in with KK, then break the best player at the table who had AT and caught top pair T. I also saw him call a raise with KJ (the number one "trouble hand") and beat a player who had KQ with a fortunate flop. All three of these plays could be characterized as a mistake, but all three worked out for him.

Later in the game, I raised it up from late position with K7 (a pure steal), and he called me in position. The flop came a bunch of unconnected crap, he checked, so I fired out my c-bet. He called. The turn came and he checked again. I decided I needed to give this hand up unless I wanted to donk my whole stack off to another slowplay, so I checked as well. He fired a bet into the river (which didn't hit me) and I had to fold.

Very next hand, I get JJ. Ok, then - I raise it up, same son of a $#@!@% calls me in position again. Dammit! Flop comes unconnected again, but this time with an ace. I check, he bets, I checkraise all-in, and he calls with AJ. A quick 7th place exit for me. Whoops. Justice would have given me AK instead of JJ on that hand.

A common joke says that there are three ways to play JJ, and all three of them are wrong. Checkraising all-in on an ace-high board might be the fourth way.

I don't think this guy was a very good player, but sometimes they just get the cards. Not once, but again and again. Had I broken the player on my right who kept trying to steal against my AA, he could have said the same thing about me...

a jump up

Finally broke out of mediocrity last night - took second in a 9 man and 1st in a 6 man. Cards went my way a couple times- got my money in behind a couple times but had 2 live cards and hit a pair (one example - a desperation shove with Q6 gets called by AK, but I hit my 6). It was a nice night because I never hit the monster set or nut straight but I was still able to outmanuver my opponents.

The 6 man was particularly fun because I was able to stay well ahead of the blinds the whole way. Most of the players at the table were negative ROI players, and the one who was decent got knocked out in 5th.

My heads up opponent was not a great player, but his favorite move was hard to combat - he made a pot size bet on the turn in almost every hand he was in. It took my awhile to sort out what he was doing - was he slowplaying a decent hand and then betting for value? Was this his donkish "feeler" bet? Was it a semibluff to some sort of draw? Was it just an attempt to take down the pot regardless of his cards?

2 hands let me get a handle on it. In the first, he made his pot size bet on the turn, his opponent shoved, and he folded. In the second, the opponent called and I got to see a showdown - he had played K4 and was betting the 4, bottom pair.

I took a big pot from him with a scary hand - I raised heads up with 77, he called, flop came JJ9. He lead off half pot and I called. Turn came a 6, and off came his pot sized bet. Well, I suppose he could have a J, or even a 9, but he had done this so often that I felt the chance was equally good that he had nothing. I shoved and he folded.

The last hand was nice - KJo - I hit the King on the flop, called his bet, then another King on the turn. He bet pot again - this time, though, that was 75% of his stack - I raised him all in. He called and didn't have a king. Fistpump win and then bed.

strange hand last night

Well, the mediocre streak continued last night. 2 tourneys, one 3rd place finish, one busto. Negative $9 net. That's some fine poker!

This run is like a broken record - I go down in chips early and then hang on until desperation time. When my shove is called I either win and squeak into the money or lose and bust out at/near the bubble. In tourney one last night, I made it past the bubble, then got fortunate enough to get KK, got even luckier when the bad player left called me with J9, then witnessed the beautiful misfortune of a 5678 board to give him the straight against my monster pair. Ugh.

In the second tourney, I had a strange hand that confounded me. I got A5 in the small blind and everyone folded to me. Normally I would raise here, but the guy in the big had already called raises several times (my own twice), and this weak Ace wasn't a hand I really wanted to build a big pot with out of position, so I just completed. He rapped the virtual table and we were off to see the flop... which came 3 4 6 rainbow. Very nice, an opened ended straight draw and an ace. This villain is not the type who likes to raise, so I decide on a small bet that I hope he'll call to build the pot in case I hit. He does call, which tells me he's got a bit of something, or maybe just two overcards and he doesn't believe me.

The turn - an Ace. Ok then. I've got my pair with no kicker, and I don't want the pot to get big (yet) so I check. He checks too. Praying for my straight...

...which doesn't come. I can't remember the river, exactly - I believe it was a face card, maybe a K? Anyhow, it doesn't matter. I sit for a second and try and figure out if my pair of aces is good. There are no flushes available. The board isn't paired. He could have one of the straights (25, 57), but that possibility is pretty remote. Set? Sure, hidden sets are always lurking under the bed, but the flop was connected and I figure I would have seen a protection bet/raise by now. Nah, I think I'm ahead - time to bet for value. I bet about half pot hoping he calls. And he does call. But he turns over A4 for two pair, and takes a nice hunk out of my stack. The rest of the tourney is predictable - I get desperate and shove my King-rag, someone calls with AQ, and I'm gone. But that damn weak Ace hand kept me thinking well past the point that I should have fallen asleep.

How could I have played that better? The villain was a beginning player - he called way too many bets and raises, often out of position. A "normal" player would have raised my small blind completion with his own Ace, but he didn't do that, so of course I didn't put him on an ace when the turn came. There was little way to put him on a hand here. Do I simply auto-check the river because I'm out of position with top pair/crap kicker? You want to try and extract some value from the hand when you think you're ahead, though - I often read that this is the difference between good and great players.

oops... YES! ... D'oh!

Cruel...Cruel...Cruel.

$20 tourney - 3 players left. I need to be aggressive. One big stack, then me and another guy at 2500. I shove with 8c9c. Big stack calls - oh well, I hope I have 2 live cards. No such luck - he called with A9. (dumbass) 3 outs or I go home. Then, a miracle - the flop comes 4 6 8! Now HE'S got 3 outs, and I'm in fat city...

until an ace comes on the turn, and I'm done.

ICM says the shove was ok, and his call was not. Bully for me.

Monthly stats still negative -6.5% ROI. Mostly just luck, I think (hope!). Still 41% ITM, but only 3 firsts and 1 second. 6 third place finishes. And, on top of that, 6 4th place finishes. Give me a couple of those ITM and I'm in the black again.

First tourney tonight was NOT luck - dumbass call by me. I've got a decent stack and a raise with AT. Someone overshoves. I think for a second, decide he could do this with KQ/KJ or something, and call. He's got AQ. I had no need to call there, none at all. Even if he did have KQ, I had no reason to race for all my chips right there.

good and bad, all in the same tourney

Only had time for one tourney last night - had to fight with Time Warner Cable about my wonky CableCard for 2 hours. After 2 visits and 3 calls, the best I could get out of them was another visit on Sunday. I am not hopeful that this will get resolved soon.

The Poker Gods gave me an easy time of it early - I played somewhat passively early and let players with lesser hands hang themselves. An example - An early position player raises it up early, I call from the button with AQ. The flop comes A x x and he leads out. Now this can be a C-Bet, or a decent Ace. I could raise it up here to find out where I'm at, but this is a tourney and I don't want to get into a raising war with top pair. I can't fold top pair, either, though, so I just call.

Turn comes some low card that doesn't change anything - two low for him to have just made two pair unless he's raising up A3 or the like from early position. He fires again. Nothing's changed, so I call again.

River completes no obvious straights, no flushes, and he's got just enough to get it all in. I have already doubled up, so I'm not in extreme danger to call this bet - if he's got AK then so be it. I don't think he's got AA - wouldn't he have checked the flop? I call. He's got AT and I break him, putting me in the catbird seat for the tourney.

This hand reminds me very much of the live tourney hand I played last year - same cards, even. In that tourney, I raised it up early with AT, got 2 callers, flopped and Ace, and donked off my whole stack to AQ and A2 (who had flopped 2 pair). I never knew if I was ahead or not, and got all my money in the middle and busted on a mediocre Ace out of position. My opponent tonight did the same thing. I don't play AT from early position much anymore.

One player in this tourney did an amazing thing - I nailed him early with AA, leaving him with exactly 30 chips, the amount of the big blind. 3 hands later, though, he was up to 1100! He actually quadrupled up the first time, as a bunch of us tried to gang up-call on him but he ended up with the best hand (and it was a marginally playable hand, too, something like Q9, but it ended up being best). This put him at 120. Then he tripled up somehow to get him to 360-ish, and then another triple up and he's at 1100. Sadly for me, he outlasted me in the tourney, finishing either first or second (I didn't stick around to watch).

When we got to three handed, I was still the chip leader by far. I tried a few aggressive moves to keep the pressure on, but ended up getting called or raised twice and had to let the hand go. Knowing that neither player believed me anymore, I tightened up and hoped for either a good hand or that the two guys left would collide and leave me heads up with the winner. Neither of these things happened, though, and the blinds started digging deeper into my stack, to the point where I couldn't bully them around anymore even if I wanted to.

The death blow was with me at 2500, along with player A at 2800, and player B as the big stack. Player B had just taken a huge chunk from player A in a showdown. Player A shoved all his chips in the middle. I had AT - my best hand in quite awhile, and one I was going to shove myself. I figured I had a chance to be ahead based on "tilt equity" from Player A and decided to call. My read was good - he had K6, putting me a strong 65% ahead. This was one of those hands for the dog to win, though, as a 6 came on the flop and a K on the turn, leaving me drawing dead on the river and out in third.

I was marginally annoyed at the outcome if the tourney, after having half the chips at the table with 5 left to play - I should have coasted to at least heads-up. However, I don't think I made many mistakes in the game, and if I'm heeding the advice of the little paper taped to my monitor ("focus on the quality of your decisions") - then this was a successful sitting. It allowed me to fall asleep quickly rather than lying in bed and stewing for an hour.

One hand that I was proud of while three handed - a combination of my reads allowed me to win a nice pot:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7638460447: $30 + $3 Sit & Go (58103613), Table 1 - 60/120 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:17:40 ET - 2008/08/13
Seat 3: copden1 (3,695)
Seat 6: KINGofLORAIN (2,790)
Seat 7: taglius (7,015) (look how big my stack was here! Oof.)
KINGofLORAIN posts the small blind of 60
taglius posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to taglius [Ad 7d]
copden1 has 15 seconds left to act
copden1 folds
KINGofLORAIN calls 60
taglius checks (I was raising it up often here, so I checked my decent Ace as a balancing play)
*** FLOP *** [7s 4c Jd] (flopped second pair on a dry board, ok)
KINGofLORAIN bets 120 (this could be a c-bet, no need to get crazy, let's call in position)
taglius calls 120
*** TURN *** [7s 4c Jd] [4s]
KINGofLORAIN bets 120 (a minimum bet - he's afraid that I have a 4 b/c I called earlier. I don't know if he has a J, though, so I'll call again)
taglius calls 120
*** RIVER *** [7s 4c Jd 4s] [3d]
KINGofLORAIN checks (aha, a check. That 3 didn't help anything but 56, I don't think he would have lead out twice with nothing. I think I'm ahead here now, with two pair and ace kicker. I need to see if I build up the pot now, but not too much to scare him away. A nice little half-ish pot value bet aughta do it...)
taglius has 15 seconds left to act
taglius bets 240
KINGofLORAIN calls 240
*** SHOW DOWN ***
taglius shows [Ad 7d] two pair, Sevens and Fours
KINGofLORAIN mucks
taglius wins the pot (1,200) with two pair, Sevens and Fours
The blinds are now 80/160
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,200 | Rake 0
Board: [7s 4c Jd 4s 3d]
Seat 3: copden1 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: KINGofLORAIN (small blind) mucked [7c Qh] - two pair, Sevens and Fours (he had the same basic hand and I outkicked him)
Seat 7: taglius (big blind) showed [Ad 7d] and won (1,200) with two pair, Sevens and Fours

One might say I played this somewhat passively - I could have raised the flop with my second pair to "find out where I was at". I certainly could have raised the turn after the minbet, and might have taken down the pot there. However, I feel my reads of the board and my opponent allowed me to extract a decent size pot on a marginal hand. I welcome comments to tell me I'm a fish/donkey and why...

broken record

First hand of the night, got a cheap play vs. 2 limpers in the small blind with JT, and flopped a J! Wait, cards can come on the flop that match the ones in your hand!!?!? Shocking. I bet the flop and turn and took the pot down. Nice to be above 1500 for a change.

Sadly, this early win did me no good. Once again I finished on the bubble. Once again I was praying for a good hand, got QQ in the big blind, and saw everyone fold to me. Once again I shoved K8 and had someone behind me with AQ. Once again nothing came on the flop to bail me out.

sigh.

Then, redemption - Sharkscope told me that a $30 6-man tourney was rated 3 fishies (don't think I've ever seen 3 before), with only 3 people so far in the game! I hopped on. ROIs at the table looked like this: -30, -12, -17, -23, 8, and me. Even better, the 8 got knocked out early with QQ vs. AQ when an A came on the turn, so I was swimming with the red fishies the rest of the way.

Made a nice jump with an AA that held up. Standard raise - guy calls - flop is K high, absolutely no draws - I bet he calls. Ok, he's got a K. I bet more than half his stack on the turn, he shoves, I call, he's got K8s. King-Eight he called a raise with! Alrighty-then.

3 handed was tough - finally, the other two guys both hit top pair - AT vs. 9T. The 9T was in big trouble until, saved! a 9 on the turn. But then, damn! an Ace on the river. The old rollercoaster, and I was heads up vs. Mr. -30.

Two hands turned the tide. In the first, I had JJ in the small blind. I thought about slowplaying, but this guy was calling raises with Q8 and K3 - plus, I had raised the last 2 hands, so I figured he would figure me for a steal. I was right - he shoved. I prayed he didn't have AK/AQ or a higher pair (just my luck lately), but he flipped over 22. He shoved with 22! Nice. I avoided the death blow bad beat and took the lead.

This hand must have tilted him - he shoved the next two hands. I dutifully folded T7o and QTo (briefly considered calling that one), but then hit AKo and made my standard raise. He shoved, I called, and I was way ahead as he flipped over A2. Nice. Once again I avoid the 3 outer and he's down to 300 or so chips. 2 auto-all-ins later and he's done.

one card to busto

Ok, poker's not too fun right now.

We're on the bubble. I get free play with 9d7d. Flop comes Qd 3d Ks. Check/Check. Cool, a free draw to a flush. turn comes Ac, he bets minimum. Ok, I have odds to hit my flush.

River is Ad. We get all our money in, he's been slowplaying AQ for the boat, and I'm gone.

The Ace of diamonds is the only card in the deck that breaks me. Any other diamond, I win. Any non diamond, I fold. Only the Ad gives him the boat and me the flush at the same time.

That's not fuckin fair, man. I've been playing ok poker - a couple bad calls here and there, but I've been playing solid, tight poker, and it's just not working out this week. Last 7 tourneys are 3 third place finishes and 4 bustos (3 bubbles). I know that this isn't BAD, but sooner or later you'd like to get rewarded for some good play. I saw a guy limp with AA and slowplay all the way to the river, and get away with it. Not only that, but his opponent raised him on the river with a pair of kings! That's bad play. Why doesn't it get punished? I saw a guy in my friend Tony's tourney tonight play 96% of the hands, raising 62% of them. 96%! Then when people called him and hit the flop, he would call and call and call and hit some crap 2 pair or something and knock people out. I try one blind steal and C-Bet, get called both times (cause I'm not hitting many flops right now), and I'm down to 1100 and have to tighten way up the rest of the way.

Ok, rant over. I know I'm just whining- my overall stats are still fine (187 tourneys, 21% ROI, 43% ITM), but these streaks of 7-8+ tourneys with no luck are not fun to sit through

My august stats are slightly negative (-10 ROI) - one 1st place will turn that around, but it doesn't look near at the moment.

shoot me now

4 tourneys on full tilt this weekend. took 3rd in 2 of them, bombed out of other 2. Was short in all of them, couldn't win a hand early, didn't get any cards, didn't catch any flops when I raised, got called every time I tried to steal and had to bail. Very frustrating.

In most of them, my desperation all-in at the end was called by someone dominating my hand, so I barely stood a chance to double up. Tonight, I shoved on the button with QJs, big blind (who didn't have much of a stack himself) called with KQo. Done.

My ICM program says my shove was +EV and his call was -EV - not very reassuring when the same thing happens to you three times in one weekend.

sigh.

tuesday - new home game

I was invited to this home game by my friend Wiley. The game had fallen apart in the summer months and Wiley told me that everyone was excited to get back together. At 4pm, though, he called me with the news that he couldn't make the game due to a surgery in the family, but encouraged me to go anyway. He suggested that I could bring my friend Tony with me to take his spot, so I called him and we were off to start the game at 7:30pm.

The first thing that required my getting used to was the use of a second deck of cards. When you are the small blind (and next to deal), you are expected to take the second deck and get it shuffled up. As soon as the prior hand is completed and the chips are scooped over to the winner, you are expected to present the shuffled deck to the last dealer to give him his option to cut, and then deal immediately. When your deal is done, you gather the cards from the table and pass them 2 to the left, so that person can begin his shuffle. This keeps the game moving at a brisk pace and forces you to pay attention, especially from the time you are in the blinds to the time you're the dealer.

This use of a second deck is probably a common occurrence in home games, but I had never experienced it. The benefit is clear, though - the hands played per hour probably increases by 50% or so because there is no waiting around for the deck shuffle.

It was clear that a fast pace of play was desired - if someone was not aware that it was their turn to act, several people would (politely) inform them, rather quickly. I enjoyed this brisk pace immensely, as it kept my focus on the cards and not the baseball game on the TV, or the excited dogs circling the table, enjoying all the company in their basement.

The game was .50/$1. $40 was the average starting buy-in. In exchange for our loot, we were given $30 in .50 chips and 2 red $5 chips. Because the game started with a relatively short stack 40 BB buy-in, my game plan was to play very tight early, waiting for premium cards (if I could manage to get them). Small pairs and suited connectors were going to be ignored early.

The starting raise would bring the pot anywhere from 2.50 to 4.00 to go. I got confused often because this table would use the phrase "raise $3", which would mean 4 dollars total ($1 blind + $3 raise), whereas I'm more used saying "raise TO $4", but I got the hang of this eventually.

The play seemed straightforward at first. Many of these players knew each other well, so an opening raise was often called by 2 or 3 people with position. Play was aggressive but no overly-so - the occasional multipway limped pot would get played out, and I would see several people playing small pairs, lower broadway (JQ, QT), or suited Ace-rag. These hands didn't fit into my early game plan and I was folding them most of the time. I also found the discipline to fold some crap-but-often-played-anyway hands like KTs and KJ against a raise.

My first big hand was a success from a money standpoint but not a decision standpoint. There was one loose player at the table who was well-known for playing any two cards and trying to nail people on hidden monsters (I was even warned about this player by Wiley). He made a standard raise and I reraised him with QQ. He called, the flop came all undercards - he shoved and I had to call. He had AA. Oops. The poker gods smiled on me though and delivered a Q on the turn to nail the poor guy and nearly double me up. I apologized twice for the suck out, but he took it in stride, bought back in, and played on.

I got AK three times in the game and didn't win with any of them. The first time, I raised 3 limpers from the big blind, got one caller, then folded with a J Q x flop after a check. The second time, there was a lead bet of $3 and then a reraise to $10 in front of me. I decided that in a cash game I didn't need to get involved in a race with JJ/QQ (or worse, get killed by KK/AA), so I just folded. In the third, I tried a big blind check in a multiway pot then a leadout on a J 8 2 board (2 clubs). One caller. Turn came a red middle card (9?) and I fired again. Again he called. The river came another Jack. I decided that this solid player was probably calling with a jack and certainly would call my triple barrel, so I just checked it down. He showed me 6c2c (!), giving him a mediocre pair of deuces (and a missed flush draw) to take the pot over my ace high! Damn! He laughed and said "I was just playing that hand b/c I was bored" Great. My third shot would have surely taken a sizable pot, but I hadn't put him on a flush draw. This is the only hand of the night I felt I could have played better.

Once we were there a couple hours and several people had bought back in, the stacks got big enough for enough people that I felt it was time to open up my game to try a few more speculative hands. I also felt like I had the respect of the table - I showed a few hands when I didn't have to to show them that "the new guy" was playing good cards and not trying to push them around. It was time to exploit this image if I could.

Some highlights of the later play - I limped in a multiway pot with 7d9d on the button. Flop came with Q 5 2 with 2 diamonds. It checked around to the loose/aggro player (the guy whose aces I cracked) - he fired a bet into the pot. He had already shown that he was capable of betting into unclaimed pots in order to take them down - I decided to raise him with nothing but a flush draw. My hope was that this would buy a free card on the turn, but instead he folded and showed T7o, he had no pair and no draw. I decided not to show my cards this time!

A good fold - several limpers, including me in late position with TT. The big blind raised pretty big, but his stack behind wasn't very large. I put him on a big hand. My friend Tony called (which was odd), and then I did as well (which he found pretty odd, he told me later). The flop came 4 6 7 rainbow, and the big blind checked. Tony looked over at the big blind's stack and bet half of it, making it easy to call his all-in. I sat for a minute and decided whether to get involved with my overpair. I thought there was a good chance Tony had a set, or at least a pocket pair where the coordinated board didn't scare him, along with the fact that I thought the shortstack might have a big hand, I decided to fold. Shortstack shoves, Tony calls and shows 88, shorty shows QQ. A good fold into a cold deck! Tony needs an 8 for a set or a 5 for a straight to beat the pair of ladies. A queen comes on the turn, giving shorty trips, but I say "the 5s are still good!", and sure enough the 5 comes on the river.

Last hand of the night - I raised it up from middle position with A9o (a bit weak, but I was suffering from "just one more hand" syndrome). Everyone behind me must have felt my LSH, because 4 of the 5 players called. Uh oh. The flop came with an ace and uncoordinated so I bet half pot, and after some thinking, everyone folded. I decided to show my Ace to once again plant in their mind that I play good cards. Hopefully that message carries over to the next session.

In the end I cashed in $82.50 - a double up of my $40 buy-in. Tony bested me by .50 with an $83 stack, and we drove home at 12:30. We left the radio off and talked about the game instead.

bit of success

2 moneys last night - took first in a $30 9 man, and second in a $20 6 man (I played a six man b/c I was short on time, and went down to $20 b/c this isn't my normal game).

Last hand of the night was interesting - was dealt the 2 black 5s while heads up, flop came 3c 6c 7c, so a 4 gives me a straight, a club a (small) flush, or a 5 gives me trips. Bad player shoves over my lead bet. I decide to call, even though I know I'm probably behind. He turns over just what I think he will - Q7 for top pair, but no club. I've got 14 outs (9 clubs, 3 more 4s, 2 more 5s). It doesn't work out when the Ad and Kd finish the board, but it turns out I was actually a favorite after the flop, so I guess I made a decent call, even though I didn't feel like I was at the time.

Tonight I've been invited to a cash game - $1 big blind, only a $40 buy in. This short stack changes strategy - I don't think implied odds are there for setmining and suited connectors (unless both me and an opponent have bigger stacks), so my plan will be a few position plays and waiting for big cards and driving them hard when they hit.