a whimper...

Didn't feel very well tonight - was looking forward to knocking out 4-5 tourneys, but ended up calling it a night at one. Maybe I won't be avoiding the flu this year...

Bubbled again. No cards, people calling my steals, the usual drek. Kept the dogs at bay for awhile with my shoves as the shorty, but finally got caught shoving Q6 into the other small stack who got dealt 77.

Once again, SNG Wizard says almost all my plays were fine, and the few that were marginal or wrong didn't cost me. I'm still playing well, but I'll end up the month with a mediocre 6.48 ROI. I suppose I should be thankful that it's positive at all, especially with one cash in my last 12 tourneys.

My live game this month featured the big Mountaineer win, otherwise slightly down.

Tuesday marks the first year anniversary of playing my first online game (for real money). Maybe we'll do some sort of quick review.

Right now it's early bedtime.

Dirty Tricks at the table.

I wasn't involved in this hand, but I saw a great dirty trick that I'll need to employ someday.

Player to my left, Jason, limps from early position. A middle position player calls, as does the blinds.

Flop comes 345, two diamonds. Jason checks, middle position player bets, blinds fold. Jason calls.

Turn comes a black deuce. Check/check.

River comes the six of diamonds. Jason immediately announces, "well, I've got a straight" on the 23456 board. He thinks for a second and bets 240 into a pot of 200.

The middle position player thinks for quite awhile. Thinks/thinks/thinks, then finally calls with ace rag.

Jason flips over the king of diamonds and the jack of diamonds. "I've also got a flush" he says.

You gotta get lucky to beat me

Monthly Tourney - we end up with 44 for a $50 buy in. Winner will make a cool $950.

Not much doing early. My table is a good mix of bad and good players, and I hope to take some money from the fishies. My first chance comes on the second blind level, when 2 players limp into my blind and I've got AcKc. I raise it up and get one caller.

The flop misses - 7 8 T with two diamonds. I lead right into the board, and the limper shakes his head, like he doesn't like his hand much, but he calls.

The turn and river brick, and I chicken out. I'm not much of a double-barreller, especially in a tourney. We check it down, and he flips over JT. I think I could have pushed him off the hand, but 300 out of 1500 gone early. Arnold Snyder just says to shove it all in there - accumulate the chips at all costs early, put players to the test with maximum aggression. This is probably especially true given his obvious dislike of the hand.

My cards don't cooperate for awhile, and I get down to "fun time" in short order. I've got 1000 left, with blinds at 50-100. From the big blind, I look down at 7-7. My first guess is that one of the good players will raise, and I'll shove over him for a race, but I get something even better. One, two, three, four limpers. There's 500 in the pot right now, and I've got 1000 back.

"I'm all in".

My first of the night. Jason, the really good player who I beat heads-up last month, is under the gun and is thinking about calling. He thinks and thinks, but folds. Then the next guy thinks and thinks, but he folds too. The last two fold in quick succession, and I add 50% to my stack on a perfect squeeze play. (the first two players say they both had KJ).

This keeps me ok for awhile, but the blinds go up again soon and down I go again into "take a stand" mode. Sitting in UTG+1, Mr. UTG limps. I shove over him with a pair of nines before he gets his chips in the pot. It folds around to him and he folds, giving me the stink-eye.

Key hand of the tourney - an early player raises 3x, and Mr. JT from above calls. I check my cards and find AdQd. Damn! A tricky spot. What does the early player have? He could have AK, or course, or a big pair. Then again, he might have a pair under my Queen, in which case I'm in a regular old race. Adding to the fun is the dead money in the pot from the caller. His presence decides my outcome - and in my stack goes again. I decide the caller gives me another squeeze play, and his dead money makes this shove well worth it. The first raiser thinks a good, long time, but he folds (says he had AJ, good fold sir). The caller decides to call, though, and pops over a pair of sixes. Damn again! It's a standard race, but all the dead money makes this a plus play. I hit my queen on the flop and double up, with interest. I'm out of the red zone.

Right after this, I decide to try a steal on the button. My hand is pure garbage - T4o. The small blind folds immediately but the big blind calls. He doesn't really have the chips to just call, so I'm a bit wary. The board actually hits my 4 - along with a 6 and a 9. He checks. There's no way he defended and hit this hand, and I I'm pretty sure he would have shoved over with any pocket pair. A continuation bet will put my stack in a goofy spot again, and I think about checking behind for a minute, but I decide on the "no guys, no glory" approach. I bet the right amount for my nonexistant overpair and get a fold.

My chip stack is decent now at 4400, about 18 big blinds, and the two players to my left are much lower. I feel like I can make a big run here by picking on their blinds a bit and keeping up until the final table.

Soon one of the short players goes all in. He was just moved to my table so I don't know much about him, but my cards play themselves here - big slick again. I shove over to isolate. We turn our cards over and I'm up against A8 - a perfectly played hand.... until he hits and 8 on the turn and knocks me back into desperation mode. Damn!

I'm a bit steamed, but the player is extremely nice and even apologetic. A class act. I tell him that he shouldn't be sorry - I won the tourney last month by sucking out on very much the same hand, so this was just karma coming back to me. Jason, still sitting to my left and the target of my suckout, agrees 1000%

Back to shove or die mode - I shove over 2 limpers one more time, this time I've got 9sTs from the buttom. I feel like the table is sick of my shit by now, but I've got 7 BB and can't care much. One of them calls me and shows AJ, and I'm pretty sure this will be it - that is, until I deal myself a 78J flop for the straight. Ha! Karma reversed. Back to average.

I need one more hand to make it to the final table. Just one more. There are 12 players left and I can almost smell it, but I've only got 8 BB again. A small stack (Mr. JT from earlier) shoves into me. I look down at AK one more time. This is it. I shove over him (only 600 more, though). I'm pretty sure I'm ahead of him and can't wait to see his cards, until the big stack at the table announces "I'm all in, too". Hey, where'd he come from? Craaaaaap.

We all flip over - Mr. JT from earlier has AQ this time and I'm dominating him, but big stack woke up with Jacks. Ouch. My luck is further diminshed with a miracle queen on the flop. The turn brings an Ace which puts me ahead of the jacks, but I lose all my chips except for a big blind and a half. On the next hand, I announce I'm all in before seeing my cards. I actually wake up with a king - a K7, but I'm called by AJ from a blind and the board buries me with 2 aces. Close as hell to the final table, but not quite this month - I take 12th place out of 44.

For the record, I had AK three times in the tourney and didn't win any of them. All very different. In the first, I C-Bet on a whiff but got a call and chickened out, trying to conserve chips early. I can't fault the play except that he obviously wasn't in love with his hand when he called, and I might have been able to push him off it if I had the guts to go with my read. In the second, I had A8 dominated (3:1) and lost. In the third, I can beat two players with an ace or king but a miracle queen comes and effectively ends my night. My initial read was good to get over AQ, but the big stack waking up with jacks is just bad luck, I suppose.

Overall pretty unlucky with my big slick, I would say.

Not many other big starting hands. I had the nines but no higher pair. I played deuces once (really shouldn't have, limped from UTG w/ about 10 BB) that didn't hit. My AsQs won me a big pot in a race vs. the sixes. I played KJ once in early position (when only 7 handed) and hit a straight on the river to win some chips, and my lucky 9T hit s a straight while all-in, but those were the only big postflop hands. No flushes, no two pairs. Hell, no top pairs except when all-in.

The table was glad to see me go, and they needed me lose with AK three times to knock me out. Wins in any three of those hands change the game dramatically. The A8 loss was especially bad- a win there would have put me at over 6000 chips and allowed me to either take a break or turn into table captain.

All in all, I can't be too displeased with the result.

preview - monthly waterbury tourney tonight

I took the day off to go to the Auto Show with the Good Lady Wife - imagine our surprise when we drive out to the show only to be told that it starts tomorrow. Whoops. I've gone to the auto show several times on the first Friday of the first weekend - this starting on Saturday thing seems awfully odd.

Oh well, I got a free day off out of the deal.

Tonight is the monthly local Waterbury tourney. I have done extremely well at this tourney - two first and two second place finishes in the past year, that includes 3 monies in the past 4 events.

I consider these good finishes due mostly to luck - good cards at the right time. the one place I do think I excel, however - is late/high blind strategies. It's obvious that most of the occasional live players aren't used to my kind when I get all shovey-shovey with 8 BB, and this tactic has kept me afloat time and time again.

I would really like to try it the other way, though - where I get an early double up or two and get to run over the table.

However, I'm not going to force it, especially early. There are too many poor players that will defend their blinds with K8 because "it's a good hand" and put you in marginal situations with little idea if you're ahead or behind. I think tight early is the name of the game, and hopefully you flop a set or get your aces (and they hold up) to give you a little breathing room. If not, then you should be able to fold your way through half the field, and then open up later.

We'll see how it goes. The one thing I've never done in this tourney (partly due to my strategy) is bust out early - but I'm bound to be on the wrong side of an Aces vs. Kings battle sooner or later (or on the right end of a suckout between the same).

Passive Lines

Thursday night game, AJo from the big blind. 3 limpers.

Raising it up is "standard". I suppose, but AJ is one of those good, not great hands that can get people in trouble (myself included for sure). Plus one of the players in the pot has already tried the "limp in with a monster, hoping for a raise" move tonight. I call.

The board comes jack high and I lead out into a decent, straightforward player. When he calls, I've got him on a jack with a broadway kicker. I'm ahead.

The board gets dangerous on the turn and river and we get to showdown cheaply. I win with AJ against QJ. He says "wait, you were in the blind that hand...?", wondering why I didn't raise it up preflop. I tell him I just hate AJ and that I always lose money with it.

Later in the game, a similar situation against a different player - this time an aggressive player who bloats up pots, sometimes with small pairs. A limped pot to me with ATs. I check and hit my biggest flop of the night - Ace Ten Eight rainbow for top two.

I check. The aggressive player bets for me, and I take the passive line and call, after feigning thought for a moment.

The turn is a brick - a red 4. There are now two diamonds on the board and a middle straight draw, but I'm trying an experiment this hand and I'm not ready to blast the aggressive player out of the pot yet. I check-call again.

Now the river - the 3 of hearts. The only draw that hit is the powerhouse 2-5. Unless he has a set, I'm ahead. But it's the river and can't assume he'll bet all three times. I calmly (weak means strong?) donk into him for $15.

Aggressive guy wrinkles his nose, looking at the board. He can't put me on a hand. There are no draws that I could have check-called 2 bets with. Big Aces raise up limpers preflop, right? I'm only hoping he has something he can beat a bluff with.

He speaks out loud. "Well, Matty, I think you outplayed me this hand. I have no idea what you have, but I want to see. I call". He tosses three reds into the middle, and I flip over my flopped two pair, against his medium Ace (A7).

Did my river bluff from two weeks ago pay me off this time? Maybe it did, because the only way he can call a bet on this board is to think I have no ace. A7 was ahead of only A2, A5, and A6, but behind A3/A4/A8/A9/AT/AJ/AQ/AK/AA.

As I stacked up the chips, he discussed the hand with someone else. He made it clear that he couldn't put me on AT because that's a hand that he would raise limpers with preflop.

This wasn't a huge pot, but it was my biggest of the night. My biggest loss came early in the night on a good read - my friend Wiley, to my right, announced as he sat down that he was going to play "bananas" tonight, and had already shown down some real garbage. I limped in behind with with A8 and hit my ace on the flop. When he checkraised me all in (not a huge pot, he was already low) - it first came to my attention that this was probably the time he had AK and garbage mode was about to pay him off, but in the end I decided his current playing style would have him raising any ace preflop, so my Ace was probably good. I announced "this might be the weakest call I've ever made" and called the last $15. He had Jack-Four-sooooted and a naked flushdraw. I was quite proud of my read and didn't blink an eye as his flush came on the river to double him up.

Beyond that, the cards and situations were such that I was able to win with ABC poker and hit a few hands. I broke one player with top pair against a set of eights. I blew the aggressive player off his hand with top pair, good kicker (JK on a dry Jxx board). I flopped two pair from the big blind with 68 and got someone to raise into my lead bet with his pair. (though, surprisingly, he folded to my re-raise). Finaly tally - up $60 - one and a half buy-ins.

I'm not sure that the "passive from the blinds" strategy is one I'll employ as a regular part of my game, but it worked for me tonight as a balancing play.

no mistakes tonight, no luck either...

First tourney of the night, the cards and table setup forces me to play a nitty 8/6 over the first 60 hands. I catch nothing and win nothing but an occasional blind. My very first ICM shove of the night is called with a pair of 77s and I'm gone. (I had 9To on the button, the move itself was fine).

Second tourney, (running simultaneous to the first), I get JJ and AQ in the first 10 hands and lose half my stack on both of them. Played well after that - good enough to crawl back and bubble, but still no cash. That's 7 in a row this week with no money, and only 1 out of my last 11. My really good month has gone to just barely positive (+9.5%).

If I were 12 tabling, this mini-bad run would be a blip on the radar - just variance kicking me in the balls. With the frequency I play, though, this is an entire bad week, and its' a hair mentally draining.

Reviewed my hands in SNGWiz - no serious endgame mistakes (actually, not one mistake tonight), so it looks like it's just luck. Tomorrow and Friday are live poker - so my online month looks to be done. It started so well, too....

let's put UTG+1 on a hand, shall we?

UTG+1 has played every hand so far but one, early in the tourney

Full Tilt Poker, $20 + $2 NL Hold'em Sit n' Go, 20/40 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: 1,295
BB: 1,425
Hero (UTG): 1,260
UTG+1: 750
UTG+2: 2,015
MP1: 1,675
MP2: 2,335
CO: 560
BTN: 2,185


Pre-Flop: (60) A Q dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero calls 40, UTG+1 calls 40, 3 folds, CO calls 40, BTN folds, SB calls 20, BB checks
I limp with AQ - I've been getting in trouble raising with this hand in early position lately (people coming over the top of me), so I try this out.

Flop: (200) 5 3 T (5 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, CO bets 100, 2 folds, Hero calls 100, UTG+1 calls 100
CO has already established himself as a "bluffer" (and a bad player) - so I don't take this bet seriously.

Turn: (500) T (3 Players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, CO checks
We all check on the second ten. Does someone have one?

River: (500) A (3 Players)
Hero bets 360, UTG+1 raises to 610 and is All-In, CO folds, Hero calls 250
I hit my Ace and bet for value. Villain's raise all in is a trivial call - although my first guess after his action is that he has Ace-Ten or Jack-Ten and I'm in trouble.

Results: 1,720 Pot (1,720 Rake)
Hero mucked A Q and LOST (-750 NET)

UTG+1 showed T 5 (a full house, Tens full of Fives) and LOST (-750 NET)
Well, I was close. He had Ten-Five Offsuit, which he limped with in early position. What a scamp, that UTG+1

I can take small comfort in the fact that I outlasted this guy in the tourney, but this hand of course crushed me and I went out 6th.

5 in a row now with no cash. My good month is back to average. I bubbled in a second one tonight but can't get over the hump.

well, my mind ain't right yet...

2 SNGs tonight on FullTilt - bombed out in both.

The second showed me some of the worst poker I had seen in a long time. I saw someone three bet (my AQ), then call an all-in with 44 (I folded). He was up against KK and did not fare well. I saw two people get it all-in with KQ on a board that someone should have had a straight on. I saw another pot size bet - and a call - on a three-flush board. Neither player had the flush. I saw someone else get it all in with top pair, ten kicker. The chips were flying around and there wasn't much sense to it.

I got AQ again, this time in early position. I limped, since my last AQ was 3-bet with 44. The button shoved over me (that is - he bet 1200 into a 100 chip pot). I checked his sharkscope stats - 21 tourneys played, lifetime. My little devil popped into my head, saying "he's got Ace-9 off. You know he does". Everything I had seen at the table so far agreed with this opinion. I knew calling was the stupidest thing ever, (even if he flipped his cards over and I could see he had A9o, it was stupid) but my hand wouldn't stop edging the mouse for the call button. I clicked it.

He had AK.

Guess my brain hasn't recovered from the road trip yet.

Mountaineer Trip Report, Part 3 - Do you believe me NOW?!

Lunch ends and Tony and I head back to the poker room. I'm pretty sure we'll be separated this time as they seat us into existing tables, but a new table is started from scratch right after we sign up, so we're back in action at the same table.

In the first hand after we sit down, I raise up a limper with AKs. The original limper and one other player calls. I continuation bet on an extremely dry JJ4 flop, but both players call.. Hmmm. Fireworks start on the turn with a bet and a raise, I and meekly get out of the way. The hand shows down to reveal a 44 (flopped boat) vs. KJ trips.

The woman who held KJ lost her entire stack on this pot, but quickly bought back in. Calling a raise with KJ is reasonable (but can be dangerous), and I also take note of the other player who called my raise with 44, setmining.

I get into another pot with Mr. 44 about an hour later - my friends the cowboys show up in my hands again, and both all red again. I raise and the pairmaster calls, with position. We again see the Jacks on the board - Jack Jack Queen, with two spades. I check and so does he.

The turn brings some more danger - a red Ten. Now we've got straights and trips out there to beat my kings (not to mention a big full house or even quads). I check again and my opponent leads out for a half pot bet. I bust out my stick and checkraise him. My goal here is to define his hand. If he reraises, I am confident my kings are beat and can fold easily. If he folds, then maybe his trips are afraid of the straight or fullhouse possibilities. If he calls, I've got some more work to do. After a moment, he calls, and I figure I'm behind now.

The river comes the 9d, which at the time looked like more danger (see below). I checked one more time, and so did my opponent. He waited for me to flip first, and I said "two red kings" and showed my cowboys. He looked surprised by this holding and flipped over AQ - a very reasonable holding considering the betting action. He probably thought he was ahead after the 2 checks but I had squeezed away with a nice pot on a very dangerous board.

Note: as I reread my notes now, I realize that the river 9 gave me a straight! Still, higher straights were out there (AK), as well as full house possibilities, so I don't think I would have had the stones to bet this hand for more value even had I recognized it. I'm also not sure I could have squeezed any more value out of this hand (his AQ couldn't have called another bet, and all of his other holdings that could have called were ahead of my 1 card straight).

I need to thank Tony for this next hand - Tony was dying on the vine with no cards at all. In an attempt to change his luck, he introduced a $4 straddle to the table. I checked my hole cards to find Kc9c - not a stellar holding, but I felt like I was playing good poker and wouldn't lose a ton of money on a bad kicker. I announced to Tony and the table "if it's action you want, then action you shall have" and called the straddle. We ended up in a nice, bloated, multiway pot.

Before the dealer showed the cards, I predicted I would see a king high flop that would put me to the test. I built in a gameplan of playing the flop fast if a King came, but slowing down to any aggression or an attempt to bet big on later streets.

This whole plan went out the window when the cards came. I got my King high flop, but I also hit my 9 for two pair! A ten completed the board. This was a much better hand, of course, but also more dangerous to me. There could be hidden sets lurking out there in the multiway morass, and another ten could counterfeit me. An early player lead out into the board, and I raised right away. Everyone folded but one player, and I was scared to death.

The turn settled me down - another King. I had a boat and was now ahead of every hand except exactly King-Ten. I was first to act, and decided I could go broke on this hand. If my opponent held King-Ten, then more power to him. However, every other King holding would probably pay me off. If the player held a king and a higher off-card (KJ/KQ/AK), then I would have to dodge that other card on the river.

Pokerstove says I'm an 85% favorite against all holdings with a King in them. This surprises me - I thought I would have been a bigger favorite, but this is still well over 4-1, plenty good enough to take to the wall. If you add in other non-King holdings that will also now pay me off (like TT/99, or a badly botched AA), my chances get way higher, more like a 9-1 favorite. It's definitely go time.

I bet $50 into the pot and my opponent called quickly. My heart was racing inside and I wondered if the poker gods were setting me up for the king-ten cooler.

The river bricked under my nine, so I no longer had to worry about KJ/KQ/AK holdings. I had the second nuts and put $50 more into the pot. This didn't leave me enough behind to worry about calling a shove - I was calling and my opponent probably knew it. He flipped his cards away and offered "nice bet" on the end. I found out later he had K5 suited and was taking a shot of his own with a crappy hand on a straddle.

The rest of the day ended up being a back and forth battle between the woman player at the table and me, although I didn't realize this until much later. The action had already begun when I had raised my first hand at the table with my AK and she called with KJ. She never saw my AK then because of the JJ4 flop and her giving her buy-in away to 44, but it must have stuck in her mind that I had raised and then folded.

A bit earlier in the day (before the K9 boat), I had played the low connectors 5s6s on a cheap flop, which yielded 4s8sTd. I had a gutshot straightflush draw. The woman player lead out $10 on the flop, and I semi-bluff raised my strong draw, minraising it $20. She looked at me and said "I really like my hand, but I hate that bet" and folded.

Later I was in middle position with A9o, a bit weak for raising, but I did it anyway after being card dead for awhile and figured I had re-established my tight image. The woman played called from the big blind. The board came a dry QQ5. She check-called my continuation bet. We then both checked the turn and river (since I had nothing) and she showed down 5d8d, winning the pot after hitting her 5. Wow. That's a little weak to be defending a blind with, no? Tony, still card-dead and leaking money like a sieve, laughed and asked her "wow, guess you really don't believe him right now, do you?". She looked a little indignant as she scooped the small pot her way.

This honked me off a little - why was she defending with 5d8d? As I found out later, she was angry at me, and felt by now that I was picking on her. Truth be told, I had no such agenda in my head. My plays against her so far were with AK (which I whiffed and had to fold to strong action), and my flop minraise that I didn't show. Was that enough for her to think I was picking on her? I guess so. I suppose that my having to show A9o (after a middle position raise and c-bet) only reinforced the notion that I was picking on her.

I didn't know all of this yet, though, so I was a little irritated at her for defending a blind with 5d8d. I already knew she wasn't a bad player - that this blind defense had some sort of reasoning behind it, but I didn't know the reason at this point.

A few hands after this, we got tangled up again. She limped, as did the guy between us (who limped with everything), and I raised them both up with AK. She called and limpy folded. I whiffed again (no CBet this time) - we got to a fairly cheap showdown - and she won the hand again, this time defending with 99. This was a more reasonable holding to defend against a raise, but now it was becoming clear to me that she was out to get me. Tony kept up his chatter "wow, trying to hit that set, huh?. You do not believe him a bit, do you?".

A half hour later, she came in from first position with a $6 raise. This raise is awfully small for this table (opening raises are almost always at least $8 and sometimes $10), and my radar went up a bit. I looked down at my cards and found my old friends, though - two cowboys. I had the second best hand in hold'em and popped it up to $18.

It folded back around to her, and she called right away. The dealer turned over the three flop cards and I saw them in this order - 3 of hearts, ten of diamonds, king of diamonds. The king had joined his two brothers in my hand and was ready to either bring me to the promised land or drag me to the depths. I was probably not good enough to fold top set, unless presented with overwhelming evidence that I was beat. That was currently impossible, as I had the nuts at the moment.

My opponent checked the flop. As usual with a big hand, I had to decide whether to bet out now or slowplay for a street. There was a diamond draw out there, as well as a JQ open-ended straight draw. She didn't have JQ, though - she would have limped with this hand, I was sure. My best guess was that she was on a pocket pair - either Aces that she open-raised small with for action, or maybe Tens-Jacks-Queens that were decent but not invulnerable so she didn't invest too much. If I bet now and she had the latter, she would probably have to fold with the king on the board. If she had the bullets, she would probably get it all in now. I couldn't be sure what I wanted to do, but I didn't think the draws were that dangerous to me, so I checked behind. I hoped that this looked like our previous 2 hands where I had bet big preflop but then got meek after missing everything postflop.

The turn didn't help any of the draws. I was still safe with my kings, but not invulnerable. This time she lead out for $20. This bet didn't tell me anything - if my read was good - I still felt she had a big pair. She could still have queens or jacks and was now betting "safely" on my check of the king.

Should I call again for deception? I had a great hand but was still vulnerable to outs of various holdings, and I wanted her to make the biggest mistake possible. One final thought crossed my mind that sealed my action.

She doesn't believe you.

She was honked off at me for perceived bullying, and was taking a stand here. I needed to keep bullying her, this time with the best hand, and hope her hand was strong enough to go to war with. I bumped it to $50, close enough to a minraise to maybe look like more bullying, but big enough to build the pot with my set.

She did take a moment to consider he options, which lead me to believe she had jacks or queens, but then settled on an action. "I'm all in" she announced.

Hoo boy. I asked for a count from the dealer to stall for time as I checked the board one more time. I did have the immortal (current) nuts, right? Yup, I did. No misread this time. I did catch one hand in this last look that scared the crap out of me - JdQd, which would have given her the royal draw and 15 outs. But I had already discounted all JQs based on the preflop raise, though. Even if she did have that draw, I was currently a 2-1 favorite.

My best guess was that she had aces or tens for a lower set. If either of those were true, she was drawing to 2 outs or one. It looked pretty good.

The dealer came back with the count - it was $87 more. I counted out $90 and made the call, feeling a little faint.

My opponent was standing up, waiting for my call. She asked "you got the kings?" - a nice read on her part. I nodded my head and flipped them over. She let out a hearty "SHIT" that I'm sure half the poker room heard, and then flipped over the bullets.

The little devil popped on my shoulder again for a second - he wanted me to ask her "do you believe me now??!??", but that's not my style. Anyway, my brain was going about a zillion miles and hour and I'm not sure I could have spoken at the moment, anyway.

She still had two chances to exact her revenge on me with a miracle ace on the river, but the poker gods did not give her that revenge. A harmless river (that I don't remember in the haze of the big hand) gave me an enormous $310 pot.

What a victory! I had tangled with this worthy opponent several times in the afternoon, and sent her to the rail (with a very lucky flop in an AA/KK battle). I felt very satisfied at the moment, and took it all in as I folded the next few hands after barely checking them to see what the cards were. Another thought had occurred to me, though - I had over $400 sitting on the table - a bit too deep for my tastes on this $1/$2 table. All I needed was to get on the wrong end of a similar battle, or get sucked out on, and drop back down and ruin my great weekend. I checked the clock - it was 6:30 pm. We were scheduled to leave at 8. "Good enough" I thought to myself. I waited until I was one hand before the blinds caught me and stood up.

I went to the cashier and cashed $428. My total victory on the weekend tallied $483 - just erasing the high cost of the $456 T-shirt from my first visit. I was ahead in Mountaineer.

One last footnote - in all the confusion and dizzying pressure of the huge hand, I forgot to tip the dealer. After a celebretory beer at the bar, I went back and exchanged a five-spot for a $5 chip, and then sought out my dealer for that table and rewarded him for my heaven-sent King.

Mountaineer Trip Report, Part 2 - back to the adults table

7am came awfully early after falling asleep a bit after 3. A quick breakfast and some coffee, though, and the poker-drenaline kicked in again, and we were all ready for our second session of poker at Mountaineer.

We got to the poker room by 8:30am. There were 3 tables going - all three were $1-2 no-limit. I would either have to play NL or watch from the rail for several hours. Time for a quick decision. I had made it out of the first third of weekend play break-even - my $500 bankroll was still intact. I had a good deal more live cash game experience since August (the Thursday night cash game started right before my first Mountaineer trip). I feel that I'm a good poker player - not great, but certainly able to hold my own with my modest skills at a frickin $1/$2 table.

There was no reason to be intimidated. I had plenty of money, and if I got unlucky or made some bad plays, I would simply switch back to $2/$4 limit after lunch (when that game would surely resume after the poker room became more crowded).

I was further eased when I got to sit at the same table as Tony - this made it feel more like our home game - and I knew there was one less person at the table out to get me. We sat on opposite ends of the table - out of each others' blind-stealing spots. The general understanding is that if we're coming into a hand for a raise on the other's blind - we have a legitimate hand. Other than that - we're playing it 100% straight - not an ounce of collusion or soft-playing each other. I would expect us both to get it all in with aces vs. kings or set over set, and one of us to take the other's money, as the will of the poker gods decide.

I sat down with $150 and a game plan. Straight ABC poker. Silly-tight. Locate the bad players and outplay them with better cards. Don't go broke on one pair. Easy as pie.

The plan worked to perfection early because I didn't get any cards. Fold, fold, fold. The player to my left commented how I wasn't playing any hands. I smiled and shrugged. No need to tell him I've got bad cards, just let him think I'm a rock. More folds. An hour passed, and I mentally fist-pumped myself for not losing a buy-in yet.

My first quality hand came in the second hour - an Ace and a Queen, both diamonds. I was in middle position and raised it up to $10 - a standard raise for this table. One of the blinds called me - an older player who seemed very aggressive. I had seen him make a large bet on the turn and chase away a player who probably had a pair or less. I knew I had to be careful, whether I hit the board or not.

The flop came mixed news - two diamonds for the nut flush draw, but no pair. King high. The blind checked, and I had to decide between taking the free card and avoiding the checkraise, or the straight continuation bet. In the end, I chose the latter. My reasoning was that I hadn't played a hand yet - this guy didn't know how I played, and he could have simply defended his blind and would now fold. I bet $15 and he quickly called. Uh-oh.

I had already decided to check the turn for pot control when the poker gods favored me with a hit draw - the four of diamonds came on the turn. I had the nut flush. My opponent checked again. Decision time again - do I check here and hope the aggressive opponent bluffs the river (or hits something worth betting), or should I bet here? I went over the hand in my mind. He called the flop bet quickly, like someone on a draw. Maybe he was on a flush draw too (wouldn't that would be swell). Maybe he called with a pocket pair and has a set.

Jump to third level thinking - what does he think I have? If he thinks I'm a straightforward, unimaginative player, he probably puts me on Ace-King or King-Queen (top pair, good kicker). Or, he could think I have nothing and just C-bet the flop (like I did). In either of those cases, my flush is fairly well hidden from those two reads.

I think the right move is to bet. Firstly, it puts money into the pot with the best hand (always a good idea), and second, my opponent is not going to have an easy time putting me on the nut flush. I bet $30 into the $50 pot. My tricky, aggressive opponent thought for a second or two and then pumped it up to $100, which put me all-in.

I must admit, Poker is an easy game when people are betting into you and you hold the best hand. I counted up my chips and called. I figured he either had the lower flush or a set and I'd have to dodge a paired board to win this one. But even in that case, I got my money in as a big favorite.

I called the bet and put my last stack of chips into the middle. My opponent looked over as a I flipped over my cards and then laughed out loud. He meekly turned over JTo - he had nothing! (well, he had a gutshot chance, but that was drawing dead to the nut flush). I didn't need to even sweat the river card and got to start stacking chips from a sweet double up.

Looks like my aggressive, tricky opponent put me on a top pair type hand (AK, QQ), and decided to represent the flush on the turn to bomb me off it. A solid, well-thought out play, but he just stepped into the minefield this time.

My double up gave me confidence and I was able to play with creativity and open my game up some. I raised with 66 in middle position and got a caller, and was rewarded with the perfect flop - Ace Nine Six. I bet, hoping the caller had and Ace, he called. Nice. The turn paired the nine - even better (unless he had A9 or 99, I guess) - I bet again and the caller folded. Oops, too fast, but I still won a fair pot.

From my button, I open-raised Ace-seven offsuit and won not only the blinds, but a live straddle as well.

I limped with 6c9c in late position (pretty loose for my style). The board came Ace Ace 7 and everyone feared the ace in the limped pot and checked (or had the ace and slowplayed, I suppose). The turn came an 8 - giving me both a straight and flush draw, but the river bricked. This hand knocked some sense back into me - I thought it was time to tighten up again and not give back my winnings willy-nilly. This reinforced thought came at the right time - because my cards dried up again for an hour or so and I played the folding game for awhile.

While this happened, the table changed over from a fairly tight, one-raise-often-takes-the-blinds style, into a limpy-limperson type of table. We routinely had 5 and 6 to see the flop in unraised pots. This didn't affect me at the time, fortunately, because I had locked back down, but I noticed several players limping into way too many pots.

I got to use this table style to my advantage when I was dealt ATo in the small blind. Two players limped up to me (a small number for the current table style) - both of these players were limping way too often. I decided my AT was good and raised it up to $15, hoping to steal the limps, but one of the limpers (a younger ballcap-type guy) called the raise. I would have to work for this pot.

The flop came T 8 2 rainbow, giving me top pair, top kicker. I thought I was good here, and couldn't decide on either leading out (which represents a strong hand like an overpair), or maybe checkraising. There were risks of checkraising - the opponent in position could check behind and draw at a straight with a hand like J9 or 79 for free, but these were the only two draws out there, so I chose checking with the intention of checkraising. My move worked out as the limper lead out with a bet, and I bombed away with my checkraise, figuring ballcap guy would fold, but he quickly called the bet.

The turn came a small card, putting more straight possibilities out there (wheel draw?), but I still thought I had the best hand, and I knew that many river cards would get over my ten, so I lead out again. Ballcap guy called again. What the hell could he have?

The river got over my ten - a jack. I was out of position and not sure if I was ahead or not. That jack put lots of hands over mine (JT/J9/79), or he could have been slowrolling a hidden set and was ready to drop the napalm on me on the river. I chose a small blocking bet on the river, intent to fold to a raise and lick my wounds playing AT out of position. I was relieved when he just called the bet, and was further calmed when he kind of sighed and said "well, show me a winner...", like he was almost expecting it. He flipped over king-ten, and hung his head low when he learned he had lost a kicker-battle. My inner devil wanted to say "that's what you get when you call a raise with king-ten, beeotch!", but my outer nice guy kept control as I tipped my dealer.

It wasn't all rosy - there are always missteps along the way. I chose to call a raise with JsKs from the blind, and then checkraise-bluffed on a 6-6-7 board. My opponent reraised my checkraise bluff after about .001 seconds thought, and away I went, my hand caught deep in the cookie jar.

I also tried raising 77 from early position, but I had three callers and one of the blinds donkbet into me on an Ace-King-6 board. No need to follow that one through any more.

My last big hand of the morning came with a pair of red cowboys in the hole - King of hearts, King of Diamonds. I raised it to $10 and got 2 callers, both with position on me. The board came all under my kings, all black. I busted out the "I mean it bet" and bet $30 into a $32 pot, and they both called again. Ooops. The turn completed a flush and the action dried up on both the last streets, so I got a relatively cheap showdown without having to make a big laydown. I was up against a pair of nines (top pair on the flop), and a pocket pair of sevens who I guess didn't believe my $30 "I mean it" bet. No matter if they believed me or not - I dragged a large pot with my cowboys. (These same cowboys would help me twice more in the afternoon session).

At about 1pm, Tony and I got up to grab lunch. Nathaniel had bought into the Sunday noon tourney with his winnings (a $200+$20+$5 buy-in), so we went off to the casino grill without him to recap the morning. Tony was card-dead the entire morning, and couldn't get any traction, so he was down $200. I had cashed in $348 from my initial $150 buy-in, and felt pretty good about the upcoming afternoon session.

Mountaineer Trip Report, Part I - Watching paint dry

Tony, his 20-something year old nephew Nathanial, and I made our way 110 miles Southeast to Mountaineer, West Virginia for 18 hours of poker, interrupted by 4 hours of sleep, and maybe a sandwich or two in between. We checked into our hotel at 9pm and were in the poker room before 9:30.

The place was packed - almost every table filled. Tony and Nate got a seat on the same $1-$2 no limit table within 15 minutes. I was sticking to my game plan to play $2/$4 limit, but the waiting list was about 6 or 7 deep and the customers seemed glued to their seats. 30 minutes went by, then 45, then 60.

While waiting, I watched Tony and Nate's table from the rail. Ton did something he told me he almost never does in a cash game - he went all in. There was an early raise, and 4 callers, Tony looked up from the blinds and announced "I'm all in". It was a shocking statement, akin to him calmly announcing "I'm a mob informant in the witness protection program" or "my pants are on fire".

After one second of thought I suspected what Tony was doing - he had Aces and wasn't playing them against 5 players. He did manage to get two folds, but had to take on 3 opponents, who were also all-in. Tony revealed his bullets. Caller number one turned over two nines. Caller number two (who was really short-stacked) flipped over the powerhouse 5-7 suited, and then caller number three flipped over... the other two nines! Could you hope for a better situation in a no limit game - all-in with aces against 3 players, two of them drawing nearly dead, and the third a 4-1 dog to you? Nope, that's pretty good. Pokerstove says Tony was a 76% favorite to beat all 3, and he did so to basically triple up.

At the 90 minute mark, I got the call for my seat and settled in. I was well-practiced from my week of online limit play, well-rested by skipping my Thursday night game and getting a full night's sleep the night before, and ready to play...

Second hand of the night, I get ATs. One person limps before me, I raise it up. One caller, then another. A nice, older woman puts in 2 chips until the dealer corrects her and tells her it's 4. "Who raised it up?" she asks surprisingly. The dealer points me out and she remarks jokingly "oh, the new guy. Ok, I call". We're 5 handed to the flop...

We see a 9QK flop. A whiff for me - I've got a gutshot and an overcard. Someone bets their $2 into the $20 pot, and I call along with some others, with plenty of odds to spare for my 6 outs.

The turn hits my gutshot - the J. I bet and get callers. This game is easy, no?

The river pairs the Queen. A small flag goes up but what the hell. I bet and get raised. I call the extra 4 and pay off the 99 full house. Oopsie.

Next orbit around the table, hit another straight on the turn but the same card gives someone a diamond flush. I pay it off again.

Third orbit around the table, I raise up QQ and get two callers. The board looks pretty nice for me - AAQ for the underboat, plus I know anyone with that Ace will pay me off. Nice. I bet and get a caller. The turn comes a Ten. I bet and before I can get my chips in the middle, the nice older lady announces "Raise.... for 3 more" (she's all in). I know exactly what this means, but I obviously put 3 more chips into the pot. She shows me her Ace ten and overboats me.

Time to take stock. I've played an hour and I'm down $45. I am mildly irritated, but I don't think I've done anything wrong. The second straight with an obvious flush on the board might have been a laydown, but in my short time at the table, I've already seen people playing top pair and two pair two far - so there was no guarantee I was up against a flush there. I compose myself and resolve to keep hammering away and stick with the plan - stay tight, play better cards than the fish, value bet relentlessly when you hit your hand.

I tighten up in early position. I fold KJo and A9o from up front. When late, I add in some suited connectors and cards that can hit hard in multiway pots. I play KQ and hit the queen, and get paid off by second pair. I limp with 8cTc, then call a raise, and then win a nice pot on an 883 flop. The raiser (to my immediate left) had queens, and was not happy with this result. He said he was getting his big hands cracked all night by "idiots". This was the second time he used that word, only this time I was the idiot. I knew he was frustrated and probably didn't mean it personally, but I also turned away from him and didn't chat much the rest of the evening. Let him steam.

I made a nice read late in the evening. I had 7Ts from the big blind and hit two pair on a 78T board. I bet and got called. The turn was an overcard so I bet again, this time I got raised. I reraised. The bettor, a new player at the table on my immediate right, said "oh, I think we have the same hand". He capped. I looked the board over one more time and saw the hand we both "shared" -J9 for the nut straight. I called the capped turn bet hoping to hit my boat, but it didn't come so I check-folded. He showed his J9 and said "hmm, I was sure we had the same hand". I revealed I had two pair and took my shot at boating up.

We got to 2am - the plan was to stop now, get 4-5 hours of sleep, and then hit the cardroom early for a full day tomorrow. Of course, we didn't fall asleep right away - we had to share stories of hands both great and small. Tony and Nate both did well - Tony revealed that he had pocket aces 5 times, in 4.5 hours. Amazing. I joked that he would be punished with bad cards tomorrow (sadly, my joke proved prophetic - stay tuned for part 2). Tony was up $390, Nate was up $200. I was up a solid $7 and just as happy - I had survived my first day, bankroll intact.

I went over a few of my hands with Nate and Tony, especially my early misfortune. Tony remarks that playing limit hold'em must be like watching paint dry - no pressure, no bluffing people off hands, no extra large value bets to the players that you know will pay you off. I can't totally disagree with him, but it also keeps you from donking off your bankroll, and furthermore helps you focus on some other aspects of your game, like handreading. Both good and bad players are chasing all sorts of draws in limit - it's a challenge to figure out which players are chasing which draws. The fundamental math aspects of pot odds still comes into play in limit - keep track of the pot size, follow your draws when the numbers say to - fold when the pot is small and they don't. Don't overvalue big cards and big pairs, don't undervalue strong draws. Make money.

limit practice

In preparation for my Mountaineer overnight tomorrow, I've been playing low fixed limit ring games on Full Tilt. In the past 3 days I've played 172 hands, with moderate success.

In night one, I won 11.49 playing .10/.20 against some god awful players.
In nights two and three, I lost a couple bucks each night, playing .10/.25. I made one or two mistakes each night, but overall played solid poker (I think).

All the tables tonight seemed to be decent players. Everyone had similar HUD stats - nobody was too loose, and preflop raise % varied a bit from very low (like 3% up to 13% or so). In small sample sizes, this could simply be the cards the players were getting. But, unlike the first night, there were no 72/0 type players. Is .10/.25 a big enough step up to get rid of the horrible players? I doubt it, but more information is needed. Perhaps I just need to look at selecting the correct table a bit closer.

One thing about fixed limit that I find difficult is putting players on a hand, or in fact, even trying to do so. Decent players take shots at the pot almost 100% of the time whether they hit the flop or not, and all sorts of players (good and bad) will call this tiny bet with bottom pair, two overcards, gutshot+one overcard, pair+backdoor flush draw, etc. It's quite difficult to decipher what a bet or call means, because it can mean anything.

In no-limit, I often use the bet size as a clue to what the player is doing. If a player bets 3x preflop over and over, then suddenly bets 2x - there is usually some reason for this. Maybe his chip stack is too low and he doesn't want to put too much of his stack in. Maybe he's got a big hand and he's looking for action, or maybe he has a medium hand (like 88) that he doesn't want to get too involved with.

All this information goes out the window in fixed-limit. I've still got my HUD helping tell me how many pots everyone is in, but betting patterns get very muddled to me in limit. Maybe this will improve when playing live.

We'll find out tomorrow.

take it to the (fixed) limit?

Exciting news - we're taking a last minute road trip to Mountaineer this weekend. We're staying one night, playing all Friday evening and Saturday until dinnertime or so.

If you'll recall, Mountaineer is famous for my purchase of a $456 T-Shirt. I started out with a way-too-small bankroll and bombed it away in short order. Then I switched to $2/$4 fixed limit, where my mood evened out, but I still lost and lost and lost. Read all about it in the linked post and ones after that.

Anyway, my plan this weekend is to start off playing limit poker. My friend Wiley came back from a Vegas weekend last month and reported great success playing limit, even though he's a no-limit player like I am. He also gave me some strategies - which I must say are quite ingenious (probably conventional fixed limit strategies, but I could have never thought of them coming from a no-limit world).

To practice for the big weekend, I logged onto Full-Tilt tonight and played .10/.20 fixed limit ring tables (2 at the same time) for the first time. Overall, I posted a solid win in 221 hands (26 BB/100 hands).

One other thing I learned - there are some AWFUL players down in the low limits. I had my HUD running, I had 2 players at my tables with stats of 82/0 and 72/0 after 100 hands. They are playing almost every hand and never raising. Ever.

Here is a hand I played tonight. See if you can put the villain on a hand....

Full Tilt Poker, $0.10/$0.20 Limit Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Pre-Flop: K A dealt to Hero (MP1)
3 folds, BB calls, 2 folds, Hero raises, MP2 calls, BB calls

Flop: (6 SB) 8 6 J (3 Players) I flop the nuts. Not a bad hand.
Hero checks, MP2 bets, BB folds, Hero raises, MP2 caps, Hero caps, MP2 calls
I checkraise, which I guess you usually don't do in limit (you need to build pots with good hands), but the board was so scary that I wanted to make sure one bet got into the pot. I was pleasantly surprised when the villain caps the betting.

Turn: (7 BB) 7 (2 Players)
Hero bets, MP2 raises, Hero caps, MP2 calls
Ok, now we build the pot as much as we can. We get to a cap again.

River: (13 BB) 5 (2 Players)
Hero bets, MP2 raises, Hero caps, MP2 caps, Hero calls
The river comes. The board isn't paired. I've got the nuts (and the second nuts). What's he still capping with?

Results: 21 BB Pot (1.05 BB Rake)

Hero showed K A (a flush, Ace high) and WON 19.95 BB (+9.95 BB NET)
MP2 showed 9 J (a straight, Nine high) and LOST (-10 BB NET)

A straight? I suppose his hand looked pretty good considering he had top pair and an open ended straight draw on the flop, if you discount the fact that there are already 3 hearts out there. I mean, if you don't necessarily believe that I have two hearts, fine, control the pot size (he's in position) and see if your top pair is good (which doesn't hit the straight until the river). But to cap the betting on all three streets with top pair and a draw to the already non-nuts? Oy.

I may have found a new game.

putting it all together

Full Tilt Poker, $20 + $2 NL Hold'em Sit n' Go, 40/80 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: 3,000
SB: 1,175
BB: 2,635
UTG: 1,680
UTG+1: 1,105
MP: 1,510
Hero (CO): 2,395

Pre-Flop: (120) 8 8 dealt to Hero (CO)

3 folds, Hero raises to 240, BTN calls 240, 2 folds
Button has made some strange plays so far, like calling a raise and then a shove-over all-in with 33. she was up against AK and 88 and did not win the hand. I also saw her overplay a medium pair.

Flop: (600) 3 3 7 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets 450, Hero calls 450
I check. I have an overpair, but I'm not 100% happy, I've seen her go nuts with pocket pairs twice before now. Still, her aggression is high, and this bet doesn't mean anything. I call to reevaluate.

Turn: (1,500) K (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks
We both check the king. I decide right here if a broadway overcard comes or a spade then I'll probably give up the hand.


River: (1,500) 4 (2 Players)
Hero bets 500,
Well, I think I have the best hand here now, but I'm not sure. I bet 500 as a blocking bet.

BTN raises to 1,000,
The minraise. Ugh. She's just given me 6:1 odds to call, meaning I only have to be right 14% of the time to justify this call. Can I do it, though? What could she have? Did she hit that King and "slowplay" it? If she did, she just let the backdoor flush draw draw for free. Does she have 99, TT, JJ, or QQ? Maybe - but QQ/JJ (and maybe TT or 99, too) reraise preflop (remember, she likes pocket pairs).

I'm having trouble putting her on a hand - I guess the most likely hand is KQ/KJ, and if she has that and checked the turn, then more power to her. If I call and lose, I'll have 705 and basically be done with the tourney. But, my odds are too good to pass up...

Hero calls 500

Results: 3,500 Pot
BTN showed A T (a pair of Threes) and LOST (-1,690 NET)
Hero showed 8 8 (two pair, Eights and Threes) and WON 3,500 (+1,810 NET)

Now I know why I couldn't put her on a hand - she was bluffing!

I can't say in 100% truthfulness that this entire conversation went through my hand as it was being played, but I did figure out "live" that the odds at the end were really good, that she would have played her pocket pairs much faster, and the turn check made it likely enough that she didn't have a king. I suppose I put enough of it together to make a pretty amazing call.

I went on to win this tourney.

where tilt comes from.

hanging on.. 7 BB. You started off ahead but the bad players started calling your raises and donking into you. Then you bluffed into a JTT board and got reraised big. (Guess he had the T). 5 players left and it doesn't look good.

A9 on the button. A clear shoving hand. But someone raises before you, gotta fold.
Then crap.
Then more crap.
QT from the big. A clear shoving hand. But someone raises before you, gotta fold.
Then crap.
Then more crap.
Then some more crap.
Then, for a change, the same two crap cards you were just dealt last hand.
You shove 35 offsuit from the button (mathematically correct, BTW). You get the folds. and are still hanging on.
Then from the cutoff, JTo. The blinds just went up, so you shove again (still correct). You get the folds...
Crap cards.
Crap cards..
Crap cards..

It doesn't look good. 5.6 BB left. Then, a miracle.... QQ. It looks like the two strongest cards you were ever dealt. Two fantastic she-warriors ready to do your bidding. Should you just limp? Raise 2x? Nah, you haven't had chips for any of that nonsense since there were 7 players. You've been in shove mode for 25 hands now, and everyone knows it. Just shove them in and hope someone calls. You shove.

Fold.
Fold.
Fold.
Then.... pause.
(please call)
more pause.
(please call)

Then, the little calling sound of the chips going in. Yes! Yes! You know you're ahead before he shows his cards, and you're right. He shows 77. You are seconds away from doubling up and being in second place in this tourney.... All your work was finally rewarded with a strong hand and being way ahead....

Flop 3 7 J. He hit his 2-outer. Out in 5th place. Thanks for playing.

Wanna play again?

Friday Night Ambush

3 tourneys online tonight - played tight and aggressive with no cards and won seemingly nothing. Then, each time I decided to make my move, someone was ready for me.

First tourney I reraised all in from the blind with AK, JJ was waiting for me. Done.
Second tourney, I ICM shove with A3s from the button, TT is waiting for me in the big. Done.

Third tourney, I ICM shove with K2 from the small, big is waiting for me with KT. Should be done, but suck out my 2 to stay alive...

This gets me into the money, where I shove the first hand after the bubble bursts with KJs and 8 BB. Blind calls with 99. Done again.

The snipers were out in full force, every time I took my gun out of the holster, someone shot it out of my hand. I was lucky to take the third place money in one and cut my losses on the night in half. Sheesh.

I would play more tonight but late poker nights both Wednesday and Thursday leave this middle aged body longing to be horizontal.

And since I have nothing else to add, and there was barely any real poker being played tonight, here is an old picture of my kids that my wife dug out of Picasa this week - one of a few she made some larger prints of to hang on some bare walls in the house. Taken March 6, 2004.

got the stones this time, buddy?

An up and down Thursday night. I win a few small pots early, but then lose two medium-sized ones by...

1. Raising with AQ from the button. Pietzak defends his blinds (as he often does). The flop comes uncoordinated and ace high - A 9 5. Pietzak checks. He's a supreme hand reader, and I need to vary my game to throw him off the scent. I check behind the dry board - not many draws to protect against. The turn comes another 9 and Pietzak bets. He is easily capable of representing the 9 - in fact, this is almost the only thing he could represent here. Should I raise or call? If I raise and he folds, I won't get another bet from him, but if he reraises I put myself in a tricky situation. I decide to call here and hope he fires again on the river to win another bet from him. He does fire again on a blank river - a perfect half pot size. I'm ahead unless he has a 9. He does - Q9. Ouch. He hit the two outer on me - his queen was no good.

2. Two limpers before me - I'm in middle position with QQ. I raise it big - to $9 - and get a few raised eyebrows from the crowd. I want to end the hand here - too many people behind calling with Ace rag and KT for my taste.

Then Fred, on my immediate left, makes it $20. Ouch. He's not a tricky player - I take this bet to mean just what it looks like. Do I need to race AK or be crushed here? Nah. I let it go. I find out later he also had QQ. Craaaaap. Oh well, we had the same hand, but he had position. Nice bet, sir.

Fred gives me back all that money and more later in the night. I complete from the small blind with A8o. My cards have been crappy for a couple hours now, and I'm thinking to myself "c'mon one time, gimme eight-eight-King or something". Tony turns over the first card of the flop - the eight of hearts. Then the second - the eight of clubs! A fine start. The river misses my prediction by one rank - the Queen of hearts completes the board.

I check my trips and it checks around. No checkraise for me.

The turn is the four of diamonds. Should I lead out here? In theory, I should be protecting against the heart draw and the gutshot possibilities, but Fred is aggressive enough to take a stab at the pot here. Plus, what could he put me on if I bet on the 4 of diamonds? I feel like I totally give away my hand with a bet here, unless he thinks I'm simply bluffing at it. If he has nothing, my bet will chase him away. I check again, thinking about how I'll kick myself in the head if I just gave away two cards to a heart flush. Luckily for me, he fires out $5 and I get to raise it up to $12. He thinks out loud for a long time wondering what I have, but then calls. Oh no, is he on the heart draw?

I'm all set for the heart on the river, but it doesn't come. A black King instead. I almost positive I'm ahead, and I'm not sure if my opponent has anything, but I fire $12 more into the pot. I'm a bit shocked when he calls. He says "well, I have no idea what you have". Tony, the more experienced brother, snipes at his brother in a bickering tone "well, I think he's got on 8" as I reveal his prectiction to be correct. Fred had a queen and didn't believe I would check trips twice, and his disbelief costs him about $25.

This hand puts me slightly ahead on the night, and it's getting on the late side. However, there's a ton of money on the table tontght from multiple bustouts, and I'm feeling a bit frisky. I limp in with the nine and seven of diamonds. The big blind raises it up. He's a decent, straightforward player and he wouldn't do this with nothing here. I'm ready to fold but I get a caller in front of me and decide to play the hand with position.

We see a flop of Jack, Six, Four, with two diamonds. My flush draw is there, not much else. The big blind bets out at the pot. The player between us folds, and I try my "raise it up with position" ploy. He looks at the board for a long time - long enough that I think he might fold, but he calls the bet. There is $40 in the pot.

The turn blanks and he checks. I check behind, feeling a bit smug knowing that I bought a look at the river cheaply, and that my hand was pretty well disguised. The word "diamond" repeats on an endless loop in my head....

...no luck. The King of clubs. My opponent, apparently scared of my kamakazee flop raise, checks again. My first thought is to sheepishly check behind and laugh as I show my busted draw, but I stop and reconsider the facts:

There is $40 sitting on the table - that's one buy-in at this game.
My opponent isn't showing much aggression.

Well, Mattdork, do you have the stones to bluff this river?

I faced a similar situation in this same game last month - I even wrote about it. In that hand, I failed to bluff the river and found out my opponent had bottom pair with a flush draw - a solid bluff might have chased him away. That hand came into my memory as I considered what to do here, and I finally decided I wanted to take the shot this time. I couldn't bet $12 into this $40 pot, though - I had to make a solid "value" bet. I settled on a half pot $20 bet, pumping the pot up to $60.

The villain looked at the board again, then yet again. My mind and body seized up - I didn't want to give anything away so I just stared at the board cards. He went over my possible holdings out loud, coming to the conclusion that I either had a Jack or a fast-played Ace King that paired up on the river. He didn't sound like he liked this last possibility, but in the end he pushed two tall stacks of .50 chips into the pot.

"Nice call". I congratulated him as I flipped over my busted draw, knowing I was behind without knowing what he held. He revealed two queens.

My daring bluff prompted some conversation. Wiley, an old coworker who initially introduced me to this second group of players, claimed to know I was on a busted draw. Pietzak - the master hand reader - was dutifully impressed and complimented my line - not once but twice.

It wasn't the perfect bluff, to be sure. Once again, I didn't pay enough attention to what my opponent might be holding as I geared up to play my strong draw. His range was fairly narrow on this board with this action. Remembering that he raised limpers and then called my flop raise, his holdings are probably limited to AJ (top pair), an overpair, or a higher flush draw than mine, like AK/AQ/AT. (AdJd isn't a possibility b/c the JD is on the board). I don't think this player raises up limpers with a smaller ace from the big blind. I think I could discount AA because he would shove all in against my flop raise on this board, and might do so with KK as well. (I very well likely would have went all-in with his QQ holding myself, it is interesting that he did not). He's obviously shoving with JJ and top set (and probably wouldn't have bet the flop anyway).

Had I thought harder about his range, I may have been more inclined to make my original play - checking behind and showing my semi-bluff. I'm not sure if his "I gotta call you" hands outnumber his "I gotta fold" hands. (This is a good hand for the bizarre/ultra powerful StoxEV program to analyze).

Another reason I call the bluff imperfect is the check on the turn. A truly strong hand (like a set) would bet for value there and protect against the flush draw. If I bet the turn, though, there isn't enough left in our stacks to fire again on the river (he would have had only a few bucks back). Maybe I could have put him all-in on the turn and put him to the test, and his decision would have been a bit harder. My goal of raising the flop, though, was to get a free/cheap river card, and I accomplished this goal, but perhaps my complete line looked fishy enough to alert my opponent and ultimately call with his queens, even in the face of a river king.

He made a very good, tough call, to be sure. And I lost a big pot, but I was proud of the way I had played it. And, I have added a valuable tool to my arsenel.

I end the night down $25 - less than the amount of money I bluffed away on this one hand. It was worth it.

talkin poker

Tony came over last night so we could go over some concepts and some tools. I went through my knowledge of ICM with him. I'm no expert myself, so it was very informative for me to go back over the basics and work through some chip stack examples to see how equity works in a SNG situation.

We also went through PokerTracker 3 - he has had some trouble getting it set up on his laptop - so we got that going. Then we looked at some PT3 stats to look for some leaks. Tony's game is a pressure game, which can obviously be successful, but in a SNG can also mean a quick loss if you misread your opponent and you start pressuring into people with good hands or people who won't fold. It was interesting to see that his stats reflected this style. One example is that Tony tends to lose money with Ace-9/8/7 type hands - a clue that he is overplaying them. On the positive side, he has won 3.00 BB (big bets, or 2 big blinds) / 100 hands with Aces in the hole, whereas I have won only 2.53 BB/100. He gets paid more for his big hands because of his aggression. My tighter style means that people are more wary when I get involved in a hand.

We then flipped up PokerStove to go over some hand combinations. We looked at examples of A8 vs. hands like KQ/KJ. Sure, Ace Rag is a favorite, but only one the 60/40 -ish side of things. Tony asked a good question - how big of an edge do you need before it's "go time"? One theory states that you should push every edge you have, even small edges like this one, but I've also heard that this logic is flawed in a SNG environment.

In a cash game, sure, every edge should be exploited- you can simply reach into your pocket and reload if 40% of the time that you lose, but if you win $x 60% of the time, then you're ahead.

In my opinion, here is much easier money to be made in blind-stealing and straight "I'm playing my position, not my cards" type of poker in a SNG, than worrying about getting it all in with a 60-40 edge.

There are also times in a SNG when you know that you're a big favorite. Either you're against a bad player with AK and you hit your Ace - and you just know you have him outkicked, or you flop your set, or occassionally you might even get dealt the Aces with someone raising into you (at least I hear that this happens occasionally, I usually get my bullets dealt to me in the big blind and the table folds around to me).

And if you don't get into a "big edge" situation early, you can always stay alive when the blinds are big and you switch over to "push or fold ICM mode", where you have mathematical theory backing up plays that will add money to your bankroll (over time).

We then jumped into a $10 SNG (as one player) just to talk style as we played. We came across a couple of hands where Tony and I would have played them differently, and it was interesting to talk through the logic of the plays.

I was hoping to get to the end so we could run through some ICM scenarios, but the poker gods weren't allowing that tonight. I shoved over an aggressive player with queens and 12 big blinds and he flipped over kings. Whoopsie. The aggro player hits a hand just as I do and takes all my money.

Sounds like Tony's game.

Tilting someone

Full Tilt Poker, $20 + $2 NL Hold'em Sit n' Go, 120/240 Blinds, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 1,160
Hero (BTN): 1,165 I have less than 5 big blinds, and I'm on the button...
SB: 4,260
BB: 2,460
UTG: 4,455

Pre-Flop: (360) 2 3 dealt to Hero (BTN) ... so my cards don't matter..
2 folds, Hero raises to 1,165 and is All-In, SB folds, BB calls 925

Flop: (2,450) 7 9 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
Turn: (2,450) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
River: (2,450) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 2,450 Pot

Hero showed 2 3 (a pair of Twos) and WON 2,450 (+1,285 NET)
BB showed 8 A (Ace King high) and LOST (-1,165 NET) ... The 5 outer hits on the river. (2d no good, so two 2s and 3 threes).

A major league suckout? By the river, yes. Preflop, I was 32% to win with my 2 live cards - that's just about all you can hope for with under five big blinds.

This suckout tilted the hell out of the inexperienced player who called with A8s. He called me a "fckin idiot" about 5 times. I tried to explain that I was playing correctly, and he should look up ICM sometime - let's just say he wasn't receptive at this particular moment. As is often the case with the poker gods, they punished the rude player by bubbling him as he tilt-bluffed off his entire stack with a gutshot straight draw and no pair to a player with 2 pair.

Ever the gentlemen, I typed "gg" at the end. (Ok, I'm lying - I did that to tweak him).

The poker gods also gave me a lesson on how to play AK tonight since I didn't get the message yesterday. Twice I raised with an ace, got shoved over with excellent odds to call (2.2:1 and 3.5:1), and was dominated by AK each time. So that's how you play AK? Ok, got it. I was fortunate to be covering both players so neither big slick beatdown crippled me.

I took second in this tourney and the one before it tonight - I'm officially running hot for the month. (that's all I'll say as to not jinx it).

play bad - break even. (also called luck).

Took a shot at a $30 tonight - rated double fishy on sharkscope. Played pretty well until I was nearing the bubble. I was in trouble because the big stack was two to my left - tough sledding shoving into him. I had seen him make a raise and fold to a shove before, so when he raised on my BB, I shoved back into him with KTo, hoping for a fold or at least 2 live cards. He called with A9. I was behind but caught a King on the board to get back into contention.

All post-game analysis says this was a horrible play. His stats were 17/17/9 - meaning he was playing only 17% of the hands, and raising with all of them. Pokerstove says KTo is about 38% against the top 17% of hands.

SNGWiz says this is an extremely borderline play as well. If I put this player as raising with 20% of his hands and calling with 15%, then this is a clear fold - negative 1.33% difference in equity. If I change the calling percentage from 15% down to 10% though, then it becomes a push. (10% doesn't cover A9o, though, so this range is too tight).

How can you estimate a player's calling range down to 5%?

I also made a possibly questionable fold later with AKo - I open-raised to 3.5x and a beginning player shoved over me. I was a bigger stack and didn't feel like I needed to race at that time, so I just folded. I might have been way ahead, but then again, why risk half your stack when you don't need to? I think this was the correct play by me. SNGWiz doesn't let me model this hand, though, so I'm not sure.

(edit: the consensus of the forum-dwellers on 2+2.com is that this play sucked as well. When you get better than 2:1 odds with AK, you call. When you're not against AA or KK, you are either a slight dog to a pair or a favorite to any 2 unpaired cards. You have well over the 33% you need to justify the pot odds. Even KK is 28% or so to win, so this isn't even a horrible call. Only AA has you crushed)

In the second tourney, a $20 - I got bombed out in 16 hands. I started the downward slide by calling a raise with 55. There ended up being 3 other callers so I got the multiway pot I needed, but I didn't hit my 5 so I bailed. A few hands later I took a shot at stealing blinds with 67s, but the big blind defended. I didn't want to c-bet for 2 reasons - my stack size was already meh, and I had a decent draw (double gutter on the turn), but the draw didn't come in so I bailed again. Down to 1000. Then in the big blind I shoved over a raiser with 77. There weren't enough HUD stats this early in the tourney to know if he would fold or what his cards might be, but I was happy to see AK and not an overpair.

Things looked bleak when the flop came KK8, but I hit the miracle 7 on the turn to boat up. Then he hit the miracle 8 on the river to over-boat me. Bye-bye.

Bad poker all around, down $1 on the night. I suppose I should shut my mouth and be thankful I didn't give away my winnings from last night after all the poor decisions I made.

when the cards don't matter

Good, aggressive player on the button with my big blind. Only one oddity to his game - his standard raise looks to be 2 times the blind - on the smallish side.

I see him late position raise 2x, but the small blind reraises him, and he folds.
Then I see him raise 2x in early position, and he gets reraised, and he folds.
Then I see him raise 3x (but damn, it takes down the pot, so I can't learn any more about what this raise size means).

Anyway, he raises my blind a couple times, both 2x, and I've seen him fold to a reraise twice. Then he does it again, but I'm the huge chip leader (over 4000 chips, 2nd place has less than 2000) and decide to test him out. I reraise him and he folds.

Oh, and my cards? Seven Deuce soooted.

Later he gets me back - re raises 2x again, and I defend with J9 suited. On the turn, there's a 4 straight on the board and I've got two pair. I lead into him and he raises - a minraise, which shows some strength, but he's only got 505 left and he's giving me over 4:1 odds to call. I decide to end the speculation now and just put him all in - figuring he'll call, even if he doesn't have the 8 that would make the straight. He shows Ace Eight suited - damn! He's already ahead, and has 4 to a flush as well, but I've got 4 outs to the boat. The river bricks and he knocks my stack back among the mortals.

The night ends well, though - I place first and second in the two tourneys I play (both $22 buy-ins), profiting an even $100 on the night. I played much of these two tourneys at the same time, too - so I would say that my multitabling ability is coming along nicely.

not my night

I was all set to play some serious poker late into the night tonight, but after 4 tourneys, I decided I wasn't in the mood for the silliness.

In the first tourney, I got a bad player to call an all-in with A9 while I had the two pair A2, and his 9 came on the turn. 3-outed.

I took second in the second tourney - played well and capitalized on other's mistakes.

In the third, I bubbled after hanging on forever with no cards, finally lost a race with AK vs. TT.

In the fourth, I got it all in with AA vs 66 on the second hand of the tourney, and watched the 6 come as the first card on the board.

That was when I decided it wasn't my night.

In the other's shoes.

I'm the big blind in the Thursday .50/$1 game. There are 8 at the table . The player to my left raises it to $3.50 from under the gun and it folds around to me. I check my cards and have Ace-8, both spades. I could be dominated, but my postflop play is excellent and I think I can outplay this player after the flop, who is tight and fairly straightforward. I make the call.

The flop is about dry as dry can be - 2 2 6, two clubs, one spade. I have nothing. My tight, straightforward opponent leads out. This can be a straight continuation bet, or it could be a pair. Because he raised under the gun, I would put the pair in the 99s and up range (lower pairs might limp and setmine, no?). There are not many prospects for my hand, so I decide on a new course of action - let's see if the turn is something I can bluff at. The old Johnny Chan play (check/call the flop, lead the turn). I call the bet.

The turn is a 4 of spades. This gives 35 the straight, and I could always be representing a deuce, of course. My image is loose-aggressive - there's no guarantee that I don't have small cards here. I'm pretty sure I I could get two unpaired high cards to fold, but get an overpair to fold here with a big bet? Interesting...

One more check at the board gives one other consideration, though - I've got the nut flush draw! So, if I lead out, but get raised by an overpair, I've denied myself odds to chase my flush. I think another check/call is in order. After my check, my opponent leads out for $10 into a $16 pot. Looks like he doesn't want my flush (or the possible club flush) coming. I call anyway, with 9 clean outs, plus maybe 3 more for the ace.

No flush on the river, damn! A red eight. I have actually improved to a pair, but I don't think that it's good the way that tighty-tighterson has been firing. I check the river. He checks behind, and I start to exclaim "I think you're good...." until I see his cards - two sevens! My little inconsequential pair on the river gave me the winner. My opponent looks a little steamy for a lap or two around the table.

A nice little $36 pot to add to my pile.... except for one thing. I was not Mr. A8 suited from the big blind (I'm such a liar, I know...). I was Mr. 77 under the gun and got my pair cracked at the end.

Mr A8s was Mr. Pietzak - a player I have discussed before - a loose aggressive player who is not afraid play low cards and outplay straightforward players postflop. In this hand, he was technically wrong to call a continuation bet with 2 overs and no draw potential, but his goal was to make a move on me on the turn, so his cards didn't matter. When the turn gave him a flush draw and an ace, he felt like his draw was strong enough to call a big bet. (In truth, his draw was even stronger than that, because the three eights were clean outs, as well. 15 outs = 30% to come up with the winning hand, plus some bluff outs on various scary rivers).

We both played the hand well, I think. I raised UTG with 77 - a bit more aggressive than my usual style, but my numerous pairs were not setting up and I felt like the raise would disguise my hand a bit. With the 226 flop, I was pretty sure it didn't hit my big blind caller - even Mr. Pietzak didn't have a deuce unless it was A2 or a pair of deuces for quads now (just my luck). I needed to lead out strong though, here, because over half the deck was overcards that would put me a in goofy situation, plus there were 2 clubs there.

The turn stayed under my sevens. It completed an unlikely straight (even for Pietzak), but now there were 2 flush draws to protect. I bet big into the pot and he called again.

The 8 on the river didn't look like it could have helped any draws, but when he checked, I decided that I had gotten enough value from my 7s, and didn't want to invite a checkraise in case he did have a disguised monster. As he said "I think you're good", I was relieved that my pair had held up, until I saw the eight in his hand. Damn!

Damn! Damn! Damn!

on the edge...

4 tourneys tonight. 2 bubbles, a third, and a first.

In one bubble, I was cruising along in 3rd place until I got my kings cracked by A2 (nice) to knock me to average, then shoved ATo with 12 BB and got called by AA in the small. Not sure what to do there - AT0 is a decent hand. Shoving 12 BB is usually too much - but I seemed right in between. Calling on the button is no good- a 3x raise puts a nice chunk of my stack in. You can't fold it, right? Hmmm.

The blind having AA is just bad luck - not upset about that. Wondering what the preflop play is, though.

I finally paid for SNG Wizard last night, so I'll need to look that one up.

back into it

3 tourneys tonight to open up Feb - one second, one third place. All of my knockouts were ok pushes, just ran into better hands each time.

In the first hand of the night, I completed with AT in the small blind in a limpfest and flops trip tens. I nice start to the festivities. I checked the flop as did everyone else. One dude came along with my bet on the turn, but folded the river when his draw didn't come in.

The same dude limped into my BB in the next orbit and we were heads up. I had A4. I bet on an Ace high broadway flop and he called. The turn came a queen and we both checked. The river was a blank - he bet half pot, and I thought for a second and then called. I figured he had a pair lower than an ace since he checked the turn, or the queen gave him a big hand. Sadly it was the latter - he had KJ and the Q gave him a gutshot (he called a decent size bet to get to his gutshot, BTW, with no pair). He bet the right amount - I would have bailed to a bigger bet. This brought me from a comfortable 2100 back to 1200 and fighting it out again.

I know the strategy is to play tight early, but I seem to find myself dwindling down and down and then feeling the pinch of the blinds very often. It's much easier to play with a chip lead over others, of course. I'm wondering if there's something one should do early to take some shots and get onto the poistive side of the ledger.

Let me take a moment to wish Tony a fast recovery - he finally got his shoulder surgery today (he only injured it 18 months ago) - let's hope he heals up quick and we see him back online and at the tables in short order.