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Blew through my 100 blinds in the cash game last with about 20 minutes to go before a player was leaving, so I called it a night even though I had a bit of money left in my pocket. The chasers were all getting there and cracking the pairs. I myself donated to the chaser fund with my pocket aces - when a third spade came on the turn, I had to lead out because this player was calling to the river with top pair and I needed to get my whole stack in my then. When he raised me, I knew he had the flush instead, but called the raise with the ace of spades - knowing with 100% certainty that I could still double up if the fourth flush card came. It did not.
Not much chance to win money for me. My own hidden straight was not paid off, my kings won the blinds, my aces were cracked, and my two-pair was out-two-paired. (I thoroughly hate two pair right now, it is never good, simply never). Won the small pots and lost the big ones - a fine recipe for losing a buy-in.
My last hand was pocket tens from the small blind. I 3-bet - my first of the night - to $12. It left me $9 back. My flushmaster/acemaster friend called from the big, and the original better folded.
I announced I was all-in before the cards were delivered. All three clubs. The acemaster/flushmaster said "I gotta call you". Ace-of clubs, King of spades for him. A postflop coinflip that didn't end up my way.
I sit at a new table last night. Both my blinds are stolen.
Third hand I'm on the button with JsTs. Not garbage, fine for open raising. I raise it up to 3x. The big blind repops me to 3.5 times my bet. I check his stats. I have 200+ hands on him. Tight, aggressive. Positionally aware. 3bet percentage - 7% - a bit above normal. Includes most suited broadway aces and kings (KTs+ AT+, and AQo). A strong range, but certainly including hands he's not willing to get all in with. His range might be even lighter/wider if he thinks I'm stealing with anything.
It's very likely that if I have 200 hands on him, then he has 200+ hands on me. What will he see? Tight, aggressive. Positionally aware.
So he thinks I'm stealing. And I think he's stealing my steal.
Time to 4-bet. Small - only double his bet. Looks like I'm begging for a call. Please shove so I can snap call, pretty please. He folds.
Ed Miller calls it the 3-bet, 4-bet, 5-bet game. We got 2 steps into it on this hand. I would have folded to a 5 bet (probably shove) with JTs, but didn't have to make the tough decision this time.
I sign onto a table tonight, and I see a player 2 spots to my left shove $12 into a 0.35 preflop pot two hands in a row. I'm in the big and small blinds for these two hands and I fold, as does the rest of the table.
Next hand, I'm on the button, and I'm dealt AsKs. I know what's coming next. I raise to .75, he shoves, and I snap call. He's got 37o. I hit my king and start the night up $12.
One of the other players taunts the shover "ha ha you suck". The shover signs off.
I chat "Guess I got here at the right time".
The taunter replies "he has done that like 12 hands in row".
I say "it works every time except the last time".
Indeed.
First, the good news, a profitable night! 8 big blinds, ha ha. I was actually up 1.5 buy-ins, then got my kings cracked by queens flopping a set. You can't have a big night when your big hands don't hold up. I went down a few bucks, then back up, then logged off quick before I could fall below the water line. Any win, no matter how small, helps in this brutal month.
I used my HUD tonight to make an non-trivial decision. I had a player raise from under the gun (6 handed) - I held king-queen in the small blind. My first look at his HUD showed he was pretty tight 25/14. Usually, that's where I would end the hand - I would be more inclined to fold and not worry about getting dominated by AK/AQ. But tonight, I decided to bring up his popup and look at his raising stats by position. Here is what I saw.
Notice his PFR line - it looks pretty consistent across the board. 18% under the gun, and 13% on the button. This tells me that he's not particularly positionally aware - he's raising with the same basic range from all positions.
18% is pretty wide - it includes most suited aces. AT+, K9+, Q9+, and lots of other broadway stuff. KQo isn't too bad against this range - about 47% or so. Contrast this if his UTG raising range was something like 5% - where KQo would fare about 33%.
Based on his UTG range being wide, I called out of position with KQ. The board came eight high and we both checked. The turn came a ten, I fired, and he folded. I nice little pot won based on checking his stats and playing the percentages.
in the cash game last night. I played 78o in late position along with some limpers. Flopped the idiot end of a 9TJ straight. My old friend Mr. Pietzak lead out for $1.50, and a quiet old timer right behind him raised it up to $3.50. His first postflop raise of the night - his first play at a pot. I did give it a few second's thought, then folded and felt fine with the prospect of doing so.
I told him I gave him great respect and had just folded 78. With all sincerity, he told me I was dead.
I already knew.
Lost 350 of my starting 1500 early with KJ on a king-2-2 board, facing a turn raise. Villain was straightforward player (and a luckbox, won 6 out of first 7 pots), and KJ was no good there. Easy fold, but lots of chips to lose early.
Soon after doubled up with aces vs. jacks. 2200 chips kept me in the running.
Played mostly straightforward. My table draw was excellent for awhile and stole a couple blinds until it got late and it was shovey-shovey time. Nobody was ready for this and I kind of froze the table for a round or two.
Then the tables combined from three into two and 2 excellent players got seated to my right. Damn. They started with the blind stealing and whatnot. It took me awhile to get a bead on one of the players - his raise size gave away the strength of his hand, but I didn't get a chance to do anything about this. I'll be ready next month and beyond, though.
After the second break, blinds went up and I had 7 left.
I probably screwed up my last hand. Early position guy (one of the two good players) raises 2.5 and the other good player flat calls with a nice size stack. I look down at pocket fours. Ugh. Facing both of them is suicide, but my reraise all in might be enough to knock one out and race. The flat call bothered me the most- he had the chips to race me. Do I really fold a pair with 7 blinds left?
Probably, but I wasn't good enough to do it. I shoved. Original raiser folded, flat caller called me ... pocket eights. Buh-bye in 17th place.
Fortunately for me, I have learned that the cash games that follow this tourney are really juicy. I stepped into a nice and friendly .50/.50 holdem only game and started busting things up. These guys wanted to limp into every pot and see a flop. I wanted to raise my good hands, imagine that! They still wanted to see a flop, even after my raise, and I made nice money either hitting flops or cbetting their weak range away.
I think I might have tilted one of my Friday night friends. He likes to bet, bet, bet. Raises lots of pots, sometimes without the cards to do so. Bets every street, even before seeing the next card come. His aggression is admirable - his thoughtfulness about what he might be betting into, not so much.
I don't think he liked that I three bet him a couple times. I wasn't playing around - I had the cards and situations to do so. I was ahead of his range, and I knew he would call with worse.
The last time was a classic tilt flameout. Someone straddled to $1. He raised it to $2. I made it $5 with ace-king. He called.
Flop... ten (crap).... six (double crap).... ace (whew).
He open shoves $20 into the $12 pot.
Let's see, top/top hand, drawless board (check the suits one more time - yep, rainbow), and a tilted opponent sick of my raising? Yup, I'm ahead of his range. I call.
jack-ten suited - the one suit that isn't on the board. 5 outs to beat me. Money went in as a 4-1 favorite, and the numbers held. Big pot, tilted friend heads for the rail and home.
A couple more pots like that one, and I recoup my $50 tourney buy in for a dead-even night.
Thursday night cash game went well. The live deck seems to like me more than the internet deck right now and hit me quite a few times.
Won a nice pot by raising AQ and having a smaller ace defend his blind, then having us both hit the ace. His "bet/bet/bet line out of position cost him a bundle". Raised from button with K9 and hit two pair. Called some flop bets with flush draws, and then.... wait for it.... hit the flush on the turn! Shocking, I know.
My biggest hand of the night came by raising up limpers with ace-nine, then having the deck come nine high with two diamonds. Both limpers, who called my raise, called my rather large protection bet. One had the flush draw, the other some type of pair, but neither of these players were likely to have tens or higher in a limped pot. I felt like I knew where I was.
Turn put a second three on the board. Mr. Pietzak could play a three and float me in some cases, but I looked right as him as he acted, and felt like he was waiting for diamonds. I put $20 in, leaving myself less than that left behind. He called again - the second player folded. I had to dodge diamonds and potentially every high card in the deck.
River comes a black king, and Mr. Pietzak checks a third time. No value in a bet here - he's not calling with busted flush draws, and he's trapping if he hit the king or has a three. I announce "I have a nine" and drag a big pot. He shows jack-queen of diamonds. My read was true.
After I show down a weaker "raise the limpers" hand like ace-nine in the cash game, people usually stop believing my raises for the night. Some of them start trapping, others play back at me with their own less-than-stellar cards. Since the deck was being nice to me for a change, I stopped playing the raise with limpers game in cases where I might do so - KJ, JTs, A7 - either following the limp chain or even folding in earlier positions.
In all, I didn't have to make many moves on this night - my cards were enough to double up my starting stack. Nice timing, as the monthly tourney is tonight and I just won my buy-in.
One more note - I started working on something new in my game - NOT looking at the flop as it is dealt, and instead looking at a player to see if I could see a reaction. No dividends on this night, and I didn't manage to do it consistently, but it is my new exercise.
I didn't have any time tonight, so I fired up a session of Rush poker... and lost 2 buyins in 30 minutes.
I was not tilted. I was not playing bad. In my estimation, I made the proper play on both of my big loss hands - and the correct play was to go broke.
On hand #1 (10 hands into the session by the way, which in Rush poker is about 45 seconds after you start), I was dealt pocket queens on the button. The cutoff raises. Now I don't have any stats on the guy, but pocket queens is ahead of a cutoff's raising range, right? They steal like crazy in Rush poker - I routinely see people with 50, 60, 75% percent steal percentage. I 3-bet, he calls, the flop is 639. We get it in, he has pocket kings. Do I fold at any point in that hand? Am I supposed to fold?
Last hand of the night, hand #156 into my latest disaster, I have 8d9d. An UTG player raises. I call with position and a high implied odds hand. Flop is 9c Td Ad. Bottom pair, flush draw. UTG leads out, I raise. He calls. Turn is an 8. Now I have two pair and a flush draw. He leads out for pot. Do I fold? Call? I don't think so - I get my chips in with 13 outs to beat a set, and already ahead of AK, AQ, or higher flush draws...
He's got JQ for the made straight. How does an UTG raiser have JQ? No idea, but this guy does. I still have my 13 outs, but they don't come, and I'm gone.
Two more buyins lost - 7 in one week. I know it's not 100% luck - I'm making some bad calls, some imperfect plays. I'm not a great poker player. But I'm not this bad - I'm simply not this bad.
"You will run worse than you can possibly imagine" is a phrase I've heard on several occasions. I am currently learning what this means.
I vowed no poker tonight - needed a mental break from the losing and the bad cards and such. But I found a little loophole - a freeroll! I signed up for a 9000+ man freeroll and just played in the background while I did some other stuff. No money, no pain.
I played ok, too. Of course the play is so bad, I managed to hit a few hands and build my stack. My bust out play was a standard AK vs. JJ race - no problems there. Out in 1604 place, and didn't have a care in the world afterwards.
Poker for fun - hooray.
I had a 62/36 and a 62/10 at my table tonight. i couldn't beat either one of them. They both called to the river with any pair. Couldn't beat them. I played one of them heads up for 50 hands. Couldn't beat him. No cards. No flops. Outflopped. Sucked out on.
A 62/36 and a 62/10 had better cards than I did, and I lost another 2 buy-ins.
Also making appearances at the table - a 54/15, a 40/10, and a 39/3. Couldn't beat them either.
I stayed up late waiting for my chance. Played tight. Wasn't tilted at all. Was patient. Frame of mind was right. Still couldn't beat them.
My last hand of the night - I raised up 9T. Flopped trips. Got it all in on the turn. He had turned a gutshot. Stacked again.
CAN'T FUCKING BEAT ANYBODY RIGHT NOW. WHY THE FUCK NOT??!
Stacked early when my kings got cracked last night, which put me on mental suicide tilt for about 5 minutes. My tilt is interesting - it doesn't really affect my preflop play - I don't start raising up Q4 or anything - but it can affect me postflop, causing me to make weak calls or play postflop hands in a nonstandard way.
Here is a small pot I lost due to tilt and downswing aftereffects - raised up JJ from under the gun. Only the big blind calls, he's the only tight player at the table. Flop is all under my jacks and he checks. Standard play is to lead out, for value of course, and for protection, but I check. Why do I check? Not sure. Gunshy, for one - I keep getting my cbets checkraised - which is part of the downswing. But I have a hand here! I'm also thinking about how the my kings were cracked by a set. Playing scared.
Turn is a queen. My exact thought was "well, now I'm behind". He checks, and I check behind.
River is another queen. This lessens the chance that he holds a queen. He leads out for pot. I call.
He has ace-queen.
Thankfully, it was a small pot.
I actually got it together and played very well for the rest of the session, and recovered most of my losses. Still a negative night, making 6 in a row, but only a small negative tonight. I also felt like I started hitting some hands, so maybe the card luck is turning.
more of the same tonight - bad luck, some marginal calls, 3 outers - you know, just poker.
My lifetime BB/100 is about 2 - this month it's minus 8.
Been a rough go.
Thursday night cash game got rolling a bit late, which is becoming the norm. Ticks me off - why can't we start 2 hours earlier and squeeze in another 50 hands or so?
I'm down about $10, active in plenty of pots due to some good cards early and some late position play, when I raise up 6
7 in early position. I make it $4. Mr. Pietzak calls from the blinds - he is ultra loose right now, up quite a bit of money and riding a nice hot streak. It would be accurate to say that his calling range is wide right now. Wide is probably too light a word. Any two cards might be close.
Flop is ten, eight, rag. All different suits, with one of my diamonds. Mr. Pietzak donks $5 or $6 (can't remember) into me.
Not much equity in this pot. A baby-gutshot and a backdoor flush draw. About 20% equity. The standard play is to fold, of course. The correct play is to fold. Or is it?
20% pot equity if my 9 or backdoor flush comes. If I can get him to fold 31% of the time, I've got a 51%, and therefore winning, poker play. Can I get him to fold a third of his range here? Well, since his range is so wide, he could have any part of this board, or simply overs thinking I missed. His larger bet feels more like a "push" bet - like he has a piece but would rather I fold. If he were on a draw himself (79), I would think the bet might be smaller to set his own price, or he might even check/call.
All of this rips through my mind in about .2 seconds. Before his bet is in the middle of the pot, I decide on an action.
"I'm all in".
It's a bit of a stunning move for our sleepy, end of week game, and maybe even more-so for me. The table kind of collectively shifts into better posture to re-focus on the action. I count out my stack - $34 more bucks. (we rarely start with full stacks in this game, an odd holdover from the "other" batch of players that merged with my group to form this game. I started with $50/blinds tonight and was down about $10).
As I counted it out, I realized how bluffy my all-in shove probably looked. Not good for me on the surface. However, Pietzak and I got into a bluffing war the last time we tangled in the live game, maybe he remembers that hand as well and figures I'm trying to look bluffy and get paid off.
"I told myself that if you shoved I was calling" he says out loud. There's a chance this is a load of crap, only because this overbet is so out of character for me, he might not have even considered the possibility of me making this move. "A move or jacks, matthau, a move or jacks?" he asks twice. He asks for a count one more time, saying "$34"?. I slowly, deliberately count it out. I feel like I might appear nervous, but then again that might work in my favor too - I have been known to be unable to control some jitters when I have a big hand.
Finally, Mr. Pietzak says "why not?" and drops a stack of reds and whites into the pot. There goes my 31% equity, and I'm down to 20. I flip my bluff over, Mr Pietzak made his call with queen-ten off. Top Pair, medium kicker, but waaaaay ahead of me.
No help on the turn, and no backdoor diamond either. 4 outs to being stacked. Not great. Then, the miracle river. Nine of clubs. Bailed out by the poker gods.
Not fun to get called with your stack in the middle and 20% equity, but I still like the play. Villain's range is sooo wide and I know it, there simply aren't many hands he can call with. He happened to hit top pair and put me on a bluff with his expert-level reading skills, but there were so many hands he could hold that couldn't have stood the heat. And, if I'm wrong or he did in fact hit the top of his range, I've got a bit of equity to bail me out, which is what happened here.
Maybe higher variance than I'm used to, but good poker.
2 buy-ins gone tonight. Pretty bad.
Good hand reading gone to waste. A limped, family pot to me on the button. I have KQo, and I don't think a raise is going to isolate anyway, so I limp behind and shoot for a multiway pot.
Flop JQ3 rainbow. Only one guy bets - the 49/1 drooler. He minbets, meaning he's got something but he doesn't like his hand. I raise - my KQ is ahead of him, I know it. He calls.
turn is a ten, and he comes out firing for pot. He just hit two pair - QT or JQ. I have a straight draw now, and this guy will pay me off if I hit, so I have to call.
River doesn't help. He bets small, now afraid of AK. I don't have it, and he's not folding if I shove. I should fold, but the small bet gives me odds to call, just in case my read is wrong. It isn't. QT.
Handreading is all well and good but I never end up ahead lately.
Other big losses came on some poor, tilty play. TAG was stealing my blind over a 50% clip. I finally tried to threebet him with 97s. He min 4 bet. Should have folded there. I called and decided to go for the "gutshot shove" - checkraise all in if I could hit any hand with some equity.
AA5, but two diamonds to give me a flush draw. I felt like it was a good board to try it - he couldn't call without an ace, and if he had one I had equity to beat him. I shoved it in. He called - with ace-ten, surprisingly low for a 4 bet. I liked my plan postflop, but the 4bet call was unwarranted - he was a known stealer, but not a known light 4better (turns out he WAS 4 betting light, but that was besides the point here).
I win a few small pots off the drooler but no big ones, and end the night buried again. I could use a comebacker night for sure. This is easily my worst month ever at the cash games so far.
..when you're down 45 in your first 30 hands, that's when.
What one player did to me should be banned by the Geneva convention. Stats of 60/20, but outflopped me over and over and over.
AK went to war vs. his A4s - hit the flush.
99 vs. his 95s - straight.
Finally my ace-ten vs. a three club flop with an ace, and a ten on the river. I paid off a big river bet to a flopped KJ flush.
Impossible to play against, because his cbet percentage was 100%. Basically, he limped into every pot, called a raise, then bet hard all the way down like he had it. Against, me, he had it.
I was tilting like a mo-fo.
But I didn't change my play. I kept at it. I hit a set of sevens, but on an all diamond board. When lucky guy lead out, I raised. He folded, but another player cold-called. He also had crappy stats. Then he lead the turn, for value. Oh no, not again... I called, praying for the board to pair, or that he would wimp out on the river with his two pair and bet small...
The board paired with a second king on the river. Thank God. He shoved into me with his Q7s flush, and I called - sucking out on someone else for once.
From then on I played pretty well. I find a table I could handle and settled in, grinding my way back. Not all the way back, but mostly.
Not really.
I called an under the gun raise with K
Q. I was on the button. The small blind also called.
Flop K
6
7. Top pair, ok kicker. Both players checked to me. I checked behind. Both players were solid and aggressive - I felt like I might get checkraised and have a nasty decision, especially from the under the gun guy who could be lurking with better hands like AA, AK, or worse hands like QQ, leaving it to me to make the call - go broke with top pair or not?. I thought a check would let me play a medium pot instead of a big one, and would also under-represent my hand and allow bluffs into me.
Turn was a 2. Not much going on there. This time, after 2 more checks, I bet - $2 into $3.25. The small blind called. What is he calling with? One of the second pairs, not believing me. Eights, Nines, Tens. Flush and straight draws. Looked good.
River paired the board. 6. Small blind leads out for $4 into a $7.25. He could have hit the six, sure. Or he could be stabbing with a busted draw, thinking I was stabbing myself after 2 rounds of checks. Or, as I had assumed on the turn, a pair under the king, thinking he was good since we all checked the king.
I called. I felt like my king queen was ahead of his betting range. Plus, it wasn't a huge pot or a huge bet.
Villain shows pocket deuces. My flop check let him draw to his two outs for free.
Lord have mercy. One friggin alternately-played hand lets a guy drawing nearly dead get there. They always say bet to protect your hand, but from a two-outer? I guess the 67 and the two clubs might have been greater cause for concern.
Apart from that hand, I played about even.
Played last night and posted a win of about a full stack, and went to bed feeling good. That all went to hell today as I gained no traction and got battered around by the bad players getting lucky, and lost over twice what I gained - taking out my entire profit for the month and putting me into a nice hole.
The biggest loss of the day was very unfortunate - I watched a truly horrible player play 60% of his hands, then limp into my blind while I held pocket jacks. I raised him up, and he reraised. I have seen this play with small pairs like pocket fives - the logic being "eh, crappy pair, I'll limp like I always do", and then when they get raised "hey, I've got a pair! Don't mess with me!". I was willing to get it in with this guy and his range, and he was willing to call with ace-queen. I ended up flipping a horrible player and losing the flip, but I'm not sure I would play any different against this guy. This was early in the session, and I figured I would have more chances to win my money back, but not this day. He gave away two buyins on top pair to an overpair and a flush.
My second worst hand was hitting a set of fives on the river, which also put a four card straight on the board, but I couldn't see any way the villain called my cbet with a 3 in his hand. He had - Ace-three, gutshot + overcard. Bad play by him, bad play by me, I lose the 27 blinds though.
My absolute poorest starting hand of the month? Ace-King suited. -3.64 BB/hand. Talk about variance...
No posts for awhile, I was off on my cruise with the family. Didn't want to announce that thought - might as well just put up a sign saying "rob me".
A bit of poker on the cruise. I found out they were holding a tournament, so I went to check it out. $100 buy in - 49 players max. The tourney was broken into 7 tables of 7 satellite tourneys, and then the winner at each table would meet for a final table. First prize was a cruise for 2.
Sounded pretty good to me. I have a ton of experience in one table sit n goes, and a pretty decent shot to win at least my satellite. I signed up.
When I got there, I learned the details. 1000 starting chips, blinds start at 25-50 and double every 10 minutes. Turbo is too mild a term for the speed of this tourney. Super Turbo is probably more accurate.
Oh, and there are rebuys too. $50 gets you 1000 chips any time you fall to 500 chips or fewer. After the end of the third level, everyone can add-on 1000 more for another $50, and then we're off to the races with whatever we have.
Not much poker in this poker tourney. More like a shove fest. The winner was going to have to get lucky.
I had a strong indication of the lucky player of the table on the very first hand. Ace-King. Raised it up to 200 (4x), and was going to get it all in if I hit. No sense messing around with 20 blinds. I had one caller from the small blind.
I hit. Ace-Ace-Five flop. Beautiful. I bet 200 again, a small bet meant to look weak, hoping I would get shoved over. The caller called again. Turn came a second five, and I was now 100% sure I was chopping. I pushed all in and got a call from ace-seven. We split up the big blind's 50 chips for my profit.
No more hands for me - I folded and watched the players. The guy I chopped with seemed bad, limping and calling a lot, but then he woke up and started raising/raising/raising. He never got to showdown, so I couldn't figure out what he was doing.
Halfway through level 3, I was deciding whether to buy back in or not. I had one 500 chip in my stack. I leaning toward NOT buying back in, but right then the second player busted out, and I really felt like there was only one good player left at the table. I paid for the rebuy, and again for the add-on.
Limper to me in the blind with 33. I raise all in, get a fold. Limper to me on the button with AK. Raise all in, get a fold.
The other good player shoves. I have Ace-jack and call, and have his weaker ace dominated. I am second in chips now.
I'm thinking of shoving my button with ace-deuce suited. I'm counting out my chip stack and muttering to myself. Lucky guy says excitedly "did you say you were all in?" A bit too excitedly. I fold and he shoves, then shows pocket jacks. "That's the fifth big pair I've had tonight! Aces three times, Kings, and now jacks". Lucky guy indeed.
Three players left. I fold, lucky guy gets down to the breaking point, and he shoves into the big blind, who calls. The blind calls and flips over king queen asking "you got an ace". Lucky guys says "I dunno, I haven't looked yet". We all look together - deuce-four offsuit. Oooofa. Doesn't look good for him, but he catches a runner-runner one card, deuce high flush to stay alive. Big stack is crippled and goes out one hand later. Heads up.
The blinds go up one more time. 800-1600, and I've got 3500 chips. 2 blinds. Lucky guy shoves into me, I've got ten-six of diamonds. Not great, but suited and barely-connected. And ten high might beat some connectors. I call.
He shows a weak ace. My cards are live, but he hits and ace and I go down in second place. Gave it my best shot.
Sitting patiently among the multiple shortstacker, limp-in-wait-for-a-pair-then-shovers. My aces got cracked earlier when I had three callers and crazy action on a connected board, I escaped while a straight and 2 pair banged into each other. And I escaped with minimal damage - a river ace would have had me paying off a big bet.
The great hands weren't coming for me, and the strong preflop hands were getting cracked, so I was going to have to earn my money some other way on this night. Like with a good read.
Cutoff raises - he's one of the few solid players with 12/10 stats and high aggression. His steal stats are pretty low, too, so I put him on a real hand here. I've got pocket nines on the button. Because his range is so tight, I call for set value. My call also lets the small blind in - he's playing at a spectacular 59/0 clip - seeing over half the hands and never raising. Postflop, he's pretty aggressive, though.
The three of us see a board of 5 A 6
. No set for me, and a lovely ace to go with the TAG on the cutoff. The small blind, however, Mr. 59/0, comes out swinging for exactly a pot size bet - obviously insta-clicking on the POT button. TAGgy cutoff folds (cursing his pocket queens).
I take an extra second, though. This dude has been buying his way into 60% of the hands, either by limping or calling a raise, and then betting like a nut. Do I have to give him an ace here? It seems the most obvious - guys with these stats often come into hands with AQ/AK, but not for a raise, and then take you by surprise by the strength of their hand. But his bet was soo big and so quick, something just seemed fishy to me. I decide to call on the button and see if he fires again.
4 on the turn. 78 has a straight, so does 23. 59/0 answers my question by instantly firing pot again, 8.40. I suppose he has told me all I need to know, but I'm still not convinced. I glance at his stats one more time and consider all the utter CRAP that a 59/0 can be in the pot with. K6. 69. 35. Hey, my nines beat some of those. Of course, he could also have 46. Or A2.
My final thought is how this guy just smashed the pot button on the flop with a tight, non-stealing preflop raiser as the opener. There's every expectation that THIS guy had an ace, but our friend here wasn't thinking about that, He was just pounding away. For many players, that's a clue that he likes his hand and HOPES someone has an ace. For 59/0 droolers, though, I think it means something different - someone who isn't thinking about what his opponent has at all. He's just betting, betting, betting, and hoping nobody has anything. This actually works pretty good in Texas Hold'em because, in large part, nobody ever does have anything.
Well, I've got pocket nines this time, and I think I've got a realistic shot of being ahead. It's probably a suicide mission, and it's probably not the best poker play on a table where the fishies will pay me off when there's much greater chance of being ahead, but I point the nose of my Zero down, and head straight for the battleship. I reraise him, all in.
His call is as instantaneous as his two bets were, and I wait for the little uppercase "A" symbol to appear on one of his cards. Instead, I see a "Q", and a "T". Queen-Ten. Both are green (clubs on my four color deck). I glance back at the board - the ace and five are green too. He's got a flush draw, and two overcards to my nines. He has 9 club outs to nail me, and his 6 pair outs too - a sizable 15 cards I have to avoid.
Avoid them I do. K on the river gives me his stack. As is often the case, I'm not sure I was poker savant or just idiot this time around, but it worked out for me.
The 50NL players at UB are worse than the 25NL players on Full Tilt. That's the review. Bad players. Baaaad.
No luck for me tonight - tightened up and waited to bet for value against the fishies. No value to be had. Flopped 2 pair twice but got caught both times, once with a four flush, once with running kings to counterfeit me.
Got my pocket aces right about hand 230, pretty close to the 1 in 221 spot where you would start to expect them if you hadn't had them yet. 2 limpers before me, I raise it up.... they both fold. The first player's fold might have been the first preflop fold I had seen him make after already having money in the pot.
Grrrrr.
My small loss was mitigated by raking in $33 of the bad beat jackpot, which happened on another table, but at my buy-in level.
Not much poker this week. The weekly game didn't happen, and I was too tired to play seriously online. Might be time for that little break I was discussing.
