Monsterpotten

Got to squeeze in some Saturday night live Holdem/Omaha, with an affordable .25/.25 blind structure. Time to try out a few things, maybe ramp up the aggression against some players who don't know my game.

Things went well, except one player on my left got the better of me a couple times. I went for the accidental 3bet bluff from an early position raiser (because I threw the wrong color chips out, lol), but it looked like it was going to work for a second, until the big blind cold-4 bet me. He was kind enough to show aces as I folded. Later, I raised from late position with KQ, he defended with JT, then runner-runner boated me after I checked top pair to get value from a good player later. Whoopsie.

This was all made up for with a monster Omaha pot. I limped with Js Tc 8c 6s - a nice structured wrap and double suited to boot. Board comes 7c 8s 9c, I've got the current nuts and a pretty little straight flush redraw. I bet pot and get re-potted, something pretty rare in this game. The joy of Omaha, he might have the same current hand, with a higher (even nut) flush redraw. My monster hand suddenly looks more like showdown value - can I get to the river without a club coming or the board pairing. I call the bet, the pot is getting big, and life is not great.

Then, fortunes change again, the most beautiful 6c comes on the turn, and I have the straight-flushin-mother-humpin-stone-cold-lead-pipe-immortal nuts. Furthermore, I think it's likely that my opponent now has the ace-high flush on a non-paired board. I'm out of position, so I check and let him bet. I take a bit of time to Hollywood a little, make a little sigh, pretend like I've got top set and need to call this bet to try and boat up to catch the flush. After the appropriate time, I toss the chips in, praying that the board doesn't pair up. His flush needs to remain best.

A red four comes. No board pairing. I think the villain has the ace high flush, which I'm sure he can see is the third nuts (5c 8c also makes a straight flush), but I don't think he's going to check behind. If he does, he's a damn fine Omaha player. I check. He bets $15. I check my stack quickly, I've got $45 left, a great amount. I announce that I'm all in. He's got to call $30 to win like $90.

He lets out a groan and a little laugh. "Shoulda seen that coming" he bemoans. "Sooo sick, I've got the third nuts here, and I think I have to fold". I'm trying very hard not to give anything away, but it looks like he already knows what I've got. My only hope is a desperation/frustration call, or perhaps some notion in his head that I'm bluffing or am not a good enough Omaha player that I would checkraise a king-high flush all-in

He takes a good 90 seconds to make his decision, then throws a pile of red chips in as he turns his cards over. Ace and three of clubs as I suspected, along with a 7 and 9 for two pair on the flop. "You were never ahead, my friend", I tried to say nicely and not-condescendingly, as I turned over the bad news.

A brutal, brutal Omaha hand for him, ending in a 400 big blind pot for me.

Looked like it was going to be one of those nights in my cash game - playing fine overall but unlucky. AQ became trip aces by the river, someone seemed really interested in building the pot, but I knew he would do so with any ace, so I paid off a pocket deuces underboat. It was the correct play. A limped pot with 89s in late position became trip eights, again stuck with someone with the other eight and a higher kicker. I probably paid one too many streets on that hand. A third hand became trip nines from the big blind with a silly 5 kicker, but the most transparent player at the table bet $10 into a $5 pot and I folded instantly.

So trips were not my friend this evening, and I was down and had to dig into my pocket to top up. The table got shorthanded after TW busted Tony on yet another trips-kicker battle. TW is a player who's all-consumed with whether he's "winning" or "losing" in his session, and his play changes drastically depending on which side of the ledger he's on. If he wins big early, he makes up some excuse to leave early. If he's down, he stays and tries to recoup his losses. On this night, taking Tony's money got him just above even. He very obviously had his stack of chips set up into two piles, his "break even" stack and his "profit" mini-stack. The large "break-even" stack was stashed off to the side, carefully, almost out of reach. He wanted to take that money home.

I raised up a medium ace to $4, a bit more than usual. He called to see a flop, as he will around 40% of the time. He missed and checked. So did I. I checked his stack - he had his entire "profit" stack in his hand, around $7 now after calling my raise.

"Eight bucks" I said, sliding one red and three whites out to the center.

He checked his chips. "Hmmm, that would break into my big stack over here", he said, unaware that I already knew this. I shrugged, pretending I wasn't sure what he was talking about. After another second, he folds his second pair or weak draw, something he normally wouldn't do.

A bit later in the evening, we got into a pot again. This time I had raised up a weak queen-eight suited from late position and again hit nothing. He had a bit larger profit stack this time, so I wasn't going to be able to cut it down with one bet. The flop missed me and we both got to check.

The turn brought a king but also a flush draw for me, and I caught a hint that TW might be interested in that card somehow, but he checked again. I could have taken the free card to hit my flush, especially with his apparent new interest in the pot, but it occurred to me that I had to bet here for two reasons - one to build up the pot if I hit the backdoor flush, and the other to build it up so a river bluff could push him back into his break even stack. I'm not a big river bluffer, but this was a pretty good time to do it. I decided he either had the same flush draw as I did (let's hope not the bigger one), or a king, but with that king could come literally any kicker down to a deuce. So I felt like I could make him fold at least half his kings with a big enough bet, should I miss my flush. I made my bet and he called.

The river card paired the bottom card on the board, a four. No flush for me. Now onto TW - even if he had a kings-up two-pair now, the board provided him no kicker protection. His flush draws missed. I wasn't sure if king-jack/king-queen type hands would fold, but lower ones might. Or maybe they all would, depending on how dead set he was in his need to take home a profit.

TW checked, telling me he didn't like his hand (trips 4s or improbable boats would have surely lead out). I bet $22, a big number that easily cut into his break-even stack. TW didn't look comfortable, but not ready to fold, either. He took an extra second to think it over. Finally, he asked if I would show my cards if he folded. "I normally wouldn't, but yeah, this time I'll show" I said, knowing he wasn't angle-shooting me into seeing how comfortable I was with my hand, he just desperately wanted to see my hand. He folded and I showed, saying "queen high" to rub it in a bit.

TW ended the game one hand later, and got to take home a small profit on the night.

Crazy Town

We shifted up the weekly cash game a bit - moved to Friday night, and I removed the maximum buy-in to allow people to play a little deeper if they wanted to. Both moves worked - we got a full table of players, full of gamble. Flop raises with top pair/no kicker, preflop 3bets, the whole shmear.

I was a spectator for the most part - no cards. I was also ready to gamble it up some, but didn't find the opportunity. I did fire three barrels into a board where I knew the villain was drawing, and the turn and river didn't bring in the draws, and won a big pot with ace high. I begged for some action with bottom pair + flush draw, but got folds. I stayed above even, but only slightly so.

Towards the latter part of the evening, I caught myself limping into 2 pots in a row (following other limpers each time), and got mad at myself. "I should be raising this stuff and taking some pots down" I admonished myself silently, recognizing that the earlier action was cooling down if limps were being allowed to see flops. Time to re-adjust.

Next hand I was dealt king-ten offsuit, early-ish position. The book says fold, I raised it up. I got two callers and we saw an all-low board. I fired my c-bet and got folds. The hand after - kine-nine suited - I raised again and got one caller, who donked into the ten dollar pot with a weak bet - his classic "I need to see the next card" play. I denied that opportunity with a nice raise. "Am I going to allow myself to get bluffed off another hand?" he asked to nobody as he folded. I guess so. "That's how it's done", I said to myself, happy with adding 20 big blinds to my stack with king high. Then I went back to folding.

An 80 big blind win in the end - considering I don't think I had a hand as good as top pair all evening, I suppose that's just fine.

Head Rush

For the first time since Black Friday, I played a Holdem cash game online.

I also played a 6max table, which is how I play Omaha. I fared very poorly in 6max Holdem pre-Black Friday - the full table game suited my style much better, but I wanted to challenge myself.

The tilt came fast. Stacking off with AK, 3betting 77, squeezing with air. Lots of moves, by my and against me. I fared pretty well overall - up a buy-in.

I hope to bring more and more of that game to my live play. It's hard because my home game has so many recreational players - moves and bluffs go nowhere. Like most calling stations, they insulate themselves to bluffs with their play. You've got to hit a hand a value bet it.

But there are moves to be made.

Omaha is...

a never-ending carnival ride. Up/down/up/down. I was up a buy-in on my second last hand of the night, then lost it all. Played fine (I think), he just had the one hand that beat me.

The good news is that bad beats in Holdem seem trivial now.

Cookies

The only major complaint I have about my Thursday night cash game is that it's too short. It's hard to set up an image and then take advantage later.

Last night I got myself caught bluffing into a monster. We were in a multiway limped pot - me on the button with nine-ten. Too many limpers to iso-raise, passive players in the blinds where I don't fear a squeeze, I feel like I can limp behind on the button with a pretty wide set of hands and try to hit something. Or make a move if I don't The board was nasty - ace-ten-four, all hearts. I hit middle pair and had no heart to back it up. The big blind opened with a small bet, and the table folded around to me. I felt like it was a good spot to make a move. I have position, and donk bets into big fields are often weak hands. I also knew there was a good chance I would have to fire three barrels here - if the big blind hand an an ace and a decent heart in his hand, we wasn't going anywhere. I was ready to give it a shot. I raised his $2 donk bet to $7. He called.

The turn brought nothing, he checked to me. I made it $11, and he instantaneously checkraised to $22. Ah-ha. I mentally thanked him for saving me my third barrel and quickly folded. He showed a flopped flush - 7h8h. Whoopsie.

My hand was caught in the cookie jar, but that was ok. I'm not only looking for the cookies in the jar - I want the cookies in the package under the counter, and the cookies that fill the aisle in the grocery store. I want all the cookies, and I knew that getting caught in a bluff now might help someone make a mistake against me later.

On this night, like others, though, players started to announce their intent to leave around midnight, and I felt like I wasn't going to get my chance. One player said he would play one more orbit, and two others agreed that was a good time to leave as well, which would knock our 7-handed table down to an unplayable 4. My time was short.

Soon after, I got dealt pocket 4s in early position. Usually a raise for me at a 7 handed table (maybe a fold at a nine or ten handed table) - but I didn't want to get reraised off this hand. My stack wasn't deep enough to flop sets against a 3bet. I put on my set-miner's hat and limped the $1, hoping to start a chain of limpers. We got to the button who decided he needed to make it $5 to go. The button is a semi-regular to my game - a competent player, fairly straightforward, didn't make huge mistakes postflop. When one of the blinds called the raise before me, I had what I wanted - a chance to see a flop. I flipped in the $4.

I didn't watch the flop as it was dealt - I watched the original raiser to see if I could pick up a reaction (I don't do this often enough, but did this time). I heard the dealer say "and the flop is a whole lotta junk", which I took to be a good sign, since I was holding junk myself.

four-five-six was the board. Two spades. I knew that the poker gods had helped me in every conceivable way with this board. Not only had I flopped my set, but there was virtually zero chance I was beat by the original raiser here. He wasn't the type to raise limpers with pocket fives or sixes - he would have followed the merry band. No way he had two-three (lol) or seven-eight for a straight, either. Most probably, he had an overpair to this junky board, or two high cards like ace-king or ace-queen that whiffed, and even then I could hope for an occasional flush draw in his hand to keep him in the pot.

I checked. The button made a sizable bet - one I read to be for value. Smelled like an overpair to me, or a total whiff taking one last shot at the crappy board.

Flopping my set on a board where I was sure I had the best hand was only part of the reason I felt like the poker gods had given me the perfect board at the perfect time. Part two was the fact that my opponent appeared to also have a good hand. And part three was the most important reason of all - this particular opponent was skilled enough to be watching my previous shenanigans - betting hard on scary boards, only to fold later to increased pressure. He was one of the few in my game that would remember that hand, and link that past hand to this one, if I were to play it the same way.

So I did. I checkraised his $5 flop bet to $17. Would he think I was messing around again? Would he step into the bucket? How many of his cookies would he give me?

The answer was fifty cookies as it turns out. He slid a stack of $5 chips into the pot without a word. There was some question whether he was raising to $50 or $50 on top of my $17, so I sat wordlessly as the dealer asked the question and they sorted it out. Once I was sure he had made his intended bet, I announced I was all in.

"Damn, I can't call that bet", he replied, even though it had pretty much tied him to the pot. He flipped over pocket tens - a nice fold by a decent player, knowing he was beat.

But the information cost him most of his cookies, and I was happy to have them.