Since I won’t be playing in a cash game until January 2 and the 2010 results of my poker playing will not change, I have decided to record some highlights and statistics from this year’s games.
Between Oklahoma, Weatherford, Shreveport, and Las Vegas, I have played 30 sessions of Texas Hold’em poker and logged in 156.5 hours of play, averaging out to about 5 hours and 15 minutes of play per session. I profited $1,615 this year and made $10.32 an hour. Among the 30 different sessions of play, I profited in 18 of those games and lost money in the other 12.
My biggest win in a single game was on March 27 in Weatherford. I played for nine hours and profited $1,185, giving me by best hourly rate of the year at $131.67. With that money I bought my wife a new refrigerator to go in the kitchen and our old fridge went to the garage for my soft drinks and other items that take up too much room in the main fridge.
My largest loss was on January 21 where after five hours of play I lost $400, resulting in an $80 an hour loss rate. The worst hourly loss rate I logged was on August 28 in Weatherford, where I lost $300 in 45 minutes, which calculates to $400 lost for every hour I would have played at that game.
Along with the refrigerator purchase from poker earnings, another high spot for the year was receiving a $175 bonus in Las Vegas for holding a straight flush, when in reality both of my cards did not play and thus I should not have received the bonus money.
The longest winning streak I had was at six sessions from October 21 to November 27, where I won $95, $245, $25, $30, $180, and $120 for a total of $695 during that time period.
There were two three-game losing streaks throughout the year that were my longest. They occurred from August 23 to September 25 and December 1 to December 18. In those time spans I lost $265, $300, and $175 and $300, $70, and $90, totaling $740 and $460.
Overall it was a pretty good year. I feel like I bettered my game and have shored up a few deficiencies that were continuing to cause losses. I don’t know how reasonable it is to have a goal for 2011 of winning $5,000 playing poker, but we will see how it things start out on Sunday when I go to Choctaw Casino with my wife for a get-away trip.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Results Of Vegas Poker Play, Other Notes
I played three sessions of Texas hold’em while in Las Vegas this past weekend, losing two and winning one. While I would rather win more sessions than I lose, in this instance my combined losses were less than the one win. Therefore it ultimately worked out.
I played once a day at three different casinos, losing the first two games at Golden Nugget and The Mirage and winning the last game at the Venetian. Out of those three games I have only three hands worth discussing.
The first hand was the first I played out there. I sat down at the Golden Nugget with $200 and the two cards I immediately saw were queens. I raised it up to $8. I was re-raised by a middle-aged woman in late position, who made it $25 to go. I re-raised her to $100 flat, as that was a little less than what she had from the eyeball test I made at her chip stack. She went all-in for another $20 and I called. She flipped over aces and I was in a lot of trouble. That is until a queen came on the flop. But my happiness wasn’t to last long as the turn was an ace and I lost the hand.
After giving away $120 not more than two minutes from taking my seat I was able to get back $50 of that and quit three hours later with a $70 loss. My rate for that evening was a loss of $23.33 an hour.
The next hand of interest was the next day (technically the same day as I didn’t go to sleep the first night until 5:30 a.m. Pacific time zone) at the Mirage. I held 10-8 of spades and flopped a flush when the K-J-9 of spades was dealt out. I was second to act and had three others in the pot. I made the decision to slow-play my flush, thus disguising the power of the hand. That is a risk as if another spade comes that doesn’t give me a straight flush I would be sitting with a flush that could be easily beat by an ace or queen. We all checked the flop and went to the turn with $8 in the pot.
However, my fears were put to rest when the turn was the seven of spades, giving me a jack-high straight flush. Again I checked it because there is no reason to scare the other players out and if none of them hold a spade then I am not getting called. By checking I am hoping somebody will bluff at it after my check or the first guy will bet on the river. None of this happened and we checked it around again. The pot still has $8 in it.
The river was the queen of spades, giving me a straight flush from the king on down to the seven, but only using one of my cards as my eight isn’t necessary any longer. The first player checked and I decided to bet and try to make something out of the hand. It was extremely fortunate that I made that bet as I will explain in a moment. I was called by two of the three players and exclaimed I had the winning hand when we were prompted to show.
The reason my $5 bet was so crucial was the Mirage has a high-hand bonus for straight flushes that pays $175 on top of what you win in the pot, which in my case ended up being only a little more than $20. Not only was I lucky to win hit a straight flush, but I was even luckier to get the bonus as I was supposed to use both cards in the hand but I only needed my ten. Since the hand was somewhat confusing with a straight flush from the king to the seven the floor manager misread how many of my cards were used and I got the bonus.
Sadly even with the bonus I could not hang on to my winnings and I ended up walking out with a $90 loss because of the third hand to be mentioned. I was dealt pocket nines and raised from late position, making it $10 to play. I was called by only one player who had limped into the hand for the $2 minimum and we went heads-up to the flop with $25 in the pot.
The flop was 10-6-2 rainbow. My opponent led out for a pot-sized bet of $25. I raised it to $75, thinking I could push him off of a ten. He thought for a long time about the amount of money it took to call and he finally made the call. To me it felt like he had top pair with a kicker between jack and ace. He liked his hand but he was not sure whether I had a higher pocket pair. The pot now had $175 in it.
The turn was a seven, giving me an inside straight draw should the eight come. I now had six outs to win the hand in case a bet couldn’t get him out. He checked and I quickly pushed out a stack of 20 red chips for a $100 bet. Although my heart was pounding I tried not to show any regret or fear of being called, hoping my bet still looked like a pocket pair higher than anything on the board. My opponent fretted over what to do for a very long time. I was nearly convinced he was trying to figure out whether his ten was good or not. Finally he stacked all his chips on a $100 bill, because those are allowed to be in play at Las Vegas casinos, made motions to move it all to the middle of the table but said call as he did so. After a bit of confusing chatter between the player and dealer it was understood that he simply had called my $100 bet.
At this point I know I am beat. I assume he has a set because that is the only thing that makes sense. What was the most confusing part of this hand though is that he checked the river. If he was going to go all in on the turn then why not do it now on the river. It was about another $65 to call had he moved it all in the middle. Since the river was a four and didn’t improve my hand I said, “I check. You have me beat.” I showed my nines and he flipped over twos, for the flopped set.
I will admit that he really sold a weaker hand than his set and had the situation been different I might have made another bluff on the river to try and win the $375 pot that was available for the taking. Because of my hand and what he had left I probably wouldn’t have bet the river or called a bet because I knew I couldn’t beat what I thought he had, let alone what he really had, and the bet would have been too small to push him out of it. It was well acted though on his part, up until his gaffe with the all-in/call misspeak.
I left the Mirage with $90 less than I started after five hours of play. That equated to an $18 an hour loss for the day.
My last night of poker play resulted in a $375 profit after four hours of play, amounting to $93.75 an hour. Although I made so much money, none of the hands really stick out enough to chat about. I did take a $95 loss with kings when a guy three-bet all-in pre-flop after I re-raised his initial raise. He had A-10, hit a ten on the flop and an ace on the river for two pair.
For the entire trip with all three games combined, I won $215 at poker and made $17.92 an hour. Yet, when that is combined with what I lost at all the other games I played I lost about $350 for the trip.
In 2010 thus far, I have made $1,615 playing poker at a $10.32 hourly rate. This will likely be my last post for the year as I don’t plan on playing in any other cash games until the new year. I’m glad to know after 30 different games and 156.5 hours of play I am a profitable gambler.
I look forward to building a bankroll at poker in 2011 and attempting to win $5,000 off of $300 by the end of the year. That is the goal I have set for myself, but we will see how it goes.
Until then.
I played once a day at three different casinos, losing the first two games at Golden Nugget and The Mirage and winning the last game at the Venetian. Out of those three games I have only three hands worth discussing.
The first hand was the first I played out there. I sat down at the Golden Nugget with $200 and the two cards I immediately saw were queens. I raised it up to $8. I was re-raised by a middle-aged woman in late position, who made it $25 to go. I re-raised her to $100 flat, as that was a little less than what she had from the eyeball test I made at her chip stack. She went all-in for another $20 and I called. She flipped over aces and I was in a lot of trouble. That is until a queen came on the flop. But my happiness wasn’t to last long as the turn was an ace and I lost the hand.
After giving away $120 not more than two minutes from taking my seat I was able to get back $50 of that and quit three hours later with a $70 loss. My rate for that evening was a loss of $23.33 an hour.
The next hand of interest was the next day (technically the same day as I didn’t go to sleep the first night until 5:30 a.m. Pacific time zone) at the Mirage. I held 10-8 of spades and flopped a flush when the K-J-9 of spades was dealt out. I was second to act and had three others in the pot. I made the decision to slow-play my flush, thus disguising the power of the hand. That is a risk as if another spade comes that doesn’t give me a straight flush I would be sitting with a flush that could be easily beat by an ace or queen. We all checked the flop and went to the turn with $8 in the pot.
However, my fears were put to rest when the turn was the seven of spades, giving me a jack-high straight flush. Again I checked it because there is no reason to scare the other players out and if none of them hold a spade then I am not getting called. By checking I am hoping somebody will bluff at it after my check or the first guy will bet on the river. None of this happened and we checked it around again. The pot still has $8 in it.
The river was the queen of spades, giving me a straight flush from the king on down to the seven, but only using one of my cards as my eight isn’t necessary any longer. The first player checked and I decided to bet and try to make something out of the hand. It was extremely fortunate that I made that bet as I will explain in a moment. I was called by two of the three players and exclaimed I had the winning hand when we were prompted to show.
The reason my $5 bet was so crucial was the Mirage has a high-hand bonus for straight flushes that pays $175 on top of what you win in the pot, which in my case ended up being only a little more than $20. Not only was I lucky to win hit a straight flush, but I was even luckier to get the bonus as I was supposed to use both cards in the hand but I only needed my ten. Since the hand was somewhat confusing with a straight flush from the king to the seven the floor manager misread how many of my cards were used and I got the bonus.
Sadly even with the bonus I could not hang on to my winnings and I ended up walking out with a $90 loss because of the third hand to be mentioned. I was dealt pocket nines and raised from late position, making it $10 to play. I was called by only one player who had limped into the hand for the $2 minimum and we went heads-up to the flop with $25 in the pot.
The flop was 10-6-2 rainbow. My opponent led out for a pot-sized bet of $25. I raised it to $75, thinking I could push him off of a ten. He thought for a long time about the amount of money it took to call and he finally made the call. To me it felt like he had top pair with a kicker between jack and ace. He liked his hand but he was not sure whether I had a higher pocket pair. The pot now had $175 in it.
The turn was a seven, giving me an inside straight draw should the eight come. I now had six outs to win the hand in case a bet couldn’t get him out. He checked and I quickly pushed out a stack of 20 red chips for a $100 bet. Although my heart was pounding I tried not to show any regret or fear of being called, hoping my bet still looked like a pocket pair higher than anything on the board. My opponent fretted over what to do for a very long time. I was nearly convinced he was trying to figure out whether his ten was good or not. Finally he stacked all his chips on a $100 bill, because those are allowed to be in play at Las Vegas casinos, made motions to move it all to the middle of the table but said call as he did so. After a bit of confusing chatter between the player and dealer it was understood that he simply had called my $100 bet.
At this point I know I am beat. I assume he has a set because that is the only thing that makes sense. What was the most confusing part of this hand though is that he checked the river. If he was going to go all in on the turn then why not do it now on the river. It was about another $65 to call had he moved it all in the middle. Since the river was a four and didn’t improve my hand I said, “I check. You have me beat.” I showed my nines and he flipped over twos, for the flopped set.
I will admit that he really sold a weaker hand than his set and had the situation been different I might have made another bluff on the river to try and win the $375 pot that was available for the taking. Because of my hand and what he had left I probably wouldn’t have bet the river or called a bet because I knew I couldn’t beat what I thought he had, let alone what he really had, and the bet would have been too small to push him out of it. It was well acted though on his part, up until his gaffe with the all-in/call misspeak.
I left the Mirage with $90 less than I started after five hours of play. That equated to an $18 an hour loss for the day.
My last night of poker play resulted in a $375 profit after four hours of play, amounting to $93.75 an hour. Although I made so much money, none of the hands really stick out enough to chat about. I did take a $95 loss with kings when a guy three-bet all-in pre-flop after I re-raised his initial raise. He had A-10, hit a ten on the flop and an ace on the river for two pair.
For the entire trip with all three games combined, I won $215 at poker and made $17.92 an hour. Yet, when that is combined with what I lost at all the other games I played I lost about $350 for the trip.
In 2010 thus far, I have made $1,615 playing poker at a $10.32 hourly rate. This will likely be my last post for the year as I don’t plan on playing in any other cash games until the new year. I’m glad to know after 30 different games and 156.5 hours of play I am a profitable gambler.
I look forward to building a bankroll at poker in 2011 and attempting to win $5,000 off of $300 by the end of the year. That is the goal I have set for myself, but we will see how it goes.
Until then.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Leave For Vegas Today
I will try to take notes at the end of each night in order to share some events and poker happenings when I return. Check back Tuesday for anything new.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Countdown To Vegas Has Begun
I leave on Friday for Las Vegas. Four of us will be leaving for the trip from Dallas and Houston and will be spending until Monday in Sin City. This will be about my sixth or seventh trip to Las Vegas and it never gets old for me. I think the thing I am looking forward to most is eating at a breakfast diner called Blueberry Hill.
We will be staying at the El Cortez Casino and Hotel, which is the oldest standing casino the city has. A lot of history and smoke is in that downtown building as it was first opened in 1941. The casino has marketed itself as where locals come to play, as many residents who tire of the tourist-traps along the Strip frequent the El Cortez.
The following is some history about the El Cortez from Wikipedia:
Marion Hicks and J.C. Grayson built the El Cortez, downtown Las Vegas' first major resort, in 1941 for $245,000. The location at 6th Street and Fremont was originally considered too far from downtown, but it became quickly so profitable, Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum, and Moe Sedway bought the property in 1945. J.K. Houssels had originally opened the 59-room hotel and casino before the sale to the major organized crime figures. In 1963, the Pavilion Rooms were added by new owner Jackie Gaughan. Another 15-story tower addition was completed in 1980. The 64-room Cabana Suites were completed in the former Ogden House in 2009, bringing the total room count to its current 364. Gaughan, a casino owner and operator since the early 1950s, lives in the El Cortez tower penthouse and is known to be on the casino floor almost daily. The property is one of the few casinos to have never changed its exterior facade in Las Vegas, retaining the same signage and ranch themed architecture for more than 60 years.
We will be staying at the El Cortez Casino and Hotel, which is the oldest standing casino the city has. A lot of history and smoke is in that downtown building as it was first opened in 1941. The casino has marketed itself as where locals come to play, as many residents who tire of the tourist-traps along the Strip frequent the El Cortez.
The following is some history about the El Cortez from Wikipedia:
Marion Hicks and J.C. Grayson built the El Cortez, downtown Las Vegas' first major resort, in 1941 for $245,000. The location at 6th Street and Fremont was originally considered too far from downtown, but it became quickly so profitable, Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum, and Moe Sedway bought the property in 1945. J.K. Houssels had originally opened the 59-room hotel and casino before the sale to the major organized crime figures. In 1963, the Pavilion Rooms were added by new owner Jackie Gaughan. Another 15-story tower addition was completed in 1980. The 64-room Cabana Suites were completed in the former Ogden House in 2009, bringing the total room count to its current 364. Gaughan, a casino owner and operator since the early 1950s, lives in the El Cortez tower penthouse and is known to be on the casino floor almost daily. The property is one of the few casinos to have never changed its exterior facade in Las Vegas, retaining the same signage and ranch themed architecture for more than 60 years.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
$20 Tournament Hand Examples
A group of seven was found for a tournament last night that resulted in two hands worth breaking down. The buy-in was $20 with re-buys allowed for the first two rounds. The first hand took place during the re-buy period.
I was dealt the two black jacks in early position and raised it to $350 when blinds were $50-100. I had approximately $11,750 in chips at the start of the hand. I received a call from Lance and Josh, who were acting after me in the hand, and Clint, who was the big blind. There were four of us seeing a flop and the pot had $1,400 in it.
The flop was 10-9-7 with two clubs and a spade. Clint was first to act and without hesitation moved all in for $3,000. With only $1,400 in the pot this is way too big of a bet should he have an actual hand, so I know my jacks are beating him. My only worry at this point was whether I should risk my overpair by just calling his bet, thus giving Lance and Josh a bit better odds to draw at the flush or straight should they want to really gamble, or if I should raise the bet to isolate it down to just Clint and myself. A worry about raising is if I happen to run into a flopped set from Lance or Josh and then I risk most of my chips with no way of getting them back after moving all-in. I should note that I was the chip leader among the four players involved in the hand and therefore would not have had to re-buy should I lose.
I decided not to slow-play the hand and make my move now. I moved all-in after thinking for about a minute. Lance thought even longer than I did and finally called for all his chips, which were less than mine but more than Clint’s. Josh agonized over a fold and finally flipped his pocket kings up thinking he no longer had the best hand. We all showed our hands and it was revealed I was in the lead with my pair of jacks. Clint moved all-in with Q-3 of clubs, going for the flush, and Lance called two all-ins with K-8 of clubs, giving him a higher flush draw than Clint and an open-ended straight draw.
With two cards to come I had to avoid six clubs, one king (as Josh showed his two), three queens, two jacks, and three sixes (as one of those is a club and already accounted for). That is 15 cards that hurt me in a deck with 34 cards left, giving me little better than a 50-percent chance of winning this hand. And that doesn’t even account for a card that comes on the turn that could open up more opportunities for me to be beat, such as a three giving Clint a slim draw at another three for trips.
The turn was a blank but the river was a queen, giving Clint a pair of queens and the main pot. I won the side pot against Lance since he missed his draws, but that didn’t quite cover all of my losses for the hand.
As it turns out, Josh would have won with his pair of kings, but I feel he made the right fold in that situation. With an all-in bet, all-in raise, and all-in call in front of him he had to think his kings were either not the best hand at that point or were not good enough to go up against three different hands. His best move was re-raising pre-flop, but he took a chance at slow-playing the hand and it didn’t pay off. It happens.
The next hand of interest came after the re-buys ended and we were three-handed. Blinds were $200-400 and I had $8,800 total at the beginning of the hand. James was the chip leader with about $55,000 on the button. He raised it to $1,200. This is a very standard raise in this position, being last to act in the hand, the chip leader, and short-handed. He would raise with any two cards at all.
Clint was the small blind and had approximately $1,000 more than me, giving him about $10,000 total. He called the $1,200. What this means to me is he has a variety of hands ranging from an ace with a middle card to low card, two face cards, two suited connectors, or another pairing of cards that would give him a well-disguised straight or two pair. He basically would call this with a large range of medium-sized hands. Any pair or high ace he is likely re-raising since James’s raise isn’t anything to be too worried about yet.
It gets to me and I have A-Q offsuit. I immediately see this as an opportunity to get an additional $2,400 in chips that are already in the pot or double-up if I get called. I am more afraid of James than Clint as I feel very confident Clint’s hand is not superior enough to call for almost everything he has. If it were he would have likely raised James. My re-raise all-in could backfire should James actually have a big hand, but I had to take that chance when it was three-handed. However, even should James have something like a small pocket pair or A-K he has to be slightly worried about calling off 20 percent of his chips with a person to act behind him. I figured with all of that information I would get to raise the hand and watch both players fold.
James folded like planned, but it was Clint who messed things up. He thought for a second, counting out his chips to see what a call would leave him with, and finally called satisfied he had a shot of winning the pot. He showed K-Q, giving me the dominant hand, but a king on the flop gave him the edge and he came out the winner.
Afterward we got into a brief discussion on the merits of the call, to which I didn’t think was a very good one. We both agreed that I would have not gone all-in for so much had I a really big hand like aces, kings, or queens, wanting to give James or Clint the odds to put more money in the pot and build it for a bigger win. However, where Clint and I disagreed was that I would have made the all-in push with pairs as high as jacks down to twos. I told him I would figure to be a favorite with any pair down to eights, maybe even sevens, and would re-raise an amount less than the all-in so I could build a bigger pot.
What I didn’t like about his call with K-Q there was he is at best a coin-flip to win the hand. There is no way I make that move with a hand worse than his. So he is betting his entire tournament on hoping to hit a king or queen with me having a lower pair. But again, this is all best-case scenario. I can’t imagine a scenario where he is in the lead at this point. So why risk your tournament on you being behind. I could understand if he was in James’s position with a dominant chip lead to take a chance at knocking out another player, getting in the money and going into heads-up play with more than a 6-1 chip lead, but Clint was betting nearly everything on his losing hand. I might be wrong in my thinking, but I want better odds than what he was hoping to get with his K-Q when we were so close to the money.
You may disagree with me, but I still don’t see his call as being a good one in that situation. Call it sour grapes for being beaten and knocked out on the bubble, but I feel the play was an inferior one. Just my opinion.
The biggest surprise from the night was getting seven people to play. It was good to see Josh and Lance and I hope we can get this thing going a little more regularly.
I was dealt the two black jacks in early position and raised it to $350 when blinds were $50-100. I had approximately $11,750 in chips at the start of the hand. I received a call from Lance and Josh, who were acting after me in the hand, and Clint, who was the big blind. There were four of us seeing a flop and the pot had $1,400 in it.
The flop was 10-9-7 with two clubs and a spade. Clint was first to act and without hesitation moved all in for $3,000. With only $1,400 in the pot this is way too big of a bet should he have an actual hand, so I know my jacks are beating him. My only worry at this point was whether I should risk my overpair by just calling his bet, thus giving Lance and Josh a bit better odds to draw at the flush or straight should they want to really gamble, or if I should raise the bet to isolate it down to just Clint and myself. A worry about raising is if I happen to run into a flopped set from Lance or Josh and then I risk most of my chips with no way of getting them back after moving all-in. I should note that I was the chip leader among the four players involved in the hand and therefore would not have had to re-buy should I lose.
I decided not to slow-play the hand and make my move now. I moved all-in after thinking for about a minute. Lance thought even longer than I did and finally called for all his chips, which were less than mine but more than Clint’s. Josh agonized over a fold and finally flipped his pocket kings up thinking he no longer had the best hand. We all showed our hands and it was revealed I was in the lead with my pair of jacks. Clint moved all-in with Q-3 of clubs, going for the flush, and Lance called two all-ins with K-8 of clubs, giving him a higher flush draw than Clint and an open-ended straight draw.
With two cards to come I had to avoid six clubs, one king (as Josh showed his two), three queens, two jacks, and three sixes (as one of those is a club and already accounted for). That is 15 cards that hurt me in a deck with 34 cards left, giving me little better than a 50-percent chance of winning this hand. And that doesn’t even account for a card that comes on the turn that could open up more opportunities for me to be beat, such as a three giving Clint a slim draw at another three for trips.
The turn was a blank but the river was a queen, giving Clint a pair of queens and the main pot. I won the side pot against Lance since he missed his draws, but that didn’t quite cover all of my losses for the hand.
As it turns out, Josh would have won with his pair of kings, but I feel he made the right fold in that situation. With an all-in bet, all-in raise, and all-in call in front of him he had to think his kings were either not the best hand at that point or were not good enough to go up against three different hands. His best move was re-raising pre-flop, but he took a chance at slow-playing the hand and it didn’t pay off. It happens.
The next hand of interest came after the re-buys ended and we were three-handed. Blinds were $200-400 and I had $8,800 total at the beginning of the hand. James was the chip leader with about $55,000 on the button. He raised it to $1,200. This is a very standard raise in this position, being last to act in the hand, the chip leader, and short-handed. He would raise with any two cards at all.
Clint was the small blind and had approximately $1,000 more than me, giving him about $10,000 total. He called the $1,200. What this means to me is he has a variety of hands ranging from an ace with a middle card to low card, two face cards, two suited connectors, or another pairing of cards that would give him a well-disguised straight or two pair. He basically would call this with a large range of medium-sized hands. Any pair or high ace he is likely re-raising since James’s raise isn’t anything to be too worried about yet.
It gets to me and I have A-Q offsuit. I immediately see this as an opportunity to get an additional $2,400 in chips that are already in the pot or double-up if I get called. I am more afraid of James than Clint as I feel very confident Clint’s hand is not superior enough to call for almost everything he has. If it were he would have likely raised James. My re-raise all-in could backfire should James actually have a big hand, but I had to take that chance when it was three-handed. However, even should James have something like a small pocket pair or A-K he has to be slightly worried about calling off 20 percent of his chips with a person to act behind him. I figured with all of that information I would get to raise the hand and watch both players fold.
James folded like planned, but it was Clint who messed things up. He thought for a second, counting out his chips to see what a call would leave him with, and finally called satisfied he had a shot of winning the pot. He showed K-Q, giving me the dominant hand, but a king on the flop gave him the edge and he came out the winner.
Afterward we got into a brief discussion on the merits of the call, to which I didn’t think was a very good one. We both agreed that I would have not gone all-in for so much had I a really big hand like aces, kings, or queens, wanting to give James or Clint the odds to put more money in the pot and build it for a bigger win. However, where Clint and I disagreed was that I would have made the all-in push with pairs as high as jacks down to twos. I told him I would figure to be a favorite with any pair down to eights, maybe even sevens, and would re-raise an amount less than the all-in so I could build a bigger pot.
What I didn’t like about his call with K-Q there was he is at best a coin-flip to win the hand. There is no way I make that move with a hand worse than his. So he is betting his entire tournament on hoping to hit a king or queen with me having a lower pair. But again, this is all best-case scenario. I can’t imagine a scenario where he is in the lead at this point. So why risk your tournament on you being behind. I could understand if he was in James’s position with a dominant chip lead to take a chance at knocking out another player, getting in the money and going into heads-up play with more than a 6-1 chip lead, but Clint was betting nearly everything on his losing hand. I might be wrong in my thinking, but I want better odds than what he was hoping to get with his K-Q when we were so close to the money.
You may disagree with me, but I still don’t see his call as being a good one in that situation. Call it sour grapes for being beaten and knocked out on the bubble, but I feel the play was an inferior one. Just my opinion.
The biggest surprise from the night was getting seven people to play. It was good to see Josh and Lance and I hope we can get this thing going a little more regularly.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
WinStar (December 1)
It has been a long time since I’ve left a poker game fuming. Any loses I’ve had in the past year I’ve taken in stride, but last night I reached a new level of annoyance with the events that transpired at WinStar.
In two hours I lost $300. It wasn’t that I lost the money (not completely at least) but how it happened that made me flip out as much as I did afterward. In 120 minutes of play I won only a single hand that had $5 in the pot. Every other hand was either trash like 7-2 and 9-3 or something worth calling to see a flop and then not hitting squat. I got enough decent hands throughout my time at the table that I called myself down to nothing, with the exception of two hands that crushed me.
The first hand was with jacks. I raised it pre-flop to $10 and got two callers, creating $30 in the pot. The flop came K-K-4. I was first to act and bet $15. I got a call from a guy with more than $400 in front of him. Now there was $60 in the pot. The turn was an ace. I again led out with my jacks and bet $25. I was again called. The river was a seven and we both checked it down. My opponent showed A-7, giving him a higher pair on the turn.
Okay, fine. I lost with jacks. Not that big of a deal, but it was all culminating in not winning any hands and not hitting anything to help me out a little. I bought in for another $100 and not five hands later I get aces.
I raised again pre-flop, this time in late position, and was called by three players. The flop was 3-5-6 with two spades and a club. The first person to act was a female and she bet $12 into a $40 pot. One player called and it was around to me. I immediately raised it to $60 total. This put a total of $124 in the pot and it was another $48 to call my raise.
When it got back to the original bettor she thought for about two minutes and during this time she asked how much more money I had, which was another $60, and she stated how she never chases draws. Well, this time she decided to chase her draw. The other player folded and we went to the turn.
The fourth card was the king of clubs, giving two spades and two clubs on a 3-5-6-K board. The woman led out with $48 and I went all-in for my remaining $60. She called the $12 and showed A-4 of clubs. I think we all know the end of this story. She caught a seven on the river for her straight and I left enraged at her, at poker, at everyone at the table, at everything.
For the evening, my loss rate was $150 an hour. My year-to-date hourly wage at poker is 9.62, making $1,400 in 2010.
In two hours I lost $300. It wasn’t that I lost the money (not completely at least) but how it happened that made me flip out as much as I did afterward. In 120 minutes of play I won only a single hand that had $5 in the pot. Every other hand was either trash like 7-2 and 9-3 or something worth calling to see a flop and then not hitting squat. I got enough decent hands throughout my time at the table that I called myself down to nothing, with the exception of two hands that crushed me.
The first hand was with jacks. I raised it pre-flop to $10 and got two callers, creating $30 in the pot. The flop came K-K-4. I was first to act and bet $15. I got a call from a guy with more than $400 in front of him. Now there was $60 in the pot. The turn was an ace. I again led out with my jacks and bet $25. I was again called. The river was a seven and we both checked it down. My opponent showed A-7, giving him a higher pair on the turn.
Okay, fine. I lost with jacks. Not that big of a deal, but it was all culminating in not winning any hands and not hitting anything to help me out a little. I bought in for another $100 and not five hands later I get aces.
I raised again pre-flop, this time in late position, and was called by three players. The flop was 3-5-6 with two spades and a club. The first person to act was a female and she bet $12 into a $40 pot. One player called and it was around to me. I immediately raised it to $60 total. This put a total of $124 in the pot and it was another $48 to call my raise.
When it got back to the original bettor she thought for about two minutes and during this time she asked how much more money I had, which was another $60, and she stated how she never chases draws. Well, this time she decided to chase her draw. The other player folded and we went to the turn.
The fourth card was the king of clubs, giving two spades and two clubs on a 3-5-6-K board. The woman led out with $48 and I went all-in for my remaining $60. She called the $12 and showed A-4 of clubs. I think we all know the end of this story. She caught a seven on the river for her straight and I left enraged at her, at poker, at everyone at the table, at everything.
For the evening, my loss rate was $150 an hour. My year-to-date hourly wage at poker is 9.62, making $1,400 in 2010.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
WSOP Hand Scenario Involving Jacks
While watching the Arizona Cardinals get humiliated on Monday Night Football last night, my wife and I had reruns of this year’s World Series of Poker set as our flip channel. I haven’t watched poker on television in several years as the play in tournaments like the WSOP isn’t conducive to a learning environment regarding improving poker play at cash games. That’s not to say it can’t be entertaining, but I just don’t find enjoyment watching others play poker like I used to.
However, last night we spent a few minutes during football’s commercial breaks to watch some hands unfold and we came across one that my wife and I differed on a play that was made. I wanted to discuss it here and see what others thought of the play.
At this point in the tournament, the players were in the money and cashing out at about $125,000 and increasing with each player being knocked out. I don’t recall specific chip counts for each of the players involved, but it really doesn’t matter too much as all the money went in the pot pre-flop. I will do the best I can to reconstruct the hand as close to accurate as possible so a fair decision can be given on what you would have done.
Player A was dealt pocket jacks. Being in early position (not exactly sure where but he acted before the other two players involved), Player A led out with a raise of about 2.5 times the big blind.
Moving to Player B, who is holding Q-10 of spades, this guy re-raises all-in for an amount more than the initial raise but not so much that it puts everybody at the table all-in. This player was likely short stacked and saw an opportunity to get heads up or maybe even steal what was in the pot and not get called by the original raiser, hoping to build his stack a little and last a bit longer so the payout grew larger should he go out an hour later or so.
Player C then looks at A-Q offsuit. He re-raises the all-in from Player B. The re-raise is so much that it would put Player A all-in should he call. It folds back around to Player A.
So let’s recap. Player A raises with pocket jacks. Player B re-raises all of his chips with Q-10 suited. Player C re-raises with A-Q offsuit. It is back to Player A with his jacks and a call means he is all-in.
I do not know whether Player A had more than Player B, because their chip stacks would determine whether Player A finished higher than Player B should he have more at the start of the hand and they both be knocked out by Player C. This data might affect your decision on whether you call or not, however, without that information I still would like to know whether you call or fold with the jacks.
Player A agonized over the hand for a bit and finally folded. My wife was surprised to see him fold what she considered a really good hand. I told her I agreed that jacks were a good hand, but not in this scenario and I too would have folded. In a best-case scenario you are up against two overcards between the two players, which is exactly what was the case here. You figure you have to either be up against one player who is holding a smaller pocket pair and the other player has A-K or A-Q or both players have high cards that would beat you should an ace, king, or queen come out. Again, this is all best-case scenario. Worst-case scenario would involve being beat already by one of them who is holding queens, kings, or aces.
Playing against one person for all your money is fine when holding jacks, but once a second opponent enters into the mix your jacks aren’t quite as dominant. It would take queens or higher for me to make that call, and even queens I would be nervous.
I told my wife another reason for the fold is because the players were in the money. By folding, you assure yourself some more time to stick around and climb up the money ladder. Should Player B get beat by Player C then you automatically move up one spot in the money. I could see the argument for calling and tripling up should your jacks win, which would put you in a great spot to make it even deeper in the money, but I don’t like the odds of going up against two unknown hands that apparently are pretty strong with all the raising and re-raising going on with just jacks. I mean, do these people look like men who are beaten by jacks?
Player C ended up winning the hand, knocking Player B out of the tournament, with ace-high when nothing hit. So Player A would have won with his jacks, which hurt even more when he saw a jack come on the river giving him what would have been a set, not that he needed it.
Not sure if you agree with my assessment of how to play this hand, but I would have folded the jacks.
However, last night we spent a few minutes during football’s commercial breaks to watch some hands unfold and we came across one that my wife and I differed on a play that was made. I wanted to discuss it here and see what others thought of the play.
At this point in the tournament, the players were in the money and cashing out at about $125,000 and increasing with each player being knocked out. I don’t recall specific chip counts for each of the players involved, but it really doesn’t matter too much as all the money went in the pot pre-flop. I will do the best I can to reconstruct the hand as close to accurate as possible so a fair decision can be given on what you would have done.
Player A was dealt pocket jacks. Being in early position (not exactly sure where but he acted before the other two players involved), Player A led out with a raise of about 2.5 times the big blind.
Moving to Player B, who is holding Q-10 of spades, this guy re-raises all-in for an amount more than the initial raise but not so much that it puts everybody at the table all-in. This player was likely short stacked and saw an opportunity to get heads up or maybe even steal what was in the pot and not get called by the original raiser, hoping to build his stack a little and last a bit longer so the payout grew larger should he go out an hour later or so.
Player C then looks at A-Q offsuit. He re-raises the all-in from Player B. The re-raise is so much that it would put Player A all-in should he call. It folds back around to Player A.
So let’s recap. Player A raises with pocket jacks. Player B re-raises all of his chips with Q-10 suited. Player C re-raises with A-Q offsuit. It is back to Player A with his jacks and a call means he is all-in.
I do not know whether Player A had more than Player B, because their chip stacks would determine whether Player A finished higher than Player B should he have more at the start of the hand and they both be knocked out by Player C. This data might affect your decision on whether you call or not, however, without that information I still would like to know whether you call or fold with the jacks.
Player A agonized over the hand for a bit and finally folded. My wife was surprised to see him fold what she considered a really good hand. I told her I agreed that jacks were a good hand, but not in this scenario and I too would have folded. In a best-case scenario you are up against two overcards between the two players, which is exactly what was the case here. You figure you have to either be up against one player who is holding a smaller pocket pair and the other player has A-K or A-Q or both players have high cards that would beat you should an ace, king, or queen come out. Again, this is all best-case scenario. Worst-case scenario would involve being beat already by one of them who is holding queens, kings, or aces.
Playing against one person for all your money is fine when holding jacks, but once a second opponent enters into the mix your jacks aren’t quite as dominant. It would take queens or higher for me to make that call, and even queens I would be nervous.
I told my wife another reason for the fold is because the players were in the money. By folding, you assure yourself some more time to stick around and climb up the money ladder. Should Player B get beat by Player C then you automatically move up one spot in the money. I could see the argument for calling and tripling up should your jacks win, which would put you in a great spot to make it even deeper in the money, but I don’t like the odds of going up against two unknown hands that apparently are pretty strong with all the raising and re-raising going on with just jacks. I mean, do these people look like men who are beaten by jacks?
Player C ended up winning the hand, knocking Player B out of the tournament, with ace-high when nothing hit. So Player A would have won with his jacks, which hurt even more when he saw a jack come on the river giving him what would have been a set, not that he needed it.
Not sure if you agree with my assessment of how to play this hand, but I would have folded the jacks.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Weatherford (November 27)
The months of October and November were good to me at the poker tables. I played in six games and profited a total of $695. My average win at each game was $115.83, but two of those games netted me only $25 and $30 each, hurting my average quite a bit. Taking those wins out I would have averaged $160 a game, but a win is a win and I should not thumb my nose at those two small profits.
My latest game was in Weatherford where I play once a month and usually do well for myself. I once won enough money to purchase a new refrigerator for our kitchen. I haven’t had a huge payday since then and prior to Saturday night the last two times for me there were losses. It was good to get back on track and log a winning session from those guys again.
I won $120 for the night and played for eight-and-a-half hours, breaking down to $14.12 an hour. My year-to-date hourly rate slightly increased to $11.85.
The play at my table was generally decent from everyone for the first few hours until a guy sat down who I can’t stand playing with. He is one of those people who has to tell his bad beat stories over and over. I have heard them all so many times I could finish them up should he want to ever stop talking, which doesn’t happen much. Another complaint I have about this guy is he thinks he is a great player, and he may win money consistently but it is never from me because, in my humble opinion, he is one of the easiest people to read. He makes speeches about not having a good hand before raising on the river with his nut flush. He overbets pots with hands that are huge favorites rather than making value bets.
There was one hand that I called exactly what he had Saturday night. He was in the big blind and after a few people called for $2 it got back to him. Before bumping it another $5 he said, “I’ll raise it in case my hand hits.” Right there I put him down for a suited hand that is either connected like K-Q or will give him the nut flush with the ace. He got a few calls and the flop was A-X-X with two clubs. He led out with a bet and got a call. I figure he hit the ace and is in the lead with top pair. The turn was another club and he immediately checked. The other player made a bet and after posturing for a bit he called. To me this screams of him now having the flush. The river was a blank and he checked again. The other player bet and he came over the top with a raise. Now I am 100 percent positive he has the flush. I don’t recall whether the other player paid him off or not, but the guy ended up showing A-4 of clubs for the pair of aces on the flop and the turned nut flush. It was just as I had suspected.
I’m no professional, but when I can read a guy that well and put him on hands on a regular basis like I normally do, I can only imagine the field day people have with him at WinStar. The guy said he plays poker on a weekly basis and his win-loss ratio is about 2-1 with his combined wins covering any losses. From what I see that is hard to believe.
Generally, my night in Weatherford was pretty tame. I did have to re-buy after I lost my first $100 chasing a straight draw that would have tripled me up, but I made that back and then some by the end of the night. I do have one scenario of interest from the game that I will describe in detail.
I was sitting at approximately $240 at the start of the hand. In early position I looked to see pocket fives. I limped in for $2 and was going to cut bait should a bet be made and I not hit a five on the flop. With four others we saw a flop that came out 3-4-7 rainbow. There was $10 in the pot at this point.
Although not hitting a five, this is a pretty great flop for me. One of the blinds checked it to me and I bet $7. I was called by a guy in late position who had about $75 after the call. Everybody else folded. That put $24 in the pot.
The turn was a six, completing my straight. I decided to not slow-play my big hand and disguise it a bit in case the other guy had a hand worth going the distance with. By betting I figured he wouldn’t put me on the straight, even though it only took a five to make one. I bet $12 and was on cloud nine when my opponent announced a raise. He made it $35 to go. This left him with $40 remaining.
My decision at this point was whether to go all-in now or wait until the river. I figured we were splitting the pot at this point, but should he have two pair or a set I thought he would pay his last $40 on the hopes of hitting a full house even if my raise now made it very clear I was beating him. I could disguise my hand some more and wait to bet his last $40 on the river, but I figured there was no point in that because if he did have less than the straight on the river he might not put all of his money in the pot, even though it would be for so little of an amount compared to the pot.
With that in mind, I decided to go ahead and put it all in now and he instantly called. So that meant he had the straight and we were splitting it. But wait! He had 8-5 for the higher straight, giving me only three outs to tie and no chance to win. The river was a two and he doubled up.
My question is this, is there any reasonable way of losing less money on that hand? I maybe could have bet more money on the flop and not given him a chance to hit the inside straight, but that is really the only other chance I see at winning the pot. Once the straight is there I don’t think I would have folded at any point. There is a possibility that had I slow-played my straight on the turn he also would have checked and we might not have got it all in on the river, but I highly doubt that. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
I plan on going to WinStar this week, so I will update you after that. Until then.
My latest game was in Weatherford where I play once a month and usually do well for myself. I once won enough money to purchase a new refrigerator for our kitchen. I haven’t had a huge payday since then and prior to Saturday night the last two times for me there were losses. It was good to get back on track and log a winning session from those guys again.
I won $120 for the night and played for eight-and-a-half hours, breaking down to $14.12 an hour. My year-to-date hourly rate slightly increased to $11.85.
The play at my table was generally decent from everyone for the first few hours until a guy sat down who I can’t stand playing with. He is one of those people who has to tell his bad beat stories over and over. I have heard them all so many times I could finish them up should he want to ever stop talking, which doesn’t happen much. Another complaint I have about this guy is he thinks he is a great player, and he may win money consistently but it is never from me because, in my humble opinion, he is one of the easiest people to read. He makes speeches about not having a good hand before raising on the river with his nut flush. He overbets pots with hands that are huge favorites rather than making value bets.
There was one hand that I called exactly what he had Saturday night. He was in the big blind and after a few people called for $2 it got back to him. Before bumping it another $5 he said, “I’ll raise it in case my hand hits.” Right there I put him down for a suited hand that is either connected like K-Q or will give him the nut flush with the ace. He got a few calls and the flop was A-X-X with two clubs. He led out with a bet and got a call. I figure he hit the ace and is in the lead with top pair. The turn was another club and he immediately checked. The other player made a bet and after posturing for a bit he called. To me this screams of him now having the flush. The river was a blank and he checked again. The other player bet and he came over the top with a raise. Now I am 100 percent positive he has the flush. I don’t recall whether the other player paid him off or not, but the guy ended up showing A-4 of clubs for the pair of aces on the flop and the turned nut flush. It was just as I had suspected.
I’m no professional, but when I can read a guy that well and put him on hands on a regular basis like I normally do, I can only imagine the field day people have with him at WinStar. The guy said he plays poker on a weekly basis and his win-loss ratio is about 2-1 with his combined wins covering any losses. From what I see that is hard to believe.
Generally, my night in Weatherford was pretty tame. I did have to re-buy after I lost my first $100 chasing a straight draw that would have tripled me up, but I made that back and then some by the end of the night. I do have one scenario of interest from the game that I will describe in detail.
I was sitting at approximately $240 at the start of the hand. In early position I looked to see pocket fives. I limped in for $2 and was going to cut bait should a bet be made and I not hit a five on the flop. With four others we saw a flop that came out 3-4-7 rainbow. There was $10 in the pot at this point.
Although not hitting a five, this is a pretty great flop for me. One of the blinds checked it to me and I bet $7. I was called by a guy in late position who had about $75 after the call. Everybody else folded. That put $24 in the pot.
The turn was a six, completing my straight. I decided to not slow-play my big hand and disguise it a bit in case the other guy had a hand worth going the distance with. By betting I figured he wouldn’t put me on the straight, even though it only took a five to make one. I bet $12 and was on cloud nine when my opponent announced a raise. He made it $35 to go. This left him with $40 remaining.
My decision at this point was whether to go all-in now or wait until the river. I figured we were splitting the pot at this point, but should he have two pair or a set I thought he would pay his last $40 on the hopes of hitting a full house even if my raise now made it very clear I was beating him. I could disguise my hand some more and wait to bet his last $40 on the river, but I figured there was no point in that because if he did have less than the straight on the river he might not put all of his money in the pot, even though it would be for so little of an amount compared to the pot.
With that in mind, I decided to go ahead and put it all in now and he instantly called. So that meant he had the straight and we were splitting it. But wait! He had 8-5 for the higher straight, giving me only three outs to tie and no chance to win. The river was a two and he doubled up.
My question is this, is there any reasonable way of losing less money on that hand? I maybe could have bet more money on the flop and not given him a chance to hit the inside straight, but that is really the only other chance I see at winning the pot. Once the straight is there I don’t think I would have folded at any point. There is a possibility that had I slow-played my straight on the turn he also would have checked and we might not have got it all in on the river, but I highly doubt that. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
I plan on going to WinStar this week, so I will update you after that. Until then.
Friday, November 19, 2010
WinStar (November 18)
In the course of a night of playing poker, the littlest decisions can greatly affect the outcome of your game. Electing to go to the bathroom could result in missing a hand that might have garnered a double-up or, just as easily, maybe stopped you from going broke. Folding one hand might keep a little extra money in front of you for the next hand that ends up as an all-in double-up. These are the kinds of minor details of a poker game that can have major consequences, both good and bad, later in a game. During last night’s trip to WinStar with Clint I had one of these types of situations that a split-second decision on my part netted me far greater money than I would have had I not taken action when I did.
We will touch on that a little later though. For now let’s work our way chronologically through the night.
I bought in for $180 and was not getting anywhere after about an hour or so. I think I was down about $15 when the following hand took place. I was dealt A-6 of clubs in middle position and limped in for $2. A man two to my left, who we will call Senor Chang, also called the $2. It got around to the blinds, which one of the players raised it to $7 total. When it got back to me I called the extra $5, as did Senor Chang. There were four people seeing a flop and that put $28 in the pot.
The flop came 10-5-2 with two clubs. I now had a flush draw and checked it when it got to me after the original raiser and another player checked. Senor Chang, who was last to act, bet $25, leaving himself another $79. The original raiser, who had about $200 at the start of the hand, called after thinking for a while and it came back to me when the other guy folded. At this point I know I need a club or probably an ace to win the hand. The pre-flop raiser’s check-call on the flop didn’t seem like the “I hit a huge hand with my pocket tens and now I’m going to slow-play this until the river” kind of play. He truly acted as if he wasn’t sure what he should be doing.
My options were to fold and save $25, call and see what comes on the turn and possibly river if it is checked around, or raise the bet and become the aggressor. Looking back, I maybe should have raised it to $75 or $100 and put Senor Chang to the test for everything he had. However, in the moment and after thinking for a good amount of time about it, I elected to call. The pot now had $103 in it.
The turn was a red seven, showing a board of 10-5-2-7 with two clubs. The first guy checked, I checked, and Senor Chang moved his remaining $79 into the pot. The first guy quickly folded and I counted out what would have been the call. If I called and lost I’d have a remaining $60 and need to re-buy with the $120 I had in my wallet. After going through the possibilities of what he had I decided I couldn’t risk nearly all my money on nine outs, or maybe 12 if a pair of aces could have won.
After I folded Senor Chang showed me 6-2 offsuit for a lowly pair of twos, which still had me beat. So my ace would have been good had it hit.
Well, folding to keep me from being at $60 didn’t help much because I ended up having nearly that anyway about 20 minutes later, and the worst part is I don’t remember how I got there. I can’t recall any big hands I lost except one that I flopped top pair and was beat on the river by two pair with betting throughout the hand, but I really don’t think it was for an amount large enough to take me from $130-ish to $55, so there had to be some more hands in there that I lost a little at a time on. The point is I was down to $55 when the following happened.
Deciding that the difficulty in having to double up and then double up again to get back where I started was greater than the threat of re-buying for another $120 and possibly losing $300 total, I slapped my money on the felt prior to being dealt the ace and queen of hearts. It was raised by a country boy who apparently had been playing for somewhere between 22 and 26 hours, which his chip-stack did not reflect a great amount of profit from a day’s length of playing. With my $120 in play and $55 on the table, I had more money than he did at the start of the hand. A handful of players called the raise and we saw a flop of A-K-3 rainbow.
I don’t recall the specific bets that took place, however, I know going to the turn it was heads-up between the country boy and myself. The turn came with a six and he went all-in. I didn’t hesitate too long to call and showed my A-Q. A king came on the river and he said I had him out-kicked, showing A-9. By the end of the hand I had $305, putting me in the black.
At this point I became the table’s executioner. It just happened that two or three guys at a time would have anywhere from $20-60 in front of them. One at a time they would push all-in pre-flop. It just so happened that during this brief window of opportunity I had a hand good enough to call, or the bet was small enough compared to the amount of money I had, and won five pots this way. I did this with queens, tens, A-J offsuit, A-Q suited, and J-10 suited, building my money towers higher and higher until after some more bullying with very questionable hands that I raised pre-flop and continued betting on the flop I had a chip-stack of $575.
It just so happened that the hand I held tens is something worth discussing because it involved a little more action than a simple all-in, call.
I was sitting in the big blind and had posted my $2 bet. A foreign gentleman who looked to be from Central America made his all-in push of $24. It folded around to a hoodied-Youth who I hadn’t seen show a hand, or win one, all night. He made the all-in call, as did the small blind on my right. At this point I was ready to fold my hand unless I had an upper-echelon starting hand. I looked down to see my cards and found two tens looking back at me. This made things very interesting.
The small blind had a smidge more than $200 in front of him after calling the $24 bet, but his during this hand and conversation with him prior to this moment made me fairly confident he had only called hoping to see five cards for the $24 fee and see who has the best of it at the end. The real concern was the hoodied-Youth. He had his arms crossed in front of his chips and I had to ask how much he had in order to gauge how much the hand would ultimately cost me. He uncovered the chips, which were about another $75. I decided my hand was only good enough to go against one player and I made a raise to $100 total.
Hoodied-Youth frustratingly mucked his cards in the middle and the small blind laughingly told me I was on my own. I don’t recall the hand I was up against, but I think it might have been A-3 offsuit. Hoodied-Youth never let it be known what he had or even if he would have ultimately won the hand or not had he called my bet.
The final hand of interest was when I held 9-10 offsuit. This was at about the time I had reached my peak of $575. There were seven of us who limped in for $2 each to see a flop, which came out 9-10-J. Flopping two pair is a good position to be in, but flopping bottom two pair and the three community cards make it fairly easy for a straight to exist is not the ideal circumstances when holding two pair.
The first player to act led out with a $5 bet and two players after him called. This put $29 in the pot. The next player, sitting on my right, raised it $15, making it $20 total. Had the guy on my right not raised, I would have because I wouldn’t have wanted any straight draws hanging around. But with a feeler bet of $5 made (which I expect he held a ten or possibly a jack with a small kicker and wanted to see who would be hanging around), two calls, and a raise all going on before it got to me and I had another player on my immediate left to act after me, I decided it was best to play with caution and see if I could improve any.
I called the $20, as did the guy on my left and one of the $5 callers. This left four of us for the turn with a pot of $104. The fourth community card was an ace, creating a board of 9-10-J-A. The only reason I don’t like that card is because it gives someone holding A-J, A-10 or A-9 a higher two pair. It didn’t affect the outcome of a straight, so that had no bearing on things.
The first player checked, as did the guy who raised it on the flop. Being my turn and a little curious at the two checks ahead of me, I elected to take the free card should the guy on my left also check. What scared me most now was the guy on my left and the first guy to act. Either one of them could be slow-playing their flopped straight, which in my opinion is a bad idea considering there are three people showing interest in the hand and would call a bet from the player who flopped the straight.
The check from the guy who raised on the flop made me feel like he was holding a mediocre hand with a draw and hoping to either take it on the flop or hit his hand on the turn and make a lot of money. By slowing down and checking I felt he hadn’t improved and didn’t want to try and semi-bluff again into three opponents.
The guy behind me checked and the river came out as another ace, creating a board of 9-10-J-A-A. My hand is now completely ruined and all I can do is give up should a bet be made. However, the first two players checked, creating quite the opportunity for me. Everything in me said a bet of about $50-60 would win the hand because nobody held anything good enough to call. I pondered how much to bet for a good two minutes, debating back and forth whether I wanted to risk a tenth of my stack on a complete bluff. While I don’t usually mind making that kind of a bet when I believe it will work, doing so against three opponents is a tough sell.
Once I had decided I could have bet and won the hand, I took so long to come to that decision I felt my bet would scream of bluff because the other players would realize I was making the only play that would win me the pot. By thinking through my play and coming to a conclusion on what to do, I ruined my play by not acting quickly enough.
I finally did check, surrendering the hand, and the guy behind me checked. The players to my left and right split the pot with Q-J, flopping top pair and an open-ended straight draw. I was correct in my assessment that they would have folded to a bet, but just to make sure I stated that I really wanted to bet. Both men agreed that I looked like I was going to and had it been about the amount I was going to put in the pot they likely would have folded.
At that moment in the game I was playing scared poker, not wanting to lose any of my profit. That is a losing way to play cards and it is something I am going to have to rectify if I want to continue improving at cards.
I ended up not winning too many hands after that and quit after nearly five hours of play with a $180 profit. My hourly rate for the night was $37.89, bringing my year-to-date hourly rate up to $11.70. I have won $1,580 in 2010 playing cash games in Weatherford, Oklahoma, and Shreveport.
I have been on a bit of win streak lately. The last five games I have played in have netted me a profit of $575.
In a weird twist of fate, last night was the one-year anniversary of when I started playing the game of poker again seriously. In that year, I won $3,195 and earned $16.68 an hour. That gives me hope that in 2011 I can reach my goal of building a $300 bankroll into $5,000. Let’s hope this past year’s success continues in 2011.
We will touch on that a little later though. For now let’s work our way chronologically through the night.
I bought in for $180 and was not getting anywhere after about an hour or so. I think I was down about $15 when the following hand took place. I was dealt A-6 of clubs in middle position and limped in for $2. A man two to my left, who we will call Senor Chang, also called the $2. It got around to the blinds, which one of the players raised it to $7 total. When it got back to me I called the extra $5, as did Senor Chang. There were four people seeing a flop and that put $28 in the pot.
The flop came 10-5-2 with two clubs. I now had a flush draw and checked it when it got to me after the original raiser and another player checked. Senor Chang, who was last to act, bet $25, leaving himself another $79. The original raiser, who had about $200 at the start of the hand, called after thinking for a while and it came back to me when the other guy folded. At this point I know I need a club or probably an ace to win the hand. The pre-flop raiser’s check-call on the flop didn’t seem like the “I hit a huge hand with my pocket tens and now I’m going to slow-play this until the river” kind of play. He truly acted as if he wasn’t sure what he should be doing.
My options were to fold and save $25, call and see what comes on the turn and possibly river if it is checked around, or raise the bet and become the aggressor. Looking back, I maybe should have raised it to $75 or $100 and put Senor Chang to the test for everything he had. However, in the moment and after thinking for a good amount of time about it, I elected to call. The pot now had $103 in it.
The turn was a red seven, showing a board of 10-5-2-7 with two clubs. The first guy checked, I checked, and Senor Chang moved his remaining $79 into the pot. The first guy quickly folded and I counted out what would have been the call. If I called and lost I’d have a remaining $60 and need to re-buy with the $120 I had in my wallet. After going through the possibilities of what he had I decided I couldn’t risk nearly all my money on nine outs, or maybe 12 if a pair of aces could have won.
After I folded Senor Chang showed me 6-2 offsuit for a lowly pair of twos, which still had me beat. So my ace would have been good had it hit.
Well, folding to keep me from being at $60 didn’t help much because I ended up having nearly that anyway about 20 minutes later, and the worst part is I don’t remember how I got there. I can’t recall any big hands I lost except one that I flopped top pair and was beat on the river by two pair with betting throughout the hand, but I really don’t think it was for an amount large enough to take me from $130-ish to $55, so there had to be some more hands in there that I lost a little at a time on. The point is I was down to $55 when the following happened.
Deciding that the difficulty in having to double up and then double up again to get back where I started was greater than the threat of re-buying for another $120 and possibly losing $300 total, I slapped my money on the felt prior to being dealt the ace and queen of hearts. It was raised by a country boy who apparently had been playing for somewhere between 22 and 26 hours, which his chip-stack did not reflect a great amount of profit from a day’s length of playing. With my $120 in play and $55 on the table, I had more money than he did at the start of the hand. A handful of players called the raise and we saw a flop of A-K-3 rainbow.
I don’t recall the specific bets that took place, however, I know going to the turn it was heads-up between the country boy and myself. The turn came with a six and he went all-in. I didn’t hesitate too long to call and showed my A-Q. A king came on the river and he said I had him out-kicked, showing A-9. By the end of the hand I had $305, putting me in the black.
At this point I became the table’s executioner. It just happened that two or three guys at a time would have anywhere from $20-60 in front of them. One at a time they would push all-in pre-flop. It just so happened that during this brief window of opportunity I had a hand good enough to call, or the bet was small enough compared to the amount of money I had, and won five pots this way. I did this with queens, tens, A-J offsuit, A-Q suited, and J-10 suited, building my money towers higher and higher until after some more bullying with very questionable hands that I raised pre-flop and continued betting on the flop I had a chip-stack of $575.
It just so happened that the hand I held tens is something worth discussing because it involved a little more action than a simple all-in, call.
I was sitting in the big blind and had posted my $2 bet. A foreign gentleman who looked to be from Central America made his all-in push of $24. It folded around to a hoodied-Youth who I hadn’t seen show a hand, or win one, all night. He made the all-in call, as did the small blind on my right. At this point I was ready to fold my hand unless I had an upper-echelon starting hand. I looked down to see my cards and found two tens looking back at me. This made things very interesting.
The small blind had a smidge more than $200 in front of him after calling the $24 bet, but his during this hand and conversation with him prior to this moment made me fairly confident he had only called hoping to see five cards for the $24 fee and see who has the best of it at the end. The real concern was the hoodied-Youth. He had his arms crossed in front of his chips and I had to ask how much he had in order to gauge how much the hand would ultimately cost me. He uncovered the chips, which were about another $75. I decided my hand was only good enough to go against one player and I made a raise to $100 total.
Hoodied-Youth frustratingly mucked his cards in the middle and the small blind laughingly told me I was on my own. I don’t recall the hand I was up against, but I think it might have been A-3 offsuit. Hoodied-Youth never let it be known what he had or even if he would have ultimately won the hand or not had he called my bet.
The final hand of interest was when I held 9-10 offsuit. This was at about the time I had reached my peak of $575. There were seven of us who limped in for $2 each to see a flop, which came out 9-10-J. Flopping two pair is a good position to be in, but flopping bottom two pair and the three community cards make it fairly easy for a straight to exist is not the ideal circumstances when holding two pair.
The first player to act led out with a $5 bet and two players after him called. This put $29 in the pot. The next player, sitting on my right, raised it $15, making it $20 total. Had the guy on my right not raised, I would have because I wouldn’t have wanted any straight draws hanging around. But with a feeler bet of $5 made (which I expect he held a ten or possibly a jack with a small kicker and wanted to see who would be hanging around), two calls, and a raise all going on before it got to me and I had another player on my immediate left to act after me, I decided it was best to play with caution and see if I could improve any.
I called the $20, as did the guy on my left and one of the $5 callers. This left four of us for the turn with a pot of $104. The fourth community card was an ace, creating a board of 9-10-J-A. The only reason I don’t like that card is because it gives someone holding A-J, A-10 or A-9 a higher two pair. It didn’t affect the outcome of a straight, so that had no bearing on things.
The first player checked, as did the guy who raised it on the flop. Being my turn and a little curious at the two checks ahead of me, I elected to take the free card should the guy on my left also check. What scared me most now was the guy on my left and the first guy to act. Either one of them could be slow-playing their flopped straight, which in my opinion is a bad idea considering there are three people showing interest in the hand and would call a bet from the player who flopped the straight.
The check from the guy who raised on the flop made me feel like he was holding a mediocre hand with a draw and hoping to either take it on the flop or hit his hand on the turn and make a lot of money. By slowing down and checking I felt he hadn’t improved and didn’t want to try and semi-bluff again into three opponents.
The guy behind me checked and the river came out as another ace, creating a board of 9-10-J-A-A. My hand is now completely ruined and all I can do is give up should a bet be made. However, the first two players checked, creating quite the opportunity for me. Everything in me said a bet of about $50-60 would win the hand because nobody held anything good enough to call. I pondered how much to bet for a good two minutes, debating back and forth whether I wanted to risk a tenth of my stack on a complete bluff. While I don’t usually mind making that kind of a bet when I believe it will work, doing so against three opponents is a tough sell.
Once I had decided I could have bet and won the hand, I took so long to come to that decision I felt my bet would scream of bluff because the other players would realize I was making the only play that would win me the pot. By thinking through my play and coming to a conclusion on what to do, I ruined my play by not acting quickly enough.
I finally did check, surrendering the hand, and the guy behind me checked. The players to my left and right split the pot with Q-J, flopping top pair and an open-ended straight draw. I was correct in my assessment that they would have folded to a bet, but just to make sure I stated that I really wanted to bet. Both men agreed that I looked like I was going to and had it been about the amount I was going to put in the pot they likely would have folded.
At that moment in the game I was playing scared poker, not wanting to lose any of my profit. That is a losing way to play cards and it is something I am going to have to rectify if I want to continue improving at cards.
I ended up not winning too many hands after that and quit after nearly five hours of play with a $180 profit. My hourly rate for the night was $37.89, bringing my year-to-date hourly rate up to $11.70. I have won $1,580 in 2010 playing cash games in Weatherford, Oklahoma, and Shreveport.
I have been on a bit of win streak lately. The last five games I have played in have netted me a profit of $575.
In a weird twist of fate, last night was the one-year anniversary of when I started playing the game of poker again seriously. In that year, I won $3,195 and earned $16.68 an hour. That gives me hope that in 2011 I can reach my goal of building a $300 bankroll into $5,000. Let’s hope this past year’s success continues in 2011.
Friday, November 12, 2010
WinStar (November 11)
Certain card games a person plays in are unforgettable. This is not because of the money profited or lost, the hands won or beaten, or even specific events that take place throughout the game, but rather the game is memorable because of the lack of every one of those characteristics. Last night was just such a night for me in that I ended up in only two showdowns and the rest of the three-and-a-half hours of my time were spent glancing at the score of the football game between the Baltimore Ravens and Atlanta Falcons while raking in the occasional pot while implementing a tight-aggressive style.
I ended up with a $30 profit for the evening, which was pretty close to my peak. The lowest I ever got in chips after initially buying in for $180 was $100. I’m not going to say I didn’t get any cards to play with, because I did get my fair share of good starting hands. I had A-K four times, pocket kings, tens, and eights once each, and pocket sevens and fours twice each. The sevens came back-to-back and I won both pots, turning a set on the first of those two hands. I also saw A-Q and A-J suited, which neither won. All in all it was a decent night for hands. What stopped me from getting a bigger profit than $30 was my image apparently was very well known as nearly every bet I made was respected and I won most pots uncontested. Either my tight representation was winning me my pots or I just never got in a situation where my great hand was up against another great – albeit second best – hand.
The two hands I had a showdown with were identical in that I held a pocket pair in each. The first showdown was with pocket eights and I hit a set on the first three community cards. The flop came out A-K-8 rainbow. Since it was not raised pre-flop I felt confident I was not beat by a higher set of aces or kings and I was also not too worried about being outdrawn by someone holding A-K. With that in mind, I decided to slow-play my three eights and I checked the flop, as did the other four players in the hand.
The turn was the 6 of hearts, putting two hearts on the board. When it was checked to me, I decided to find out if anyone was holding something worth fighting for and I made a pot-sized bet of $10. This seems large compared to the relative amount of what was in the pot with five people limping in for $2 each and the great strength of my hand, but this was a table where pre-flop raises ranged from $6-20 and people holding draws liked to see if they could make their hand by the end. People at this table wouldn’t look at my pot-sized bet and think, “Woah dude, what’s with the power play there?” I was called by one guy at the other end of the table and everyone else folded.
The river was a black ten, completing an ace-high straight but not making a flush. I led out and bet $15. When I was raised the minimum amount I decided to simply call. I was still confident I had the best hand and probably could have gotten another $15 or $20 out of the guy, but had I re-raised and he came back over the top of me I would have a very serious decision as to whether he held that straight or not. I made the call and showed my hand. He was shocked to see what I had and said it was good as he threw his cards into the muck.
The other hand I won at showdown was against five other players and it was checked down to the end. I limped with pocket fours and when the flop came out with two aces I had mentally clicked the check-fold box, but we just kept checking. By the end of the hand we showed our cards with some thinking their queen would win, but I took down the pot as my pair of fours was best. One guy to my right said he thought I missed an opportunity to bet somewhere along the way and I couldn’t tell if he was joking, because at no time was there a reasonable flush or straight draw and if the second best hand was queen-high then I wouldn’t have been called had I made a bet. If by missing an opportunity to bet he means to win the pot earlier on, then sure, I would agree with that. But if he means it as I missed an opportunity to win more money by building a pot, then I couldn’t disagree more. Nobody would have called a bet because we all thought somebody was slow-playing their ace. The first person to bet would have won that pot.
The rest of my night consisted of raising a few hands pre-flop and making a continuation bet on the flop for the win, limping pre-flop and hitting my hand on the flop and betting for the win, or making calls for a draw that didn’t come and not winning the hand. There really wasn’t much to talk about from last night. It was an enjoyable table with only one over-talker from the woman on my immediate right. But after a few hours the table sort of turned on her and started mocking her jargon – I should mention she was a foreigner – but it was all in jest and no harm was meant by the things we said.
Financially, last night was not a disappointment, but winning $30 certainly isn’t much to write home about. My hourly rate from last night was $8.57 and since the beginning of 2010 I have made $1,400 playing cards at a rate of $10.75 an hour. In a year’s time of playing cards I have won $3,015 and have made $16.14 an hour.
The Weatherford game is coming up the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I might not be able to attend since that day is our family feast with Joanna’s kin. I will definitely get in a game before the Las Vegas trip in December. Hopefully two games can be found.
Until then.
I ended up with a $30 profit for the evening, which was pretty close to my peak. The lowest I ever got in chips after initially buying in for $180 was $100. I’m not going to say I didn’t get any cards to play with, because I did get my fair share of good starting hands. I had A-K four times, pocket kings, tens, and eights once each, and pocket sevens and fours twice each. The sevens came back-to-back and I won both pots, turning a set on the first of those two hands. I also saw A-Q and A-J suited, which neither won. All in all it was a decent night for hands. What stopped me from getting a bigger profit than $30 was my image apparently was very well known as nearly every bet I made was respected and I won most pots uncontested. Either my tight representation was winning me my pots or I just never got in a situation where my great hand was up against another great – albeit second best – hand.
The two hands I had a showdown with were identical in that I held a pocket pair in each. The first showdown was with pocket eights and I hit a set on the first three community cards. The flop came out A-K-8 rainbow. Since it was not raised pre-flop I felt confident I was not beat by a higher set of aces or kings and I was also not too worried about being outdrawn by someone holding A-K. With that in mind, I decided to slow-play my three eights and I checked the flop, as did the other four players in the hand.
The turn was the 6 of hearts, putting two hearts on the board. When it was checked to me, I decided to find out if anyone was holding something worth fighting for and I made a pot-sized bet of $10. This seems large compared to the relative amount of what was in the pot with five people limping in for $2 each and the great strength of my hand, but this was a table where pre-flop raises ranged from $6-20 and people holding draws liked to see if they could make their hand by the end. People at this table wouldn’t look at my pot-sized bet and think, “Woah dude, what’s with the power play there?” I was called by one guy at the other end of the table and everyone else folded.
The river was a black ten, completing an ace-high straight but not making a flush. I led out and bet $15. When I was raised the minimum amount I decided to simply call. I was still confident I had the best hand and probably could have gotten another $15 or $20 out of the guy, but had I re-raised and he came back over the top of me I would have a very serious decision as to whether he held that straight or not. I made the call and showed my hand. He was shocked to see what I had and said it was good as he threw his cards into the muck.
The other hand I won at showdown was against five other players and it was checked down to the end. I limped with pocket fours and when the flop came out with two aces I had mentally clicked the check-fold box, but we just kept checking. By the end of the hand we showed our cards with some thinking their queen would win, but I took down the pot as my pair of fours was best. One guy to my right said he thought I missed an opportunity to bet somewhere along the way and I couldn’t tell if he was joking, because at no time was there a reasonable flush or straight draw and if the second best hand was queen-high then I wouldn’t have been called had I made a bet. If by missing an opportunity to bet he means to win the pot earlier on, then sure, I would agree with that. But if he means it as I missed an opportunity to win more money by building a pot, then I couldn’t disagree more. Nobody would have called a bet because we all thought somebody was slow-playing their ace. The first person to bet would have won that pot.
The rest of my night consisted of raising a few hands pre-flop and making a continuation bet on the flop for the win, limping pre-flop and hitting my hand on the flop and betting for the win, or making calls for a draw that didn’t come and not winning the hand. There really wasn’t much to talk about from last night. It was an enjoyable table with only one over-talker from the woman on my immediate right. But after a few hours the table sort of turned on her and started mocking her jargon – I should mention she was a foreigner – but it was all in jest and no harm was meant by the things we said.
Financially, last night was not a disappointment, but winning $30 certainly isn’t much to write home about. My hourly rate from last night was $8.57 and since the beginning of 2010 I have made $1,400 playing cards at a rate of $10.75 an hour. In a year’s time of playing cards I have won $3,015 and have made $16.14 an hour.
The Weatherford game is coming up the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I might not be able to attend since that day is our family feast with Joanna’s kin. I will definitely get in a game before the Las Vegas trip in December. Hopefully two games can be found.
Until then.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The Times We Live In
Following Chris Moneymaker’s meteoric rise to stardom after winning the 2003 World Series of Poker that revolutionized Texas Hold’em, I really lost interest in the World Series and other televised poker tournaments. The game just wasn’t the same after that.
Sure, Moneymaker’s story brought in a ton of money from new, inspired players who believed in the “Anyone Can Win” mentality that Moneymaker helped popularize. However, the celebrities of Texas Hold’em just aren’t the same as they used to be.
On Yahoo’s website today I saw a photo of the new WSOP winner standing next to the final table with his “posse.” The photo was indicative of what the game has become. It was a 23-year-old douche-bag-looking dude and about nine others who looked identical to him. It seemed like a “life imitating art” moment straight out of HBO’s “Entourage.”
While there still are those in the world of poker who I can admire like Phil Ivey, the bombardment of posers and phonies looking for 15 minutes of fame and a million-dollar payday is just too much to wade through.
In the late 90s when I would watch the World Series of Poker, the amount of talent at a final table was amazing and it was a joy to watch the titans of poker battle one another. And the players of old had personalities. They were characters. They weren’t all 20-something college dropouts who decided a 9-5 job was too lame and playing cards for a living was the cool thing to do. I’m not saying that some of those dropouts aren’t worthy of being card pros, but because there are so many of them they have become caricatures of themselves.
The World Series of Poker was also more interesting prior to Moneymaker because unless cards were shown at the end of a hand, the viewer didn’t find out what the players were holding. The hole-card camera was non-existent prior to the 21st century, and therefore it was almost as if you were playing at home trying to figure out what the guy had before a showdown commenced.
I know this is mostly just “old man” syndrome spouting off a rant, but the game of poker is a joke to watch nowadays. Especially when the field has thousands of people and it is more luck than good play that earns you a World Series Main Event bracelet. That is not to say that good players aren’t winning each year, but I cannot be convinced that in a field of 5,000+ contestants that the best player is crowned winner each year.
Something that would bring me back as a viewer to the World Series of Poker is if the Main Event’s buy-in was increased to thin the field back down so only the truly great players were playing again. Would average players want to risk $50,000, or even $100,000, of their savings simply to say they took part in the World Series of Poker like some do now with the $10,000 buy-in?
The way things are now, it is as if the NFL were to open up the playoffs to every team in the league, all college teams and any other group who could get enough players to field a team and have the brackets whittle their way down through 12 or 13 levels, where by the end of things you have the only two teams who could survive injuries playing in the Super Bowl, whether that is the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers or the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and Deion Sanders Pop Warner football team.
Sure, Moneymaker’s story brought in a ton of money from new, inspired players who believed in the “Anyone Can Win” mentality that Moneymaker helped popularize. However, the celebrities of Texas Hold’em just aren’t the same as they used to be.
On Yahoo’s website today I saw a photo of the new WSOP winner standing next to the final table with his “posse.” The photo was indicative of what the game has become. It was a 23-year-old douche-bag-looking dude and about nine others who looked identical to him. It seemed like a “life imitating art” moment straight out of HBO’s “Entourage.”
While there still are those in the world of poker who I can admire like Phil Ivey, the bombardment of posers and phonies looking for 15 minutes of fame and a million-dollar payday is just too much to wade through.
In the late 90s when I would watch the World Series of Poker, the amount of talent at a final table was amazing and it was a joy to watch the titans of poker battle one another. And the players of old had personalities. They were characters. They weren’t all 20-something college dropouts who decided a 9-5 job was too lame and playing cards for a living was the cool thing to do. I’m not saying that some of those dropouts aren’t worthy of being card pros, but because there are so many of them they have become caricatures of themselves.
The World Series of Poker was also more interesting prior to Moneymaker because unless cards were shown at the end of a hand, the viewer didn’t find out what the players were holding. The hole-card camera was non-existent prior to the 21st century, and therefore it was almost as if you were playing at home trying to figure out what the guy had before a showdown commenced.
I know this is mostly just “old man” syndrome spouting off a rant, but the game of poker is a joke to watch nowadays. Especially when the field has thousands of people and it is more luck than good play that earns you a World Series Main Event bracelet. That is not to say that good players aren’t winning each year, but I cannot be convinced that in a field of 5,000+ contestants that the best player is crowned winner each year.
Something that would bring me back as a viewer to the World Series of Poker is if the Main Event’s buy-in was increased to thin the field back down so only the truly great players were playing again. Would average players want to risk $50,000, or even $100,000, of their savings simply to say they took part in the World Series of Poker like some do now with the $10,000 buy-in?
The way things are now, it is as if the NFL were to open up the playoffs to every team in the league, all college teams and any other group who could get enough players to field a team and have the brackets whittle their way down through 12 or 13 levels, where by the end of things you have the only two teams who could survive injuries playing in the Super Bowl, whether that is the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers or the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and Deion Sanders Pop Warner football team.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
He Who Now Plays With Purpose
It has been nearly a year since picking up the game of poker regularly again, and in that time I have logged about 183 hours at the tables in cash games and profited nearly $3,000. To be more exact, it was $2,985. The money made in the past year has helped my wife and I get through a one-income period while I was out of work, it bought us a new, larger refrigerator for the house resulting in the old fridge being put in the garage for my soft drinks, and it has also been used to pay for nice meals and extra clothes that might not have been purchased had my poker playing not been profitable.
Something I have noticed about the past year though is I never have a bankroll to play with. Whatever money I make is regulated to a bill or a big purchase to make my family’s life a little better. While that has been a wonderful blessing on my wife and me, it has limited my playing some. Because I never have more than $400 or so to play with I sometimes am regulated in how aggressive I can be or some of the bets I want to make during a game.
So what can I do about that? A recent blog post from a buddy of mine has helped give me a little direction with my poker playing. Slope, that is my friend’s name, has given himself a goal for next year to play a certain number of hours in online poker games to get special bonuses awarded to the most frequent players. What he has done is set an attainable objective and now he has a purpose when it comes to the game. Obviously the ultimate purpose is to make money at poker and by logging in his hours he hopes to accomplish that while at the same time receiving his bonuses. To take a page from Slope’s playbook, I too am going to set a goal for 2011.
Despite making almost $3,000 in a year playing poker, more than half of that was obtained between Nov. 18 and Dec. 30. In that time span I profited $1,615 and had played 56 hours and 30 minutes of poker. Since the beginning of Jan. 1, I have only played 126 hours and 45 minutes of poker. My playing time in the last month-and-a-half of 2009 was significantly more routine than this year, and I have to figure with a full-time job and child on the way it isn’t going to get any more frequent.
I have a monthly game in Weatherford that I consistently play in, WinStar trips are made about once a month and the occasional trip to Shreveport or Las Vegas also allows for poker games to be played. Therefore I can figure to get about 25-35 sessions of poker in for 2011. Should it be on the low end of that estimate and I could average a $200 profit in each session, which is a tough but doable goal, I can figure to win $5,000 in a year by playing cards. That does not factor in any of my Sunday night tournament play, which I don’t know if I am going to count as I want it to really be cash game money only.
So I think I am going to establish my goal at starting with a $400 bankroll on Jan. 1, 2011, and ending the year with $5,000 in that bankroll, built up completely from cash game profits only. If I can have a $5,000 bankroll that will give me all the freedom in the world to play at the $1-2 table and not be concerned with losing. It could even lead to playing in a $2-5 game with some regularity in 2012 and seeing if I have the chops to handle the players on that level.
Next year, the purpose of this blog will be to chronicle my journey to build a sizeable bankroll from poker profits only and not siphon off any of that money for other budgetary reasons. Posts will include hand histories and questions posed about my playing. I want to continue to use this site as a tool for my advancement in the game of poker.
Until then…
Something I have noticed about the past year though is I never have a bankroll to play with. Whatever money I make is regulated to a bill or a big purchase to make my family’s life a little better. While that has been a wonderful blessing on my wife and me, it has limited my playing some. Because I never have more than $400 or so to play with I sometimes am regulated in how aggressive I can be or some of the bets I want to make during a game.
So what can I do about that? A recent blog post from a buddy of mine has helped give me a little direction with my poker playing. Slope, that is my friend’s name, has given himself a goal for next year to play a certain number of hours in online poker games to get special bonuses awarded to the most frequent players. What he has done is set an attainable objective and now he has a purpose when it comes to the game. Obviously the ultimate purpose is to make money at poker and by logging in his hours he hopes to accomplish that while at the same time receiving his bonuses. To take a page from Slope’s playbook, I too am going to set a goal for 2011.
Despite making almost $3,000 in a year playing poker, more than half of that was obtained between Nov. 18 and Dec. 30. In that time span I profited $1,615 and had played 56 hours and 30 minutes of poker. Since the beginning of Jan. 1, I have only played 126 hours and 45 minutes of poker. My playing time in the last month-and-a-half of 2009 was significantly more routine than this year, and I have to figure with a full-time job and child on the way it isn’t going to get any more frequent.
I have a monthly game in Weatherford that I consistently play in, WinStar trips are made about once a month and the occasional trip to Shreveport or Las Vegas also allows for poker games to be played. Therefore I can figure to get about 25-35 sessions of poker in for 2011. Should it be on the low end of that estimate and I could average a $200 profit in each session, which is a tough but doable goal, I can figure to win $5,000 in a year by playing cards. That does not factor in any of my Sunday night tournament play, which I don’t know if I am going to count as I want it to really be cash game money only.
So I think I am going to establish my goal at starting with a $400 bankroll on Jan. 1, 2011, and ending the year with $5,000 in that bankroll, built up completely from cash game profits only. If I can have a $5,000 bankroll that will give me all the freedom in the world to play at the $1-2 table and not be concerned with losing. It could even lead to playing in a $2-5 game with some regularity in 2012 and seeing if I have the chops to handle the players on that level.
Next year, the purpose of this blog will be to chronicle my journey to build a sizeable bankroll from poker profits only and not siphon off any of that money for other budgetary reasons. Posts will include hand histories and questions posed about my playing. I want to continue to use this site as a tool for my advancement in the game of poker.
Until then…
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Rangers Clinch First World Series Appearance + Money Made = Perfect Weekend
A trip to the boats in Shreveport/Bossier City last weekend netted me about $450 in profits, but it was not all made at the poker table. Thanks to a little lady luck in the car on the drive to Nacogdoches, at the hotel in Nacogdoches, and on the drive to Shreveport, I made about an extra hundo from a carnival game called Between the Sheets.
My time at the poker table, which included three different sessions, ended with profits of $95, $245, and $25. Between the three separate games I really only have one hand worth talking about, but it is a controversial one because I have gone back and forth on whether or not I made the right play at the end.
After starting at the table with Danny three seats to my right, he eventually left to go play at Slope’s table and I was alone against seven opponents. These opponents included a female two to my left who was a solid player, showed good hands down and even folded on the river with a set she had flopped and bet throughout the hand against a flush when the third spade came on the end. Basically I am trying to say that she was good and I didn’t want to get mixed up with her as I felt she was better than me.
The particular hand we are discussing came when I was in the big blind. The female two to my left called the $3 pre-flop bet (I was playing $1-3 no limit at the Horseshoe Casino) as did a gentleman later in the rotation. The small blind completed his bet and I looked down at two off-colored kings.
By this time during the night I was dead tired and practically falling asleep at the table. I hadn’t raised a hand all night (at this point in the evening I had been playing for about three hours) and I hadn’t made it to many showdowns. The few hands I had won were unchallenged after the flop or turn and I was sitting with $275 in front of me. My original buy-in was for $180.
I am one of those people who will disguise good hands in my blinds by simply calling unless the hand is too good, like aces, kings or queens. Jacks and tens I will split raising to calling by about a two to one ratio and every other pair and non-pairing hand combination I simply call with to see what comes on the flop. So with my kings I pumped up the bet to $18 total. That is a little high of a raise (6x), but I was too tired to make good decisions post flop and didn’t want to have to figure out what my opponents had should I be put to the test later.
One might argue that I should not have been playing cards if I was this tired and nearly falling asleep at the table, but between Slope, Danny, and myself we only had the one car and the hotel was not within walking distance. I was simply trying to kill another hour or so before we would go home for the night.
After raising the bet, I received two callers, the woman and gentleman to my left. The small blind folded his cards. The pot now had $57 in it. The flop came 3-5-7 rainbow. This is a great flop for my cards. I felt confident I had the best hand and there wasn’t a real draw I had to worry about except for possibly a pair with an ace like A-7, A-5, or A-3 or a double-belly-buster draw with A-4 creating an open-ended straight draw. Being first to act I made a half-the-pot-sized bet of $30. A little surprised by what happened next, the woman two to my left raised $45, making it $75 to go. The guy in last position folded and it was back to me.
I don’t really know what I was thinking when I did my next two actions because it was possibly the two worst things to do in this position since it helped my situation none. I called the $45 and then checked when an eight hit on the turn. With only a bit of hesitation the woman bet $75. Sitting in front of me was $175 and by calling I would be left with only $100. I had no clue where I was at in the hand and I was just too scared to risk my entire stack on what might turn out to be a dominated hand. I have been working on folding overpairs lately because it has led to some bankruptcies the last couple of times I played in casinos. I felt it was better to fold and keep the stack I had than risk my chips on something I clearly had no feel for one way or the other. I folded, flipping my cards up to show the big lay down I had made and saw her give an unclear look that could have meant, “He’s folding that monster! What a fish!” or it could have meant, “What a fold. This guy read me like a children’s pop-up book.”
You might think I was way too timid on that hand and have no place at a poker table or you might think I made a very decent fold that saved me $175 in chips. I have gone back and forth on what I should have done and come to different conclusions every time. Sometimes I think she overplayed A-7 or pocket nines and other times I think she knew I had a big pair because I was so tight throughout the game and thought I would come along with her when she was holding top set on the flop. I really am not sure. What do you think?
My time at the poker table, which included three different sessions, ended with profits of $95, $245, and $25. Between the three separate games I really only have one hand worth talking about, but it is a controversial one because I have gone back and forth on whether or not I made the right play at the end.
After starting at the table with Danny three seats to my right, he eventually left to go play at Slope’s table and I was alone against seven opponents. These opponents included a female two to my left who was a solid player, showed good hands down and even folded on the river with a set she had flopped and bet throughout the hand against a flush when the third spade came on the end. Basically I am trying to say that she was good and I didn’t want to get mixed up with her as I felt she was better than me.
The particular hand we are discussing came when I was in the big blind. The female two to my left called the $3 pre-flop bet (I was playing $1-3 no limit at the Horseshoe Casino) as did a gentleman later in the rotation. The small blind completed his bet and I looked down at two off-colored kings.
By this time during the night I was dead tired and practically falling asleep at the table. I hadn’t raised a hand all night (at this point in the evening I had been playing for about three hours) and I hadn’t made it to many showdowns. The few hands I had won were unchallenged after the flop or turn and I was sitting with $275 in front of me. My original buy-in was for $180.
I am one of those people who will disguise good hands in my blinds by simply calling unless the hand is too good, like aces, kings or queens. Jacks and tens I will split raising to calling by about a two to one ratio and every other pair and non-pairing hand combination I simply call with to see what comes on the flop. So with my kings I pumped up the bet to $18 total. That is a little high of a raise (6x), but I was too tired to make good decisions post flop and didn’t want to have to figure out what my opponents had should I be put to the test later.
One might argue that I should not have been playing cards if I was this tired and nearly falling asleep at the table, but between Slope, Danny, and myself we only had the one car and the hotel was not within walking distance. I was simply trying to kill another hour or so before we would go home for the night.
After raising the bet, I received two callers, the woman and gentleman to my left. The small blind folded his cards. The pot now had $57 in it. The flop came 3-5-7 rainbow. This is a great flop for my cards. I felt confident I had the best hand and there wasn’t a real draw I had to worry about except for possibly a pair with an ace like A-7, A-5, or A-3 or a double-belly-buster draw with A-4 creating an open-ended straight draw. Being first to act I made a half-the-pot-sized bet of $30. A little surprised by what happened next, the woman two to my left raised $45, making it $75 to go. The guy in last position folded and it was back to me.
I don’t really know what I was thinking when I did my next two actions because it was possibly the two worst things to do in this position since it helped my situation none. I called the $45 and then checked when an eight hit on the turn. With only a bit of hesitation the woman bet $75. Sitting in front of me was $175 and by calling I would be left with only $100. I had no clue where I was at in the hand and I was just too scared to risk my entire stack on what might turn out to be a dominated hand. I have been working on folding overpairs lately because it has led to some bankruptcies the last couple of times I played in casinos. I felt it was better to fold and keep the stack I had than risk my chips on something I clearly had no feel for one way or the other. I folded, flipping my cards up to show the big lay down I had made and saw her give an unclear look that could have meant, “He’s folding that monster! What a fish!” or it could have meant, “What a fold. This guy read me like a children’s pop-up book.”
You might think I was way too timid on that hand and have no place at a poker table or you might think I made a very decent fold that saved me $175 in chips. I have gone back and forth on what I should have done and come to different conclusions every time. Sometimes I think she overplayed A-7 or pocket nines and other times I think she knew I had a big pair because I was so tight throughout the game and thought I would come along with her when she was holding top set on the flop. I really am not sure. What do you think?
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Weatherford Game (August 28)
This is going to be a short post because when you lose $300 in 45 minutes there really isn’t much to talk about.
I lost half of my first $100 buy-in with jack-10 of hearts when a jack was the highest card on the flop, the turn gave me the flush draw, and I didn’t improve on the river. I bet a little more than half the size of the pot on the flop and turn hoping to improve, but was eventually beat out by queen-jack, giving my opponent the same pair as me but a better kicker.
I went through the rest of my money when I re-raised pre-flop with pocket 10s and was called by two players, leaving myself $30 for the flop. The flop came with a queen, jack and low card. I pushed all in and was called by a guy who said he thought he was making a bad call.
I hate hearing people say that because they don’t really think that. They are just saying it to cover themselves if they happen to lose, and they look less foolish because then they can just say, “Well, I said it before I made the call that I was behind.” But the only punishment for being wrong when you make that kind of statement is winning a pot.
The guy had A-J and won when I didn’t improve.
My next buy-in was foolishly wasted on two hands. The first was a waste when I tried to make a play on my cousin Clint, who I was pretty sure had a draw and wouldn’t call a raise on the river when he missed his hand. Everything worked out according to the plan (because Clint really was on the draw as was shown when the hand was over) except for the guy who called the turn bet from Clint after checking first. He then led out on the river and I was pretty sure I couldn’t beat him with my king-high hand.
The rest of that buy-in was flushed down the drain with 5-6 offsuit when I made a frustratingly aggressive play on the flop with middle pair when a five hit. I was beat by pocket sevens.
My third buy-in only took one hand to go through. As I was sitting down with my new chips I was dealt ace-king offsuit. Three people called the $2 pre-flop bet and I raised it from the small blind to $10 total. The three limpers and big blind called the additional $8 and we had a $50 pot going into the flop.
The flop was K-Q-9. I quickly led out with $45, letting everyone know I wasn’t screwing around on this hand. The big blind folded. The next guy struggled with what to do and eventually called. The next two players folded.
Before the turn ever flipped over, or came off the deck for that matter, I pushed my left over $45 into the pot and said all in. The turn came out as a 10 and the guy, once he realized I had already acted, called and showed K-J for the straight. I didn’t improve and was saying my goodbyes. Not a good night at all.
Between $265 and $300 losses my last two times to play poker, things are not going very well lately. Hopefully I can turn things around next month.
Friday, August 27, 2010
WinStar (August 23)
Writing up a report on my gambling activities is not near as much fun when you lose, but it still needs to be done.
My brother and I went to WinStar Monday night and both walked out with lighter wallets. After four hours of play and folding 98 percent of my hands before ever seeing a flop I lost $265, but there wasn’t much I could do when seeing J-4 suited and 7-2 offsuit over and over again.
The only hand even worth mentioning was the one that sent me into a whirlpool of self-doubt and regret that took quite a while to escape from. I did not have the C.J. Wilson approach of living in the moment and breathing through the eyelids last night.
I was dealt Q-J of clubs in early position and called a $10 raise after putting in my two dollars from a player across the table from me. The senior gentleman on my left who liked to play a lot of hands, would chase draws, and hadn’t shown a true bluff yet also called the $12 bet. There were three others who called the bet as well, building the pot up to $72 before we ever saw a flop.
The flop came out K-6-2 with the king and two being clubs. I checked with the intention of seeing how everyone else reacted to the flop. Should a bet be made then I would let the mathematics and pot odds determine my action. It ended up not mattering because all six of us checked it around.
The turn was the 7 of clubs, completing my flush. I was thrilled to see this card and elected to not slowplay my flush. I didn’t want to give the guy with the ace of clubs the opportunity to get a free card and get the higher flush. As first player to act, I immediately made a $30 bet. The amount was a little small, but I was pretty sure my actions were very clear to everyone that I had the flush and was not making a bluff. So if they wanted to gamble and draw for a higher flush then so be it, but it would cost them $30. The gentleman on my left and the pre-flop raiser called my $30. This created a $160 pot.
The river was the ugly four of clubs, giving me the second nut-high flush. I disgustingly checked and the man to my left bet $35. The pre-flop raiser folded, bringing the action back to me. I was 100 percent confident the guy had the ace. I would have bet everything in front of me and in my wallet that he had the ace of clubs. However, when it came to folding my queen of clubs I couldn’t do it. To win $195 by calling $35, it was just too enticing. I knew I was beat, but I could not force myself to fold it.
I will say that although folding hands I know I am beat on has been a problem for the past year, lately I have been able to make the big lay down and preserve my chips. Yet, last night I reverted back to paying off people so I could see their better hands.
Sure enough, the guy did have the ace of clubs and raked in his pot. After that hand I self-destructed and didn’t recover fully until about two hours later, but by that point it was too late as I was repeatedly getting horrific starting cards that weren’t worth wasting two dollars on.
Last night’s loss brings me down to $3,095 of profit since November and $1,480 for the year. My hourly rate also took a hit from $21.07 to $18.93 since starting to play poker regularly again. Hopefully I have better luck in Weatherford this weekend, but because of my fantasy football draft Saturday night, I will probably show up late for the game.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
WinStar (August 17)
With Emery’s birthday party coming up this weekend and some extra cash needed for a few items related to said party, I decided a trip to WinStar was required. Should I win anything it would help alleviate the bills that are mounting for this simple stay-at-home-with-friends-and-family get-together that has snowballed into an extravaganza.
The trip overall was a success that netted me $185 in profits, but it all came on one single hand that took place about five minutes before I left for the evening. I played for four hours, equating to a $46.25 an hour rate for the night. That is my largest per-hour rate since the big refrigerator win back in March where I made $131.67 an hour for nine hours of play.
I won several hands in the first hour that put me up to $130 more than what I bought in with. One medium-sized pot I won was with a complete bluff that required a $50 bet on the turn with nothing but ace high. My opponent was a young guy who was very meticulous and precise with his bets and his movements. When he would make a bet or fold his cards, it was always with a slow push to the middle, and his chips were stacked neatly not only in front of him in precise $50 stacks, but his bets were placed slowly in the middle in one stack as well, never thrown willy-nilly like some players will do. I felt with the personality this kid was showing, he wouldn’t want to call big bets with anything less than the near nuts. He just seemed timid.
The specifics of the hand were that I raised pre-flop with A-J offsuit when sitting at about $220 in chips. I raise with this hand about 50 percent of the time. It just depends on who I am up against and how my luck has been running. I had been winning some hands early and decided to keep pushing the limits. I made the bet $7 to go and received two callers, getting the pot up to $20.
The flop came out with a king and two low cards. None of this helped me. The first player checked. The second player, Mr. Meticulous we will call him, led out with a $10 bet. I decided to push a little bit and see how my strong play was received. I raised it up to $30 total, making it an additional $20 to call. After the first player folded, Mr. Meticulous thought for about 20 seconds and made the call. This put the pot at $80.
The turn was a ten, creating a board of a king, two non-matching low cards that I can’t recall specifically, and a ten. Mr. Meticulous checked it to me and without hesitation, hoping to show that I wasn’t scared and had a good hand, I moved out $50. Mr. Meticulous had a big decision to make and the bet was for about a quarter of his stack. We were pretty close in chips, but he had me covered by $20-30. I should note that I had won a pot earlier in the evening from Mr. Meticulous with pocket kings in which he asked if I would show should he fold. I said I would and honored the agreement when he mucked his hand. This might have weighed in on his decision with this particular hand.
Mr. Meticulous ultimately folded and I raked in the pot, heart racing and palms sweating from having to fret over making a stone-cold bluff.
After about an hour I was the chip leader at the table with a little more than $300 in front of me. Things were going great until Action Jackson sat on my left. This guy was one of those players who straddles every chance he gets and raises pre-flop three out of four hands simply to make larger pots. Does it not occur to these people that a $2-5 table is only 15 feet away? Well, long story short, Action Jackson pushed everyone around at our table until he had $900 in front of him, forced several to put in some re-buys, and had sent two guys packing. In the process of this, I went card dead, called a few hands pre-flop that I had no busy being in, and moved seats to get Action Jackson away from my immediate left.
I told myself when I arrived earlier I would only play until 11 p.m. and no matter where I was at that point I was going home. At 10:55 p.m., I had dwindled and chipped away at my $130 profit until it was a $10 loss, which even included a tiny win with an ace-high straight that was checked down until the river and I made a nearly minimum raise of $13 on a guy’s $12 bet and was called. That was the status when I looked down to find two glorious kings staring back up at me.
It just so happened this took place when Action Jackson was doing one of his straddles and two players had already called. With $170 in front of me I made it $15 to go. Those behind me folded and the three guys who had already put in their $4 finished the bet and we went to a flop with four players. The pot had $60 in it.
The flop was J-6-3 with two hearts. The players all checked to me and I made a bet of $50. Without much hesitation, Action Jackson moved out a large stack of red chips to make the bet $100, making a minimum raise. The two other players folded and it was back on me. I had $105 left after making my $50 bet. To call would leave me with $55. That just isn’t enough to do anything with on the turn, so if I am going to do anything it is either raise or fold. I decided Action Jackson was just being a bully again and would put him to the test on his top pair or flush draw. I moved all in for another $55 and he made a somewhat begrudging call.
I flipped up my kings and he elected not to show. Since everything I have said about this guy sounds terrible making you think he was a real a-hole, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He was actually a really nice guy who was joking with the entire table and not rubbing anyone the wrong way despite taking everyone’s money. So the fact that he didn’t flip his cards is usually an annoying thing, I didn’t quite mind it in this particular case.
The turn was a low heart completing the flush if that was what he was going for and the river was the ace of clubs, giving him a higher pair if he happened to be holding an ace. After several moments of him tapping his cards and mulling the situation over, I finally said laughingly, “Dude, if you flip over a winner I’m going to be pissed,” to which he replied, “No. You’re going to win. I’m just trying to figure out if I have something.” He finally folded and said he had a jack with a low kicker that kept getting close to all the other cards on the board.
I got up a few hands later and left with $365, essentially doubling up for the night.
Regarding my hourly rate, in 2010 I am making $16.94 an hour and since playing seriously again in November my hourly rate is $21.07. I’ve made a total of $1,745 in 2010 and $3,360 since November.
I’ve played a total of 159.5 hours since November. My average length of play for a single session of cards is five-and-a-half hours. In 29 different games, I’ve profited 20 times and lost the other nine. My average win in those 20 games is $272, but if you exclude the freakish $1,185 win I had in March that average would drop to $224. My average loss is $231.
In 2010 only, I’ve had 11 wins and six losses in 17 games and played a total of 103 hours. My yearly average per win and loss is $297 and $255. Taking out the big March win that resulted in a new refrigerator brings the winning average down to $209.
Hopefully I can play again before the Weatherford game next month. I will post anything new in the meantime.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Weatherford Game (July 31)
My monthly poker game in Weatherford was played a week early this time because of a vacation the hosts of the game were going on later this month, and although there is no sure way to know, the move in weekends might have caused the amount of players who showed to dwindle significantly. While we usually run two full tables for most of the night, the most we saw at any one time was two tables of seven each. This lowered the expectation level of money to be won radically.
Things got off to a great start when I won a $130 pot flopping a full house with ace-four. One player went all in and another called that bet. I tried to get the other guy to come along for a little longer once the turn came, but he wanted nothing to do with it any more.
I won some small- and medium-sized pots that helped me build my stack to more than $300. For most of the night I hung around between $300-360. I would win a pot to get to $350 and then lose another pot a few hands later to get me back down to $300. This went on for several hours.
Two significant hands that took place during this time were ones I lost by folding on the river. I know for a fact I made the right fold in one case because I was shown the better hand. In the other hand, I’m not 100 percent positive, but I am pretty sure I was losing to three-of-a-kind.
The first hand was the one I’m not entirely sure about. I held pocket aces and it was a straddled hand. I was the small blind and it was folded around to me. I had two options, which were to raise it up to $12-16 or be sneaky and smooth call for $4. Since there were only two other players in the hand and not much risk of playing sneaky, I decided to simply call. I also did this in hopes that the straddler would think we were weak and raise with anything he held. He was a loose-aggressive player and this play was not out of the question.
I called, as did the big blind, and the straddler checked his option. The flop was K-K-5. I led out for $10 into a $12 pot. This bet was to find out who held a king. If I was called, then I would most likely shut down unless it was the straddler, who would try to be tricky in certain spots like this. I was called, but it wasn’t by the guy who straddled. Instead, the caller was the big blind, who was a pretty straight-forward player. I felt, and still feel, he had a king. The turn was a 9 and we both checked. The turn was a 2 and I immediately checked. As the big blind reached for chips I threw my cards face up and said, “Don’t worry about it.”
The big blind was shocked at my folding aces. He said something along the lines of, “Are you sure?” I told him it didn’t matter what he bet, I knew I was beat. The straddler asked if I was curious what the guy had and I told him it was most likely a king and even if I had laid down the best hand I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it because everyone is going to make a mistake when playing poker. However, I still don’t think I made a mistake. I am even surer of my fold because the big blind made a point to not show his hand, which leads me to believe I made the right decision. Most people like to show others when they have made a mistake because they think it will get under their skin and send them on tilt.
The second time I folded a big hand was when I held trip sevens. The way the hand played out is unclear at this time, but what happened was I bet the flop that had a seven, a lower card and a higher card, two of which were hearts. The turn was another seven, giving me my three of a kind. I bet again, getting one caller. The river was a third heart. I bet $15, which was about half or maybe a third of the pot, and was raised $30 more. I thought for about a minute of whether my opponent was trying to pull a fast one on me, making me believe he had hit the flush when in reality he hadn’t. I finally decided to fold the hand, showing my seven. My opponent flipped up his cards, showing two hearts for the flush. I was correct in my assessment.
The only other hands of consequence for the night were when I held a pocket pair that hit a third one on the flop. The first hand was pocket nines and I busted the player on my left. That pot put me up to $560. The second time I held a pocket pair that tripped up was with jacks. I doubled up the only other player in the hand when he had a set of queens on the flop. That hand sent me back down to $380.
We quit about five minutes after the trip jacks hand and I logged in a $280 profit after seven-and-a-half hours of play, giving me $37.33 an hour for the night. My grand total since playing poker seriously again in November is a profit of $3,175.
Things got off to a great start when I won a $130 pot flopping a full house with ace-four. One player went all in and another called that bet. I tried to get the other guy to come along for a little longer once the turn came, but he wanted nothing to do with it any more.
I won some small- and medium-sized pots that helped me build my stack to more than $300. For most of the night I hung around between $300-360. I would win a pot to get to $350 and then lose another pot a few hands later to get me back down to $300. This went on for several hours.
Two significant hands that took place during this time were ones I lost by folding on the river. I know for a fact I made the right fold in one case because I was shown the better hand. In the other hand, I’m not 100 percent positive, but I am pretty sure I was losing to three-of-a-kind.
The first hand was the one I’m not entirely sure about. I held pocket aces and it was a straddled hand. I was the small blind and it was folded around to me. I had two options, which were to raise it up to $12-16 or be sneaky and smooth call for $4. Since there were only two other players in the hand and not much risk of playing sneaky, I decided to simply call. I also did this in hopes that the straddler would think we were weak and raise with anything he held. He was a loose-aggressive player and this play was not out of the question.
I called, as did the big blind, and the straddler checked his option. The flop was K-K-5. I led out for $10 into a $12 pot. This bet was to find out who held a king. If I was called, then I would most likely shut down unless it was the straddler, who would try to be tricky in certain spots like this. I was called, but it wasn’t by the guy who straddled. Instead, the caller was the big blind, who was a pretty straight-forward player. I felt, and still feel, he had a king. The turn was a 9 and we both checked. The turn was a 2 and I immediately checked. As the big blind reached for chips I threw my cards face up and said, “Don’t worry about it.”
The big blind was shocked at my folding aces. He said something along the lines of, “Are you sure?” I told him it didn’t matter what he bet, I knew I was beat. The straddler asked if I was curious what the guy had and I told him it was most likely a king and even if I had laid down the best hand I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over it because everyone is going to make a mistake when playing poker. However, I still don’t think I made a mistake. I am even surer of my fold because the big blind made a point to not show his hand, which leads me to believe I made the right decision. Most people like to show others when they have made a mistake because they think it will get under their skin and send them on tilt.
The second time I folded a big hand was when I held trip sevens. The way the hand played out is unclear at this time, but what happened was I bet the flop that had a seven, a lower card and a higher card, two of which were hearts. The turn was another seven, giving me my three of a kind. I bet again, getting one caller. The river was a third heart. I bet $15, which was about half or maybe a third of the pot, and was raised $30 more. I thought for about a minute of whether my opponent was trying to pull a fast one on me, making me believe he had hit the flush when in reality he hadn’t. I finally decided to fold the hand, showing my seven. My opponent flipped up his cards, showing two hearts for the flush. I was correct in my assessment.
The only other hands of consequence for the night were when I held a pocket pair that hit a third one on the flop. The first hand was pocket nines and I busted the player on my left. That pot put me up to $560. The second time I held a pocket pair that tripped up was with jacks. I doubled up the only other player in the hand when he had a set of queens on the flop. That hand sent me back down to $380.
We quit about five minutes after the trip jacks hand and I logged in a $280 profit after seven-and-a-half hours of play, giving me $37.33 an hour for the night. My grand total since playing poker seriously again in November is a profit of $3,175.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Patience Really Is A Virtue
In the past week regarding certain activities that can become nerve-racking like softball and poker, I have taken a page from Texas Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson’s playbook in that I am trying to live in the moment, not reflect on mistakes, breathe through my eyelids, and that sort of thing. When Wilson is shown in the dugout during a Rangers game, he is sitting calmly on the bench, trying not to focus on what has happened in the prior innings but instead simply look ahead at what he has to do coming up. While this attitude certainly didn’t work out for me at last week’s softball game, I think it has done a lot of good for my poker playing the last three days.
Following Saturday’s win of $210 in Weatherford, Clint and I kept the poker high going by making a trip to WinStar last night with my brother, Bart. Clint logged a win, Bart a loss, and me, well, that is debatable. I profited $30 for the night, fighting and clawing my way out of a hole to do it, but after playing for four hours and earning a measly $7.50 an hour it might not have seemed worth staying up late, stressing over pot odds and putting up with the riff-raff that goes along with a trip north to Oklahoma casinos. For me, it was a lesson in how to manage a single buy-in with tight, patient play.
I bought in for $180 and did not have anything left over to re-buy with should luck not be on my side last night, but had I asked Clint for a loan I probably would have gotten it. However, I wanted to avoid that at all costs. So instead, I simply worked with the money I had and told myself if I went broke then I was sitting in the lounge waiting for the rest of my party.
After winning an $8 pot about thirty minutes after sitting down, which still didn’t put me above my $180 starting point, I didn’t win my next hand for another two hours. I simply folded hand after hand, occasionally seeing a flop when holding a pocket pair or an ace with a suited low card or unsuited high card, but never seeing it improve.
My lowest point for the evening was $70, which I hit a couple of times. At one point I made an all-in $53 bluff with king-high on the river into a $60 pot against a kid who had me slightly covered. He had called my continuation bet on the flop after I raised it pre-flop. We both checked the turn and I made my all-in bet on the river knowing it was the only way I could win the pot. My opponent thought for a good 30 seconds and finally folded.
The first time I was able to get back near even was with pocket aces against pocket kings. All the money went in the middle on the flop after raising it to $8, getting a call behind me from a guy with about as much money as me (which was $70 at the time), being re-raised to $30 from the small blind and smooth calling his bet in hopes that the player behind me on the button would call the bet as well. He didn’t call the extra $22 and when the small blind immediately moved all in on a J-2-2 board I called and had my hand win in the end.
Even though I had built my stack back up to about $150, that wouldn’t last as I continued my losing streak, which included one hand where I was dealt pocket queens.
I raised under the gun to $7 with the two red ladies, being called by two players, one of those being the player to my immediate left. He was a nice, older gentleman who didn’t talk much, but was pleasant when he did.
The flop came out as K-10-3 rainbow. I was first to act and bet $15 into a $22 pot. The man on my left called and the other guy folded. The turn was another 10. I decided I probably couldn’t beat what this guy was holding at this point and was ready to fold if he bet. I checked it and so did he.
The river was a 5 and I had a decision to make. The pot contained about $50 in it and my opponent had $45 left. I was sitting at about $90. If he had a monster hand and was hoping I would bet the river, he would have checked the turn like he did. But he would have done the exact same thing had he been on a straight draw or held a medium pocket pair just opting to take the free card. So I had to determine whether he had a big hand, a smaller pair than mine, or nothing at all.
My options included betting half my stack to put him all in with the hope he either folds and I win without a fight or calls and has a lesser hand, bet about half his stack and see what he does in return, or check it and let him decide what to do. Let us break down each preference and see what would happen in every possible scenario.
The first choice is to bet $45 and put him all in. He likely isn’t going to call for everything he has without at least a king, which beats me. The only way he would do that is a frustration call. Honestly, while this is the most aggressive play and aggressive play is a winning strategy, I don’t really like this move right here.
The second choice is to bet $20-25, leaving him with next to nothing if he calls. However, I doubt he simply calls for half his money if he has three tens or the king, which is what he would have to hold to make that call. If he had more money then calling $25 just to see what I have with a middle pocket pair is a little more likely. Yet, when it is nearly everything he has, he isn’t going to “keep ‘em honest” just because. So by betting $20-25, he is going to either fold with his lesser hand or move all in for the other half with his better hand. Also, I doubt he moves all in for his remaining money on a bluff because it is such a small amount he will likely think I am committed to a call. This seems a little better option than the first choice simply because I am going to get the same outcome, but am risking less money. I like this decision a little more than the first one so far.
Now for the final option: to check. This is certainly the most passive way to play the hand, but that was sort of the theme to my play last night. By checking, I am giving him all the power in the hand. If he elects to bet, I then have to decide whether he is betting his best hand for value or betting a bluff because it is the only way he can win. Checking results in me having to do all the work and it comes down to my feeling about if he has a hand or not, and this is all determined on how much he bets. However, not betting anything could result in him also checking and I risk nothing to see who has the best hand at a showdown.
Whatever option you prefer, I elected a check and make a decision should he bet. He did bet all of his money and after concluding he had the goods, I folded. He said he would show me for a dollar, which I was happy to pay for some peace of mind. He flipped over pocket kings, which means he flopped a set and turned a full house. Good fold and good play.
I only lost $22 on the hand, but it was a culmination of all my losing hands that should have sent me over the edge by this point in the night. Yet, I continued to be patient and keep up the C.J. Wilson tranquil attitude. My new approach to keeping a cool head while playing was put to the test on a hand that on any other night I would have brooded over for hours and possibly could have sent me into the normal tailspin of tilt that usually ends up in my complete demise and bankruptcy.
I was dealt the ace of clubs and five of diamonds on the button. It was $2 to call when it got to me and about six other players had limped in for the minimum amount. I decided to see a flop and watch what happened from there. At this point in the hand I had $98 after the pre-flop call. With seven of us seeing a flop there was $14 in the pot.
The flop was 4-6-7 with two clubs. I now had an open-ended straight draw, an over card and a backdoor flush draw. It was checked to the player on my right, who was an aggressive bettor that had been winning a lot of pots because he put players to the test for their chips and was not afraid to bluff with absolutely nothing. He bet $10. I decided to call this bet, figuring I would entice a player or two to come along with us, helping to build a good-sized pot should I hit my straight. Two players who had checked made the call and it was to the kid I had earlier bluffed with king-high on the river, who was sitting in middle position. He went all in for $35, a $25 raise. It now got to the original bettor. He re-raised the bet to $75. It is now on me and I have $88 left after my earlier $10 call.
Should I decide to play this, it is obvious I will go all in for my last $13. Although I had two people behind me to act, I really didn’t think they were going to make the call should I go all in because of their reactions to all the raising and re-raising that had taken place prior to my turn. So it really just came down to being up against the two opponents, one of whom had me covered. Should I beat the guy that had me covered but lose to the all-in player, I would have ended up with $106, resulting in a $6 profit of where I started at the beginning of this hand. If I won it all I would have about $270.
To recap, I have Ac-5d, the board is 4c-6s-7c and it is an all-in play for me with no money to pull out for a re-buy. What would you do here? We’ll have our answer … after the break.
Welcome back. After contemplating if I wanted to risk everything I had on an open-ended straight draw, I elected to fold. I took a lot of time to make the decision and was surprised nobody called the clock on me. Folding may be a weenie play to some of you, but I just couldn’t get myself to make the call getting 2-1 on my money with what could be only six outs if one of those two guys was on a club flush draw. I figured at best I had eight outs for my straight and an additional three outs should I pair my ace and it hold up, but that was best-case scenario.
Like I thought would happen, the two players behind me also folded and it was down to heads-up. The turn was the jack of clubs and the river was the five of clubs, giving me what would have been the nut flush, only losing to a straight-flush of 3-6 or 6-8 of clubs. The two guys both showed eights and no club, giving them both the same straight. One of the players held 8-6, which at the time of my decision was middle pair with an inside straight draw and I don’t recall what the other player’s second card was to go with his eight.
As I said earlier, this was one of those hands that usually I would go over and over in my mind second guessing myself about what I had done, knowing that had I called I’d be in the black and possibly winning more. But with my unworried outlook that didn’t dwell on the past, I put the hand behind me, moved on and focused on what was going on at that moment.
I’ve only played cards twice since taking on this new attitude, but I really feel like it helped factor into my profits for both nights. There were moments on Saturday that I could have said, “Oh, screw it,” and shoved out of frustration, but I stuck with it and continued to play as good as possible, not letting previous decisions influence current situations. We will see tonight how the C.J. factor works for me in softball as we play a very tough defensive team at the hottest possible moment of the evening.
Until next time…
Following Saturday’s win of $210 in Weatherford, Clint and I kept the poker high going by making a trip to WinStar last night with my brother, Bart. Clint logged a win, Bart a loss, and me, well, that is debatable. I profited $30 for the night, fighting and clawing my way out of a hole to do it, but after playing for four hours and earning a measly $7.50 an hour it might not have seemed worth staying up late, stressing over pot odds and putting up with the riff-raff that goes along with a trip north to Oklahoma casinos. For me, it was a lesson in how to manage a single buy-in with tight, patient play.
I bought in for $180 and did not have anything left over to re-buy with should luck not be on my side last night, but had I asked Clint for a loan I probably would have gotten it. However, I wanted to avoid that at all costs. So instead, I simply worked with the money I had and told myself if I went broke then I was sitting in the lounge waiting for the rest of my party.
After winning an $8 pot about thirty minutes after sitting down, which still didn’t put me above my $180 starting point, I didn’t win my next hand for another two hours. I simply folded hand after hand, occasionally seeing a flop when holding a pocket pair or an ace with a suited low card or unsuited high card, but never seeing it improve.
My lowest point for the evening was $70, which I hit a couple of times. At one point I made an all-in $53 bluff with king-high on the river into a $60 pot against a kid who had me slightly covered. He had called my continuation bet on the flop after I raised it pre-flop. We both checked the turn and I made my all-in bet on the river knowing it was the only way I could win the pot. My opponent thought for a good 30 seconds and finally folded.
The first time I was able to get back near even was with pocket aces against pocket kings. All the money went in the middle on the flop after raising it to $8, getting a call behind me from a guy with about as much money as me (which was $70 at the time), being re-raised to $30 from the small blind and smooth calling his bet in hopes that the player behind me on the button would call the bet as well. He didn’t call the extra $22 and when the small blind immediately moved all in on a J-2-2 board I called and had my hand win in the end.
Even though I had built my stack back up to about $150, that wouldn’t last as I continued my losing streak, which included one hand where I was dealt pocket queens.
I raised under the gun to $7 with the two red ladies, being called by two players, one of those being the player to my immediate left. He was a nice, older gentleman who didn’t talk much, but was pleasant when he did.
The flop came out as K-10-3 rainbow. I was first to act and bet $15 into a $22 pot. The man on my left called and the other guy folded. The turn was another 10. I decided I probably couldn’t beat what this guy was holding at this point and was ready to fold if he bet. I checked it and so did he.
The river was a 5 and I had a decision to make. The pot contained about $50 in it and my opponent had $45 left. I was sitting at about $90. If he had a monster hand and was hoping I would bet the river, he would have checked the turn like he did. But he would have done the exact same thing had he been on a straight draw or held a medium pocket pair just opting to take the free card. So I had to determine whether he had a big hand, a smaller pair than mine, or nothing at all.
My options included betting half my stack to put him all in with the hope he either folds and I win without a fight or calls and has a lesser hand, bet about half his stack and see what he does in return, or check it and let him decide what to do. Let us break down each preference and see what would happen in every possible scenario.
The first choice is to bet $45 and put him all in. He likely isn’t going to call for everything he has without at least a king, which beats me. The only way he would do that is a frustration call. Honestly, while this is the most aggressive play and aggressive play is a winning strategy, I don’t really like this move right here.
The second choice is to bet $20-25, leaving him with next to nothing if he calls. However, I doubt he simply calls for half his money if he has three tens or the king, which is what he would have to hold to make that call. If he had more money then calling $25 just to see what I have with a middle pocket pair is a little more likely. Yet, when it is nearly everything he has, he isn’t going to “keep ‘em honest” just because. So by betting $20-25, he is going to either fold with his lesser hand or move all in for the other half with his better hand. Also, I doubt he moves all in for his remaining money on a bluff because it is such a small amount he will likely think I am committed to a call. This seems a little better option than the first choice simply because I am going to get the same outcome, but am risking less money. I like this decision a little more than the first one so far.
Now for the final option: to check. This is certainly the most passive way to play the hand, but that was sort of the theme to my play last night. By checking, I am giving him all the power in the hand. If he elects to bet, I then have to decide whether he is betting his best hand for value or betting a bluff because it is the only way he can win. Checking results in me having to do all the work and it comes down to my feeling about if he has a hand or not, and this is all determined on how much he bets. However, not betting anything could result in him also checking and I risk nothing to see who has the best hand at a showdown.
Whatever option you prefer, I elected a check and make a decision should he bet. He did bet all of his money and after concluding he had the goods, I folded. He said he would show me for a dollar, which I was happy to pay for some peace of mind. He flipped over pocket kings, which means he flopped a set and turned a full house. Good fold and good play.
I only lost $22 on the hand, but it was a culmination of all my losing hands that should have sent me over the edge by this point in the night. Yet, I continued to be patient and keep up the C.J. Wilson tranquil attitude. My new approach to keeping a cool head while playing was put to the test on a hand that on any other night I would have brooded over for hours and possibly could have sent me into the normal tailspin of tilt that usually ends up in my complete demise and bankruptcy.
I was dealt the ace of clubs and five of diamonds on the button. It was $2 to call when it got to me and about six other players had limped in for the minimum amount. I decided to see a flop and watch what happened from there. At this point in the hand I had $98 after the pre-flop call. With seven of us seeing a flop there was $14 in the pot.
The flop was 4-6-7 with two clubs. I now had an open-ended straight draw, an over card and a backdoor flush draw. It was checked to the player on my right, who was an aggressive bettor that had been winning a lot of pots because he put players to the test for their chips and was not afraid to bluff with absolutely nothing. He bet $10. I decided to call this bet, figuring I would entice a player or two to come along with us, helping to build a good-sized pot should I hit my straight. Two players who had checked made the call and it was to the kid I had earlier bluffed with king-high on the river, who was sitting in middle position. He went all in for $35, a $25 raise. It now got to the original bettor. He re-raised the bet to $75. It is now on me and I have $88 left after my earlier $10 call.
Should I decide to play this, it is obvious I will go all in for my last $13. Although I had two people behind me to act, I really didn’t think they were going to make the call should I go all in because of their reactions to all the raising and re-raising that had taken place prior to my turn. So it really just came down to being up against the two opponents, one of whom had me covered. Should I beat the guy that had me covered but lose to the all-in player, I would have ended up with $106, resulting in a $6 profit of where I started at the beginning of this hand. If I won it all I would have about $270.
To recap, I have Ac-5d, the board is 4c-6s-7c and it is an all-in play for me with no money to pull out for a re-buy. What would you do here? We’ll have our answer … after the break.
Welcome back. After contemplating if I wanted to risk everything I had on an open-ended straight draw, I elected to fold. I took a lot of time to make the decision and was surprised nobody called the clock on me. Folding may be a weenie play to some of you, but I just couldn’t get myself to make the call getting 2-1 on my money with what could be only six outs if one of those two guys was on a club flush draw. I figured at best I had eight outs for my straight and an additional three outs should I pair my ace and it hold up, but that was best-case scenario.
Like I thought would happen, the two players behind me also folded and it was down to heads-up. The turn was the jack of clubs and the river was the five of clubs, giving me what would have been the nut flush, only losing to a straight-flush of 3-6 or 6-8 of clubs. The two guys both showed eights and no club, giving them both the same straight. One of the players held 8-6, which at the time of my decision was middle pair with an inside straight draw and I don’t recall what the other player’s second card was to go with his eight.
As I said earlier, this was one of those hands that usually I would go over and over in my mind second guessing myself about what I had done, knowing that had I called I’d be in the black and possibly winning more. But with my unworried outlook that didn’t dwell on the past, I put the hand behind me, moved on and focused on what was going on at that moment.
I’ve only played cards twice since taking on this new attitude, but I really feel like it helped factor into my profits for both nights. There were moments on Saturday that I could have said, “Oh, screw it,” and shoved out of frustration, but I stuck with it and continued to play as good as possible, not letting previous decisions influence current situations. We will see tonight how the C.J. factor works for me in softball as we play a very tough defensive team at the hottest possible moment of the evening.
Until next time…
Monday, July 12, 2010
Weatherford Outing A Success
Saturday night was the monthly $1-2 hold’em game in Weatherford and I was more than content to log a $210 profit for the evening. I played for nine hours and earned $23.33 an hour.
Ever since winning $1,200 back in March, my wife, Joanna, has it in her head that every trip should end up like that one, but that just isn’t going to be the case. While there’s plenty of money to be made at that game, a really good night on a normal basis would be winning somewhere between $600-900. A good night is between $200-600. Any sort of profit less than that is certainly a good thing but feels like a waste because there are thousands of dollars in the room, and since the game is only held once a month it is a long wait until the next opportunity.
I had only three hands of interest, and one of those was played about as straight forward as possible. I started the night with $100 and quickly (within 20 minutes) was down to $60. The worst part of that was I don’t know where I lost $40 in so quick a time span. I even considered the idea that I didn’t get a full $100 when I started because I couldn’t recall where I had spent so much money in so little time. I did have a lot of speculative hands worth seeing a flop with, but I just couldn’t for the life of me think I had paid $40 in pre-flop and flop bets without something to show for it.
After that point I made an all-in bet when there was $60 in the pot and I had top pair, top kicker. I wouldn’t have gone all in had I more money, but with about $50 at the time, I couldn’t see why I would make a bet of $25-35 with a flush and straight draw possible, only leaving myself $15-25 on the turn. Had I done that I wouldn’t have enough to push out those on the draw or even people with an inferior hand hoping to hit two pair or three of a kind on the river for such a small risk to win a large pot.
So, I pushed all in for $50 or so and figured if they wanted to draw to a big hand then they would have to pay big for it. Even if I don’t get a call then I essentially double up without risking a showdown, which is what happened as nobody called my bet.
Back at a little more than $100 I started to build my stack with small-pot wins until I came to what would be ultimately the biggest pot of the night for me. At this point I had $175 in front of me and covered the two players involved in this particular hand. I was dealt the two red aces and raised it to $8 after two callers before me. A player after me called, as did one of the guys who had limped in prior to my raise. There is now $27 in the pot after three $8 calls and the $3 from blinds.
So with three players seeing a flop, the cards came out A-8-4 rainbow. With the very best hand at this point and little fear of being drawn out on, I decided to play it a little slower than I normally would, which meant not making a continuation bet. By checking the flop I might get them to think I have kings or queens and am not happy about seeing an ace on the flop, prompting them to bet if they happen to have the last ace.
Well, my plan didn’t get to take form because the first guy to act led out with a bet of $13. So now I have to decide if I want to raise or call. Raising shows I am not afraid of the ace and may scare off anyone holding top pair. Calling is more deceptive and entices the guy behind me to call the bet as well. The obvious play here is to simply call with no threat of being outdrawn on. Should something scary come on the turn then we can reassess the situation.
I called the $13 as did the guy behind me; excellent outcome for me. Now the pot has $66 in it.
The turn is the jack of clubs, creating an A-8-4-J board with two clubs. The first guy to act bet again. This time he went all in for $82. I am ecstatic over this. Of course, on the outside I am thinking hard about what to do and making it look like I am worried about what the guy behind me is going to do. After about 20 seconds I called.
Now this hand looked to be exactly what people who play cards dream about with a huge hand that doesn’t need a ton of decision making resulting in a big pot. Well, it only got better because after some hemming and hawing from the player behind me, he said he was going to go all in also. I politely said call after waiting a second or two, not even needing a count, and flipped up my set of aces. It turned out I barely had him covered by only about $10. The second guy called me an SOB in a friendly, joking manner and said he had a set of eights.
The final card came, which didn’t help his eights, and the other guy who was all in showed the final ace, not particularly caring what his kicker was because he knew it didn’t matter. After all was said and done I had $475 in front of me, which was my peak for the evening.
With a large amount of chips in front of me, I started playing a lot of speculative hands to see if I could hit a well-hidden straight or two pair that could get a lot of money in the pot against opponents with high cards thinking they were good. Instead it just resulted in a quick decline that made me have to tighten back up once I was down to $250. Two of those losses were against my kryptonite, Jay, one being because I didn’t bet enough with top pair, top kicker on the flop to get a fold and the other was a chess-like battle that never went past the flop. Let’s take a look at the latter.
Jay is a very good player who is aggressive and hard to put on hands. Of all the people at the Weatherford game, he is among those who I don’t like to be at a table with (a list which includes Jason, Phil, and Clint). The hand in question was one that I held K-Q offsuit. Jay raised it pre-flop to $10. I was the only player to call the bet, creating a $23 pot with the blinds.
The flop was A-10-6 with no real flush possibility for me and Jay made a pot-sized bet of $25. Here is where the thought-based fighting came in to play for both of us. The way Jay played this particular hand up to this point made me think he was holding a high pocket pair like kings, queens, or jacks. I ruled out aces and tens because he most likely wouldn’t make that big of a bet with such a large hand and I didn’t consider nines or lower because his pre-flop bet was not the right kind of amount for that holding. I’ve played with Jay enough to get these kinds of feelings during a hand with him and sometimes they prove right.
So, with him having a pocket pair that was lower than the ace, I thought a small raise would get him to fold, thinking I held the ace for a higher pair, and if I was wrong then I wouldn’t lose a ton of money on my misread. I made a minimum raise to $50. The size I chose was because a lot of times against lesser players a minimum raise means they are holding a monster hand. I thought he might take that into consideration when thinking about what to do.
After a minute of consideration and stacking chips around, Jay made a raise of his own, putting out an additional $50, making the bet $100. This put me in a tough spot because I certainly can’t make a call. I either have to make another raise, which would likely have to be an all-in because if I left anything behind it would be so small that I couldn’t do anything with it on the turn to get Jay to fold, or I have to fold my hand now. Keep in mind I have a king and a queen, which is nothing right now. I could make a straight with a jack, but I don’t really want to put everything I have on the line for an inside straight. So if I do raise, it is with the hope I don’t get called.
Let’s go back to what I think he has. After the flop and his initial bet I put him on kings, queens, or jacks. Those are looking less likely now with Jay re-raising my raise, but still a small possibility he is being stubborn. I have to now consider that he has the ace with either a king kicker or even a ten or six to make two pair. I still am not considering a set because he would let me bet it for him.
Since I have hardly anything to work with and I would have to go all in for any hope of winning the hand, I elected to fold the hand. Speaking with Jay later in the night, it turns out he did have pocket jacks like I thought he did. He said he had a feeling I was trying to represent the ace and push him off of his pocket pair, which is exactly what I was doing. So to recap, we both had the other person’s hand pegged and it was a matter of who would say chicken first, which happened to be me.
After breaking down from two tables to one for the final few hours of the night, I hovered between$200-300 for the rest of the night. I did have one big hand that put me up above that amount after I had dwindled down a significant amount when my pocket queens held up twice against A-K suited.
The pot was raised to $8 by a player two to my right, whose name was Steve. I re-raised with my two queens, one of which was a heart, and made it $30 to play. It folded around through the blinds to another guy named Matt and Phil, who both called after just limping in the beginning. I figure one of those two have a pocket pair that they are willing to pay through the nose for to see if it hits the flop. The other one I’m not too sure about. It came back to Steve, who called the $22 re-raise. So there was $120 in the pot at this point and I had only the other Matt covered. Phil and Steve both were beating me by about $400 each.
I should note that I did some table talk about how I thought all the money would be going into the middle pre-flop because I didn’t want to risk any more money without seeing three cards, allowing me to know if an over to my queens came on the flop. By making the statements I did, I was hoping to scare anyone with kings or ace-king from pushing again. And if they do push in the middle, I could be pretty confident they were holding aces because they would not only be confident of their hand, but they would think I was willing to call for all my chips pre-flop, which I wasn’t. The ploy apparently worked because one of the players did have ace-king and another guy said he was thinking about pushing until I said the comments I did.
So with four of us to go and me being last to act, the flop came with nothing higher than a nine and two hearts. I don’t remember the cards exactly, but they didn’t include an eight or a three.
The other Matt was first to act and with little hesitation he moved all in for $50. Phil immediately folded and Steve folded not too much longer after that. With $170 in the pot and getting more than three to one for a call, I took my chances against Matt flopping a set and called. I also wasn’t too concerned about him having a set because with the raising and re-raising going on behind him, he would probably let us bet it and get more people to call in order to build a bigger pot for his great hand.
After making the call I flipped up my over-pair to the board and he flipped over the ace and king of hearts for a flush draw. Someone asked if we wanted to do business, meaning run the final two cards twice, to which I said I would allow Matt to make the decision. At this game I will always give a single opponent the option if he wants to and normally do not initiate “the business.” Matt said he wanted to run it twice and we did, but it didn’t matter because I won both times.
I mentioned the flop didn’t have a three or an eight because Phil said he had pocket threes and Steve said he had pocket eights. Obviously, had the flop contained one of those cards they would have made the all-in call.
I was pleased with how the night went. So much in fact, Clint and I are going to WinStar tonight to play some more before his wife gets home from New York City.
With last month’s $200 loss and this month’s $210 win, I have won a total of $2,865 since last November and in 2010 I have logged a profit of $1,250. Sadly though, $1,185 of that $1,250 came in one nine-hour session. My hourly profit for the year would be $14.30 and it is $19.90 since starting to seriously play poker again in November. Not terrible numbers considering I make $12 an hour in my cubicle. Maybe living the dream isn’t such a fantasy after all.
Ever since winning $1,200 back in March, my wife, Joanna, has it in her head that every trip should end up like that one, but that just isn’t going to be the case. While there’s plenty of money to be made at that game, a really good night on a normal basis would be winning somewhere between $600-900. A good night is between $200-600. Any sort of profit less than that is certainly a good thing but feels like a waste because there are thousands of dollars in the room, and since the game is only held once a month it is a long wait until the next opportunity.
I had only three hands of interest, and one of those was played about as straight forward as possible. I started the night with $100 and quickly (within 20 minutes) was down to $60. The worst part of that was I don’t know where I lost $40 in so quick a time span. I even considered the idea that I didn’t get a full $100 when I started because I couldn’t recall where I had spent so much money in so little time. I did have a lot of speculative hands worth seeing a flop with, but I just couldn’t for the life of me think I had paid $40 in pre-flop and flop bets without something to show for it.
After that point I made an all-in bet when there was $60 in the pot and I had top pair, top kicker. I wouldn’t have gone all in had I more money, but with about $50 at the time, I couldn’t see why I would make a bet of $25-35 with a flush and straight draw possible, only leaving myself $15-25 on the turn. Had I done that I wouldn’t have enough to push out those on the draw or even people with an inferior hand hoping to hit two pair or three of a kind on the river for such a small risk to win a large pot.
So, I pushed all in for $50 or so and figured if they wanted to draw to a big hand then they would have to pay big for it. Even if I don’t get a call then I essentially double up without risking a showdown, which is what happened as nobody called my bet.
Back at a little more than $100 I started to build my stack with small-pot wins until I came to what would be ultimately the biggest pot of the night for me. At this point I had $175 in front of me and covered the two players involved in this particular hand. I was dealt the two red aces and raised it to $8 after two callers before me. A player after me called, as did one of the guys who had limped in prior to my raise. There is now $27 in the pot after three $8 calls and the $3 from blinds.
So with three players seeing a flop, the cards came out A-8-4 rainbow. With the very best hand at this point and little fear of being drawn out on, I decided to play it a little slower than I normally would, which meant not making a continuation bet. By checking the flop I might get them to think I have kings or queens and am not happy about seeing an ace on the flop, prompting them to bet if they happen to have the last ace.
Well, my plan didn’t get to take form because the first guy to act led out with a bet of $13. So now I have to decide if I want to raise or call. Raising shows I am not afraid of the ace and may scare off anyone holding top pair. Calling is more deceptive and entices the guy behind me to call the bet as well. The obvious play here is to simply call with no threat of being outdrawn on. Should something scary come on the turn then we can reassess the situation.
I called the $13 as did the guy behind me; excellent outcome for me. Now the pot has $66 in it.
The turn is the jack of clubs, creating an A-8-4-J board with two clubs. The first guy to act bet again. This time he went all in for $82. I am ecstatic over this. Of course, on the outside I am thinking hard about what to do and making it look like I am worried about what the guy behind me is going to do. After about 20 seconds I called.
Now this hand looked to be exactly what people who play cards dream about with a huge hand that doesn’t need a ton of decision making resulting in a big pot. Well, it only got better because after some hemming and hawing from the player behind me, he said he was going to go all in also. I politely said call after waiting a second or two, not even needing a count, and flipped up my set of aces. It turned out I barely had him covered by only about $10. The second guy called me an SOB in a friendly, joking manner and said he had a set of eights.
The final card came, which didn’t help his eights, and the other guy who was all in showed the final ace, not particularly caring what his kicker was because he knew it didn’t matter. After all was said and done I had $475 in front of me, which was my peak for the evening.
With a large amount of chips in front of me, I started playing a lot of speculative hands to see if I could hit a well-hidden straight or two pair that could get a lot of money in the pot against opponents with high cards thinking they were good. Instead it just resulted in a quick decline that made me have to tighten back up once I was down to $250. Two of those losses were against my kryptonite, Jay, one being because I didn’t bet enough with top pair, top kicker on the flop to get a fold and the other was a chess-like battle that never went past the flop. Let’s take a look at the latter.
Jay is a very good player who is aggressive and hard to put on hands. Of all the people at the Weatherford game, he is among those who I don’t like to be at a table with (a list which includes Jason, Phil, and Clint). The hand in question was one that I held K-Q offsuit. Jay raised it pre-flop to $10. I was the only player to call the bet, creating a $23 pot with the blinds.
The flop was A-10-6 with no real flush possibility for me and Jay made a pot-sized bet of $25. Here is where the thought-based fighting came in to play for both of us. The way Jay played this particular hand up to this point made me think he was holding a high pocket pair like kings, queens, or jacks. I ruled out aces and tens because he most likely wouldn’t make that big of a bet with such a large hand and I didn’t consider nines or lower because his pre-flop bet was not the right kind of amount for that holding. I’ve played with Jay enough to get these kinds of feelings during a hand with him and sometimes they prove right.
So, with him having a pocket pair that was lower than the ace, I thought a small raise would get him to fold, thinking I held the ace for a higher pair, and if I was wrong then I wouldn’t lose a ton of money on my misread. I made a minimum raise to $50. The size I chose was because a lot of times against lesser players a minimum raise means they are holding a monster hand. I thought he might take that into consideration when thinking about what to do.
After a minute of consideration and stacking chips around, Jay made a raise of his own, putting out an additional $50, making the bet $100. This put me in a tough spot because I certainly can’t make a call. I either have to make another raise, which would likely have to be an all-in because if I left anything behind it would be so small that I couldn’t do anything with it on the turn to get Jay to fold, or I have to fold my hand now. Keep in mind I have a king and a queen, which is nothing right now. I could make a straight with a jack, but I don’t really want to put everything I have on the line for an inside straight. So if I do raise, it is with the hope I don’t get called.
Let’s go back to what I think he has. After the flop and his initial bet I put him on kings, queens, or jacks. Those are looking less likely now with Jay re-raising my raise, but still a small possibility he is being stubborn. I have to now consider that he has the ace with either a king kicker or even a ten or six to make two pair. I still am not considering a set because he would let me bet it for him.
Since I have hardly anything to work with and I would have to go all in for any hope of winning the hand, I elected to fold the hand. Speaking with Jay later in the night, it turns out he did have pocket jacks like I thought he did. He said he had a feeling I was trying to represent the ace and push him off of his pocket pair, which is exactly what I was doing. So to recap, we both had the other person’s hand pegged and it was a matter of who would say chicken first, which happened to be me.
After breaking down from two tables to one for the final few hours of the night, I hovered between$200-300 for the rest of the night. I did have one big hand that put me up above that amount after I had dwindled down a significant amount when my pocket queens held up twice against A-K suited.
The pot was raised to $8 by a player two to my right, whose name was Steve. I re-raised with my two queens, one of which was a heart, and made it $30 to play. It folded around through the blinds to another guy named Matt and Phil, who both called after just limping in the beginning. I figure one of those two have a pocket pair that they are willing to pay through the nose for to see if it hits the flop. The other one I’m not too sure about. It came back to Steve, who called the $22 re-raise. So there was $120 in the pot at this point and I had only the other Matt covered. Phil and Steve both were beating me by about $400 each.
I should note that I did some table talk about how I thought all the money would be going into the middle pre-flop because I didn’t want to risk any more money without seeing three cards, allowing me to know if an over to my queens came on the flop. By making the statements I did, I was hoping to scare anyone with kings or ace-king from pushing again. And if they do push in the middle, I could be pretty confident they were holding aces because they would not only be confident of their hand, but they would think I was willing to call for all my chips pre-flop, which I wasn’t. The ploy apparently worked because one of the players did have ace-king and another guy said he was thinking about pushing until I said the comments I did.
So with four of us to go and me being last to act, the flop came with nothing higher than a nine and two hearts. I don’t remember the cards exactly, but they didn’t include an eight or a three.
The other Matt was first to act and with little hesitation he moved all in for $50. Phil immediately folded and Steve folded not too much longer after that. With $170 in the pot and getting more than three to one for a call, I took my chances against Matt flopping a set and called. I also wasn’t too concerned about him having a set because with the raising and re-raising going on behind him, he would probably let us bet it and get more people to call in order to build a bigger pot for his great hand.
After making the call I flipped up my over-pair to the board and he flipped over the ace and king of hearts for a flush draw. Someone asked if we wanted to do business, meaning run the final two cards twice, to which I said I would allow Matt to make the decision. At this game I will always give a single opponent the option if he wants to and normally do not initiate “the business.” Matt said he wanted to run it twice and we did, but it didn’t matter because I won both times.
I mentioned the flop didn’t have a three or an eight because Phil said he had pocket threes and Steve said he had pocket eights. Obviously, had the flop contained one of those cards they would have made the all-in call.
I was pleased with how the night went. So much in fact, Clint and I are going to WinStar tonight to play some more before his wife gets home from New York City.
With last month’s $200 loss and this month’s $210 win, I have won a total of $2,865 since last November and in 2010 I have logged a profit of $1,250. Sadly though, $1,185 of that $1,250 came in one nine-hour session. My hourly profit for the year would be $14.30 and it is $19.90 since starting to seriously play poker again in November. Not terrible numbers considering I make $12 an hour in my cubicle. Maybe living the dream isn’t such a fantasy after all.
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