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.
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