Tuesday night consisted of a fun trip to Winstar with my brother Bart and cousin Clint. We were initially seated all at different tables, but because of a reckless player at Clint’s game, he moved next to me after about two hours. We played a total of six hours and the big winner for the night was Bart. He walked away with four dollars of profit.
After borrowing $50 from Bart, I was in the hole at one point for $310, but I fought my way back to even at about five hours into the night and was even profiting at one point after that. However, my night would end at a $130 loss after paying Bart back his short-term loan.
A few hands stuck out during the night, but not any like the one that took me from the black to the red for the evening. We will save that for the end, not just to create some suspense but because it was my last hand of interest for the evening.
Things started off slow with me not playing many hands for a half an hour or so. I was simply waiting to see what kind of table I was at and wanted to make my money last as long as possible. Eventually I decided to open up a bit and start playing a few more speculative starting hands. After starting with $180, I went up and down a little bit briefly and then lost with a small straight and two pair. That put me down at about $110, which is when this particular hand took place.
I was in the small blind and after four people and the big blind had their two dollars in the pot, I looked down to see two red kings. I am one of those people who like to disguise good hands while in the blinds because you are just expected to have crap when sitting one or two to the left of the dealer. It is sort of like when a person straddles every time they are given the opportunity; you never give the guy respect for occasionally running into a good hand when blindly raising it to four dollars pre-flop.
With that said, holding kings against five opponents is not something I’m interested in disguising. I wanted to whittle down the competition some. So I put in a raise to $10 total. I got two callers, both having more than me. The pot was at about $35.
The flop was J-7-5 with two clubs. I led out immediately for $25. The next opponent, who had about $400 and had been making pot-sized bets with both good hands and complete bluffs, made it $80 to play. The next player folded and it came back to me. The call was essentially an all in for me and I made it. Sure enough, I ran into a set of fives and had to reach for my last $80 when I didn’t catch up.
A big hole in my game lately is not folding overpairs to the board when they are beat. I used to be able to fold aces in the face of big flop bets from opponents and it would be the correct move a majority of the time. But ever since coming back from my poker hiatus, I just haven’t been able to continue that trend. Instead, I have called off all my money with an overpair in five of the last seven games I’ve logged losses, with those hands being the main reason for the losses.
My next failed hand was actually one that was a winner, but I missed out on an additional $55 in winnings. I held pocket jacks and after a raise pre-flop I hit top set. I led out against my one opponent after he checked to me. I bet half the pot, which was a $12 bet. I was overjoyed when he raised me $30 on top. This raise left my opponent with $55. After being check-raised on a J-6-2 board, I figured he had to have top pair with an ace or a lower set. It was the only hands that made sense after he called a pre-flop raise.
If my assessment was correct, then a re-raise to put him all in wouldn’t be too far-fetched. He likely had a big hand that he wouldn’t fold. Although that thinking is sound, there was absolutely no need to re-raise because in all likelihood he would go all in or bet something close to it on the turn if I called. And nothing on that board was scary enough to worry me about slow-playing my top set to the turn by simply calling. My move to re-raise was just a flat mistake because I got moneybags in my eyes thinking about all the money I would make with my hand.
So when I put the guy all in and he folded after thinking for a long time and showing a jack, I was devastated. All I had considered was getting all the kids money with my great hand and I didn’t think about the best way to do it.
And now to my third and final failure for the night.
This one was not my fault at all. Well, except maybe a questionably loose call pre-flop. It was just one of those hands that would likely play out the way it did no matter what I did after calling pre-flop and all I could do was control how small or large the pot ended up.
I had 3-4 of spades in the big blind. After a call from the table’s chip leader, another player who had me covered raised it to $7. It folded around to me and I decided to play along. The idea was if I hit the flush or straight it was well-disguised. The chip leader also called and it ended up with the three of us seeing a flop. The pot had $20 in it.
The flop was A-10-6 of spades. And boom goes the dynamite. I checked with the full intent to raise the pot when the raiser made his continuation bet. The chip leader also checked and the original raiser bet $15. I raised it to $50 straight, not wanting to be drawn out on if someone is holding a spade. The chip leader folded and the original raiser called after some consideration. There was now $120 in the pot.
The turn was the 10 of hearts. So the board consists of As-10s-6s-10h. I wasn’t that scared of a full house, but should my opponent be holding a 10 then the possibility of beating me with a full house just got greater. I led out with a bet of $75. It is large enough that a call simply to hit a higher flush than me is incorrect, but it is small enough that you might think I was trying to bully the bettor out on the flop and I had to make another big bet on the turn since my bluff earlier hadn’t worked. The guy made a lot of chatter about whether he should call and he finally said, “Okay, I’ll call in case you are bluffing.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that speech, because usually that means you are already dominated.
However, it didn’t matter what he was going to talk about because the river killed my hand. It was the jack of spades, putting four spades on the board and making my 4 of spades practically useless. I checked and thought I heard the other guy immediately check. The dealer told me he was simply asking, “He check?” and not making a declaration. The guy then bet $100. I knew I was beat.
My opponent continued chatting about the hand, making claims that I was being too serious about the hand, to which I said it was a lot of money at stake. While he may not have cared about a $465 pot (which is what it would have been had I called), it was very important to me. I finally folded and showed my trumped flush. He then showed his ace of clubs and king of spades.
So he had a pair on the flop and a flush draw the entire way, which is why I think I could have pushed everything I had on the flop and he would have called with his hand. Who knows though? It may just be another hand that I played poorly.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Poker Entry No. 2 Updated
To continue transferring poker posts from my other blog, here is the second entry where I will be looking at the way I played in the past and deciding whether I would play the same hand a different way or not. So here we go.
The next record comes from October 6, 2004 and is labeled “Poker Entry No. 2." The date of the actual game was from October 2, 2004. There were 13 players at an entry fee of $10. Rebuys were not allowed and I ended up placing 5th, resulting in no money won.
Begin original text:
This game was at Mike Steed's house. I enjoyed playing with them and had a good time. There were a couple of incredibly stupid people, however we will keep names to ourselves (I actually can still recall who these knuckleheads were). I only made two mistakes at this game. One was an incredibly stupid mistake. We will start with the second and more crushing mistake.
Second mistake: Two hands before my exit I had very little money and tried bluffing at someone who was a call station. I'm not really sure what I was thinking. I had limped in to see the flop with A-6 offsuit. I didn't hit anything and we both checked it on the flop. I decided to try and win the pot on the turn and he called my bet. I only had $14 left, with blinds being $4-8. I decided to fold when he bet on the river and I went all in two hands later when I was the big blind (With so few details about the hand it is really impossible to give an updated opinion on the play).
Lesson #1: I shouldn't have bluffed the guy. I knew he would call me.
First mistake: My first mistake was a miscalculated judgment. I had K-J suited and raised $8 when blinds were $1-2. Mike went all in for another $9.50. I didn't want to call and I should have folded it, but I already put $10 in the pot and didn't want to see it go away so easily. In addition, I was the chip leader at our table and could lose another $9 without it being terribly hard hitting (Raising the blind five times was definitely the mistake and had it been less then you could have gotten away from the all-in move more easily).
Lesson #2: I shouldn't have raised so much and I could have gotten away from the hand easier.
The next record comes from October 6, 2004 and is labeled “Poker Entry No. 2." The date of the actual game was from October 2, 2004. There were 13 players at an entry fee of $10. Rebuys were not allowed and I ended up placing 5th, resulting in no money won.
Begin original text:
This game was at Mike Steed's house. I enjoyed playing with them and had a good time. There were a couple of incredibly stupid people, however we will keep names to ourselves (I actually can still recall who these knuckleheads were). I only made two mistakes at this game. One was an incredibly stupid mistake. We will start with the second and more crushing mistake.
Second mistake: Two hands before my exit I had very little money and tried bluffing at someone who was a call station. I'm not really sure what I was thinking. I had limped in to see the flop with A-6 offsuit. I didn't hit anything and we both checked it on the flop. I decided to try and win the pot on the turn and he called my bet. I only had $14 left, with blinds being $4-8. I decided to fold when he bet on the river and I went all in two hands later when I was the big blind (With so few details about the hand it is really impossible to give an updated opinion on the play).
Lesson #1: I shouldn't have bluffed the guy. I knew he would call me.
First mistake: My first mistake was a miscalculated judgment. I had K-J suited and raised $8 when blinds were $1-2. Mike went all in for another $9.50. I didn't want to call and I should have folded it, but I already put $10 in the pot and didn't want to see it go away so easily. In addition, I was the chip leader at our table and could lose another $9 without it being terribly hard hitting (Raising the blind five times was definitely the mistake and had it been less then you could have gotten away from the all-in move more easily).
Lesson #2: I shouldn't have raised so much and I could have gotten away from the hand easier.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Poker Entry No. 1 Updated
Since I haven’t played cards very much lately, I haven’t had a reason to post anything new on this blog. So I decided, since the game of poker can always be improved upon by a player, I would go back to poker posts on my other blog from several years ago and post them here. However, in addition to the historical posts from 2004 and later, I will also include my thoughts about the play of my past self from the current self. The present day commentary will be in parenthesis. I have also fixed grammatical errors and made a few style changes. So let’s begin.
Our first entry comes from October 5, 2004 and is labeled “Poker Entry No. 1” (real original Matt). The date of the actual game was from September 25, 2004. There were 30 players at an entry fee of $30. Rebuys were not allowed and I ended up placing 17th, resulting in no money won.
Begin original text:
I played great in this game (Why don’t you let the experts decide that). I was playing tight, but aggressive. I hadn’t lost a showdown for two hours. After a while, I had a lot of table respect. However, I made one mistake that led to two more mistakes.
First mistake: I had 8-7 suited. I had limped in to see a flop. The flop was 10-6-5. There were two spades on the board. I didn’t have spades. The big blind checked it. I checked. The old man behind me checked (Got a free turn, so I can’t really criticize that; a bet might have won the hand there since nothing higher than a ten was showing, but I can’t criticize the timid play with nothing but a draw at this point). The turn was a queen. Big blind checked. I started to think about my options. I could check and hope to see a free card, however, if I didn’t get the straight I was probably going to lose (You think Captain Obvious?). As I was thinking, the old man behind me wasn’t paying attention and thought it was on him. He said check. The dealer asked if he could proceed. I said I hadn’t decided what to do. I chose to take a stab at taking the pot down right there (I approve). I bet $4,000. This was about four times the amount of the big blind (From deducing what the big blind is and how many players there were, I am guessing the pot had about $3,500 before the $4,000 bet). It also left me with about $15,000. The old man called. I put him on a flush draw. The big blind folded. The last card was a blank. It helped neither of us, if I was correct on his flush draw. I knew he hadn’t made his hand, but I was too scared to bet half of my stack, which is about how much it would take to get the guy out if I was correct (It is going to be pretty hard for someone to call a second bet with nothing once the flush doesn’t come on the river, even if they do have a high card; plus, betting is the only way to win that hand with eight high). I went against my better judgment and didn’t bet. He checked also and flipped over A-8 of spades. He was on the flush draw, just like I thought. This burned me up that I went against my first thought.
Lesson #1: Trust your judgment. Your first thought is usually the right move.
Second mistake: I have J-10 offsuit. I usually limp with this hand, but the blinds were $1,000-2,000 and I only had $15,000 left. I also was steaming a bit from the previous hand. I wanted to play it so bad, but I went against my first thought and threw it away (That was the best play you could have made). A pair of jacks would have taken the pot. I was not as upset about this mistake as I was about the first (I wouldn’t call this a mistake; you made the right decision to fold).
Lesson #2: Don’t let past hands affect your play on a new hand (Again, made the right play; calling or raising would have been unwise with so few chips left).
Third mistake: My final mistake sent me out of the tournament (usually how it works moron). The guy after the big blind went all in pre-flop. I had a feeling he was pretty confident with his hand. I looked at my cards and saw pocket jacks. Usually I am fairly excited when I have pocket jacks. It is a good hand and mostly has to be outdrawn with a queen, king or ace to be beaten. However, for some unknown reason I wasn’t too thrilled about having it (Maybe because your tournament life depended on this hand). I pondered the call, because the guy went all in with more chips than me – about $7,000 more. I had a feeling I was beat, yet against my better judgment I called. The guy flipped over kings. I had to outdraw the guy and I didn’t (Can you really consider this a mistake when it was probably the only thing you could do; are you going to just sit around and be blinded out waiting for aces to come).
Lesson #3: If you know your beat, and you don’t have many outs, fold the hand (Not necessarily true).
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
A Pretty Uneventful Trip
After five-and-a-half hours of playing, I ended up with a $80 profit day. I would like to tell you grand stories of big bluffs and bigger pots, but I pretty much played aces, kings, queens and high cards that didn't go very far into the hand.
My peak was $375 and I lost a lot of that money with A-Q when I flopped top pair and a guy rivered a flush on me. The guy's final bet of $65 on the river was just the right amount to make me curious enough to see his hand. I felt pretty good he had me beat, but I just couldn't lay it down.
The past few months since I started playing cards on a pretty consistent basis I have noticed I can't make the lay down of big hands on the river that I used to do pretty routinely. That was something I was proud of back in the day that I could fold hands others wouldn't dare do at the end of the hand, and more times than not it was the correct decision. Yet, now I can't seem to do it.
If I could tweak that one element of my game I think I would have more and larger profitable sessions. In fact, now that I think about it, the last couple of times I've had losing nights was because I wouldn't fold aces when I knew they were beat. That is something I need to work on in my game.
Well, my next time to play will probably be the Weatherford game. I'll give you details from that night when it happens.
My peak was $375 and I lost a lot of that money with A-Q when I flopped top pair and a guy rivered a flush on me. The guy's final bet of $65 on the river was just the right amount to make me curious enough to see his hand. I felt pretty good he had me beat, but I just couldn't lay it down.
The past few months since I started playing cards on a pretty consistent basis I have noticed I can't make the lay down of big hands on the river that I used to do pretty routinely. That was something I was proud of back in the day that I could fold hands others wouldn't dare do at the end of the hand, and more times than not it was the correct decision. Yet, now I can't seem to do it.
If I could tweak that one element of my game I think I would have more and larger profitable sessions. In fact, now that I think about it, the last couple of times I've had losing nights was because I wouldn't fold aces when I knew they were beat. That is something I need to work on in my game.
Well, my next time to play will probably be the Weatherford game. I'll give you details from that night when it happens.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
One Final Hoorah
I start work at a new job Thursday, so the wife gave me the okay to go play cards tomorrow. I will post about my time there tomorrow night.
Monday, April 5, 2010
A Poker First For Me
Lately I've gotten away from tournament play, but this Saturday my friend Danny and I will be participants in a different type of game for us. I have played in all sorts of tournaments since taking up Texas Hold 'em, including small home game tournaments with poor blind structures, multi-table casino tournaments with acceptable to player-friendly blinds and even a World Series limit/no-limit tournament, but in all my time at the tables I've never played a bounty (or knockout) tournament.
I am anticipating the event, especially since my last outing at poker that resulted in nearly $1,200 profit, but I'm not feeling good about my tournament playing style. I have a reputation for going out on the bubble (highest place to finish without winning money), and doing so enough times to earn a reputation means I have a flaw when it comes down to that point in a tournament. I also do not knock out a lot of players during a tournament. I like to win pots without risking a large portion of my stack, which is usually what it takes to eliminate players throughout the game (minus those on the short stack who are in desperation mode).
Wish me luck and I will remember some key hands during the tournament. I figure, as long as I either make the money or knock out at least three players I will either break even or make some profit. Until then.
I am anticipating the event, especially since my last outing at poker that resulted in nearly $1,200 profit, but I'm not feeling good about my tournament playing style. I have a reputation for going out on the bubble (highest place to finish without winning money), and doing so enough times to earn a reputation means I have a flaw when it comes down to that point in a tournament. I also do not knock out a lot of players during a tournament. I like to win pots without risking a large portion of my stack, which is usually what it takes to eliminate players throughout the game (minus those on the short stack who are in desperation mode).
Wish me luck and I will remember some key hands during the tournament. I figure, as long as I either make the money or knock out at least three players I will either break even or make some profit. Until then.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Big Night Results In Big Purchase
Last Saturday night was my monthly poker game in Weatherford. It is always a good time out there whether I win or lose, but posting some wins does help with the mood on the 45-minute drive back to Arlington with whomever I rode out with.
This poker game was a record-setting night according to Clint. Although guys have walked away with more money before Saturday, a person has never seen more profit than I did that night. I was able to buy in for $100 and I left with $1,285. I grinded it out for nine hours and profited nearly $1,200. That works out to $131.67 an hour, which is an astounding amount of money to be made every 60 minutes and my second highest hourly rate since starting to keep track of my poker playing that began last November (my highest rate is $173 an hour, but I only played for three hours).
My night started great as I was never done below my initial buy-in at any point throughout the game. I won the third hand of the evening, which put me up about $30, and I never dipped below $100 after that.
I won some medium-sized pots early that helped build my stack and I rarely was involved in a hand that I didn't win for the first few hours. Once I got really high in the money I played a lot of hands and saw a lot of flops that didn't work out, but any really big pots that I was involved in I mostly won.
An early hand I got away from was when I flopped a straight with Q-J. With two diamonds on the flop I didn't want to give free cards to anyone, so I bet out. I couldn't get a guy off his hand and when another diamond came on the turn and he led out with a bet I mucked my straight with no doubt I had been drawn out on. Oh well. That happens.
My first big win was with J-3 of hearts. I had built my stack up to about $200-225 and decided to raise with whatever hand I got next that could make something decent (so hands like 7-2 and K-5 offsuit didn't count). I raised to $8 and the guy on my left called. We saw a flop with three cards that did not match my jack or three, but it did have two hearts. I believe the flop was something like A-8-5. So I made a continuation bet of $10. My opponent didn't take too long to raise it to $35. So it was another $25 to me and the pot now had $65. To call meant I was not quite getting 3-1 on my money, but I was in a gambling mood and decided to see what the turn brought. With my call the pot now had $90.
The turn was a non-heart card that I really can't remember. Depending on my opponent's bet I was ready to give up on this hand. However, after checking I was pleasantly surprised to hear "check" behind me. The free river card was the heart I needed and I was quite confident I had the best hand with a jack-high flush (technically it was an ace-high flush since the ace was a heart, but if he had a flush then we were both using the ace and it would come down to our highest heart). I bet $55 after thinking for a few seconds. The guy thought for a long time, talking out loud to himself never bringing up the flush. I don't know if he didn't see the three hearts or if he just didn't think I played a flush draw that way. He finally made the call and I flipped up my J-3 of hearts. He never showed his hand, so I don't know what he had, but I assumed it was a pair of aces with a really good kicker like a queen or jack.
That pot made me the chip leader at the table with a little more than $300, and the two closest stacks were at about $250 each. I nearly broke one of those two guys when I had him dominated on an all in, but circumstances resulted in us splitting the pot.
Before getting into the dynamics of the hand I will explain what "doing business" is at this game. "Doing business" means you will run the hand twice and see two separate sets of community cards. If you decide to "do business" pre-flop then it will be two sets of five cards, but if the decision is made on the turn then only two river cards will be seen. Should one player win both hands then he gets the entire pot, but if the players should split the wins the pot will be divided between the two.
A general rule I have with friends is I won't ask to run it twice but if my opponent asks I will grant it. The Weatherford game is hosted at three guys' homes and since I went to college with one of them and have become friendly with the other two I consider this a friendly game. So that means I will stick to my rule about running it twice at this game. If they ask me to, I usually will.
Okay, on to the hand. I had A-J offsuit and simply called the $2 to see the flop. After another call after me, a player three to my left raised it to $7. It went around and two other players called before it got back to me. With that many people calling the raise I decided to call and see if I could hit something big. The guy after me called also and we went to a flop with a pot of about $35.
The three community cards were J-6-4. With only having a single pair, that is the best possible flop I could see. I have top pair and top kicker, which is likely the best hand as long as nobody hit a set or the original raiser doesn't have a higher pocket pair. I think I was first to act and I decided to make a sneaky sort of play here by check-raising the original raiser (who I figured would probably make a continuation bet). I checked as did the guy on my left. Sure enough my thought process was correct and the original raiser led out with a $15 bet. At this point I am putting him on a middle pocket pair and he is afraid of two things: the jack and so many callers. I was pretty sure when it got back to me that a good-sized raise would get this guy to fold and I could win a nice pot with my pair of jacks.
Well, a kink was thrown into my plan when one of the players after the bettor raised it himself. He made it $50 to go and it was on me. Now usually I would be prepared to fold my A-J without blinking an eye, but something didn't feel right about this. The new raiser (whose name is Jason and he is one of the hosts of this game) is a loose-aggressive player that likes to see a lot of hands. He has no fear to raise with a straight or flush draw, knowing if called he can still win the hand by hitting his out, but also knowing that this image gets him paid off when he is holding the real deal.
So it is $50 to me and I have only a pair of jacks. However, I still think the pre-flop raiser is going to fold at this point, so I just have to put Jason on a hand. The board wasn't that scary for a pre-flop raised hand, so I didn't think he would rush to raise with a set. This narrowed his possible hand holdings to two-pair (which is not likely since it was raised pre-flop, but I don't put anything past Jason), top pair, or a straight draw. I was beat by the unlikely two pair, I'm beating his top pair with my better kicker (or we are tied) and the draw I am beating but can lose to with two cards to come. I felt I had the best hand at the time and was going to let everyone at the table know that.
I raised it $100 more, making it $150 to go. The guy on my left and the original raiser folded, getting it back to Jason. Now, I made the $100 raise for two reasons. The first was it was a normal raise for the situation. There was $100 in the pot prior to my raise. My call would make it $150 and I raised it an additional $100, making it 2.5-1 for Jason to call. Normal raise. The second reason for the $100 raise was it was about half of Jason's stack at that point. He had started this particular hand with about $250 and after his $50 bet and the $7 call pre-flop he had close to $200 left.
Jason pondered his options for a little while and joked with me about forgetting I was even in the hand. After some time he finally picked up his remaining $87 and said he was going to go all in. Well, either this was the greatest acting job ever and he was playing me for the fool, or (and the more likely scenario) was he knew he was beat and was just hoping he could catch up. I called the $87 and we flipped up our hands. It was my A-J against his J-8. He had three outs.
This is where the "doing business" came in to play. The dealer asked if we would be discussing any deals and I said it was up to Jason. He pleadingly asked to run it twice and I said that was fine. I won the first run without any problems, but the second time he hit an eight on the river (although the turn was a five and gave him four more outs with a seven giving him a straight). So all that work and all I got out of it was about $20.
I won another $75 or so after calling two all-in bets pre-flop. One was with A-6 against something like K-J. The other was J-10 against pocket sixes. After another hour or two I had worked my way up to $500 or so.
A hand I got some pretty good respect from was a fold I made where I flopped top two pair. I held A-7 and the flop was A-7-3 with two diamonds. I bet $8 on the flop (a little less than the size of the pot) and was called by one guy. The turn was the eight of diamonds giving a flush possibility. I disgustingly checked, thinking I was beat at this point. The guy bet $10 and I called stating, "Okay, you can string me along for that amount. I'll be the sucker." The river didn't give me any help and I checked again. The guy reached toward his green chips (which are $25 each) and before he ever picked one up I threw my cards into the middle face up and said, "No, too much." The guy looked back at my two pair and did a half grin as he flipped up A-8. He also had two pair, but the winning two pair.
Although I was off on what exactly the guy had (thinking it was probably the flush) I was still correct to know it beat my hand. Guys at the table applauded the fold and were impressed I got away from it. In my opinion, not a hard fold, but it was still nice to receive the props.
A really big hand I won was with A-5 of diamonds. I called pre-flop, as did about four or five other players. The flop came 4-3-2 with two of one suit that weren't diamonds. So I flopped the wheel and was feeling really good. The first guy to act led out with a bet of about $7. Jason raised the bet to $14. The night's host, Jay, then called that bet. It was now on me and I certainly wasn't going to slowplay this. With so many people betting, raising and calling, another raise was definitely going to get some action. Therefore I didn't need to worry about being deceptive.
I raised it another $35, making it $49 to go. It got back to the initial bettor and he thought for about 10-15 seconds. He finally moved all in. I don't remember the exact amount the all in was for, but it was more than another $100 on top of my $35. I want to say it was somewhere in the range of another $165 or so. Certainly a large bet that meant business. Jason quickly folded. Now it was on Jay. He thought for more than a minute about what to do, but finally folded. If my memory serves me correctly, I think he folded a pair and a flush draw.
Against one player I was going to call the all in no matter what. If he had 5-6 for the higher straight then good for him. I'm not getting away from my second nuts. However, had Jay called the all in (which would have put him all in also), then I would have a decision to make. I most likely would still call, knowing I have the best hand but having to dodge a lot of cards to remain best. However, since Jay called I wasn't put to a decision. I called and my opponent showed pocket fours, having top set. He didn't improve and I won the large pot.
The hand I was most ashamed to win was where I made a big suckout with A-5 offsuit. I'm not sure how much the hand was raised to, but with the players involved it ended up being a pot of $30 or so on the flop. The three cards in the middle were A-9-4. I wasn't proud of my top pair, but when a guy on my left bet $25 I decided to call and see another card. The reason behind this play was I had seen the same guy lead out with a flop bet when he held second pair, so I thought my ace might be good but I wanted to play cautious at this point. Also, I had more than $1,000 and could afford to speculate for $25.
The turn was another ace, giving me three of a kind. If my ace was good before the turn, it certainly was good now. I decided to play the part of not having much and let my opponent think another bet would win it. Then I could make a decison as to what to do at that point. However, my opponent also checked and I didn't have to make any decision at that point. However, it did complicate things because now I was worried he might really have that ace this time and he was hoping I would get a little help on the river so he could make some extra money.
But everything changed when the river came out. It was a five, giving me a full house. I hadn't made a bet throughout the hand and believed my opponent didn't put me on much of anything. This would hopefully lead him to bet whether he had a hand or not. He bet the same $25 he had bet on the flop. I immediately raised him the minimum, making it $50. The reasoning behind this was that I felt confident he wouldn't lay his hand down for $25 no matter what he had. If he had the ace then I might get lucky and he would re-raise. If he didn't have the ace then he would call just to see my hand. The minimum raise usually screams big hand (which is exactly what I had) but I didn't think I needed to use deception any more at this point.
To my surprise, a few seconds after my raise he said he was all in. I didn't even ask for a count because it didn't matter. I was only beat by one hand (A-9). I called and flipped up my A-5. The guy huffed loudly and lowered his head, dejectedly flipping over A-4. He had flopped two pair, turned the boat and then lost when I hit a three-outer. It was a disgusting loss and I felt really bad about it. But I still took my money because that is how poker can be.
The worst part about that win was the guy had played for about six or seven hours on the same $100 and had just recently had to rebuy. He didn't want to, but some guys at the table talked him into rebuying, which almost immediately went to me on a sick beat.
I did restore my image of a solid (and not lucky) player following that hand by winning a pot not too much later by making a really good call on the host of the evening. I held pocket nines and called a pre-flop raise from Jay. Like Jason, Jay will play a lot of hands, but he isn't quite as much of a loose cannon as Jason. Jay has no problems making bluffs and pushing people around, but they are calculated bets made at timely moments.
The flop was Q-7-2 with two hearts. So I didn't have top pair, but it wasn't as bad as second pair on the board. Jay looked at his cards and made a continuation bet after I checked it to him. The bet was a standard thing for him to do. When he looked down at his cards I felt confident he wasn't on the flush draw or he would have remembered. So I decided to find out where I stood with my nines by putting in a normal-sized raise. Jay called and at this point there was about $90-100 in the pot. I wasn't thrilled with the call.
The turn was the five of hearts. I checked this time, thinking I would be done with the hand if he came out with a bet. Without him looking for the hearts (since I had ruled out the idea that he was going for a flush) his call of my raise on the flop scared me and I was ready to move on if he bet the turn. He thought for a second and silently checked his finger on the table.
We went to a river that was a non-heart eight. So I still have a pair higher than anything on the board except the queen. I was almost convinced I had the best hand after he checked the turn, but I didn't want to make a bet of about $50-75 on the river and get raised. That would confuse me even more on where I stood and I would be out a lot of money if I folded or called and lost. Since I wasn't wanting to risk a lot of money, I checked with the intention of calling a bet (depending on the size) and seeing where the chips fell.
Jay bet $45 (about half the pot). Usually this is a standard bet for a hand that is winning and wants to get paid. More than that (meaning $75 or more) makes one believe the person is overbetting to try to win with nothing. Obviously this isn't always the case because every opponent is different in this game. Since I believed I was the best hand I made the call and flipped up my cards, showing the nines. Jay was pretty shocked to see me call with that, since his thinking was the same as mine that the $45 bet should have meant he could beat a pair of nines. He finally showed 6-7, giving him a pair of sevens.
Since I had checked the turn and river, I had opened myself to losing the hand by being sucked out on, but that was one of the chances I was willing to take. But I was still proud of the call.
A few hands later I busted Jay when my aces got him all in pre-flop with him holding A-K. We ran it twice but I won both times.
There were two hands I folded pre-flop that I could easily have made more than $500 on combined had I made the calls. The first was with A-K offsuit. Jason raised the hand pre-flop to $7 and Jay called the bet. I looked down to see my hand. Lately I have had the strategy to simply call raises with A-K instead of re-raising and see what the flop brings, but since it was Jason and Jay in the hands I figured I was the best hand at that point and I was going to play it that way.
I re-raised it, making it $25 to go. It folded to the guy I had beat with the flopped straight when he held top set. He had made the initial $7 raise and then re-raised $50, making it $75 to play. Jason thought for a bit and then moved all in. His entire bet was for $160 or so. Jay then folded and it was back on me. It is obvious at this point I don't have the best hand. However, I still need to think everything through. I put the first raiser (whose name was also Matt) on a big pair. It was just a question of how big. Then there is Jason. He's not going to have anything worse than A-X suited, but that X is still probably pretty high. And the worst-case scenario for me is he also has a big pocket pair and I am drawing even thinner. Had I been able to get a side pot worth fighting for, I would have possibly made the call. Yet, when Matt called he had only about $15 less than Jason, so the side pot would have been worth only $30.
My decision to fold was pretty easy, but I think a lot of people would look at A-K and make that all in call hoping to get lucky. Matt ended up having pocket queens and Jason had A-Q of hearts. The two of them ran it twice (with Matt winning both I think), and the worst part about it all was I would have won both. The first run ended with Matt hitting a queen for three of a kind, but I would have ended up with a straight. The second run gave nothing to Jason, but a king hit that would have given me a higher pair than Matt's queens.
On the subject of the "doing business" and running it twice though, I won't run it multiple times with multiple opponents. To do business with me, it has to be heads up. That is just sort of an addendum to my rule.
My next to last hand of the night was another one I folded that I would have made a lot of money on. I had pocket dueces and called a $7 pre-flop raise. The player two to my left re-raised it to $45. It folded back to the original raiser and myself. This meant it was $38 for us to call. That was quite a large bump from $7, but so be it. The original raiser folded and I agonized on what to do. I did have more than $1,250 in front of me, but I had made a point in the last 20 minutes or so to lose back a hundred dollars or so to everyone at the table. Clint, who had ridden out with me, was ready to go and I felt bad about leaving before the end of the night with so much money on the table. I knew in the grand scheme of things, nobody really was mad at me or anything like that, but I didn't want to ruffle any feathers and not get invited back. That was the reason for giving up $100 in calls with inferior hands. Call it a PR move if you will.
Well, it was on me for $38 to call with pocket twos. The guy who re-raised was pretty conservative and at worst had A-K. So I am either dominated by a higher pocket pair or barely a favorite against two high cards and I have to hit a two anyway to feel confident. So I folded, but when the community cards were turned over just to see what would have come, the flop showed a two and I would have made a lot of money. Oh well, no need to get greedy.
With my winnings from Saturday night Joanna and I went refrigerator shopping on Sunday and got ourselves a new fridge. It made the wife joyful, but made me broke. Sad for me, but I'm happy for her.
This poker game was a record-setting night according to Clint. Although guys have walked away with more money before Saturday, a person has never seen more profit than I did that night. I was able to buy in for $100 and I left with $1,285. I grinded it out for nine hours and profited nearly $1,200. That works out to $131.67 an hour, which is an astounding amount of money to be made every 60 minutes and my second highest hourly rate since starting to keep track of my poker playing that began last November (my highest rate is $173 an hour, but I only played for three hours).
My night started great as I was never done below my initial buy-in at any point throughout the game. I won the third hand of the evening, which put me up about $30, and I never dipped below $100 after that.
I won some medium-sized pots early that helped build my stack and I rarely was involved in a hand that I didn't win for the first few hours. Once I got really high in the money I played a lot of hands and saw a lot of flops that didn't work out, but any really big pots that I was involved in I mostly won.
An early hand I got away from was when I flopped a straight with Q-J. With two diamonds on the flop I didn't want to give free cards to anyone, so I bet out. I couldn't get a guy off his hand and when another diamond came on the turn and he led out with a bet I mucked my straight with no doubt I had been drawn out on. Oh well. That happens.
My first big win was with J-3 of hearts. I had built my stack up to about $200-225 and decided to raise with whatever hand I got next that could make something decent (so hands like 7-2 and K-5 offsuit didn't count). I raised to $8 and the guy on my left called. We saw a flop with three cards that did not match my jack or three, but it did have two hearts. I believe the flop was something like A-8-5. So I made a continuation bet of $10. My opponent didn't take too long to raise it to $35. So it was another $25 to me and the pot now had $65. To call meant I was not quite getting 3-1 on my money, but I was in a gambling mood and decided to see what the turn brought. With my call the pot now had $90.
The turn was a non-heart card that I really can't remember. Depending on my opponent's bet I was ready to give up on this hand. However, after checking I was pleasantly surprised to hear "check" behind me. The free river card was the heart I needed and I was quite confident I had the best hand with a jack-high flush (technically it was an ace-high flush since the ace was a heart, but if he had a flush then we were both using the ace and it would come down to our highest heart). I bet $55 after thinking for a few seconds. The guy thought for a long time, talking out loud to himself never bringing up the flush. I don't know if he didn't see the three hearts or if he just didn't think I played a flush draw that way. He finally made the call and I flipped up my J-3 of hearts. He never showed his hand, so I don't know what he had, but I assumed it was a pair of aces with a really good kicker like a queen or jack.
That pot made me the chip leader at the table with a little more than $300, and the two closest stacks were at about $250 each. I nearly broke one of those two guys when I had him dominated on an all in, but circumstances resulted in us splitting the pot.
Before getting into the dynamics of the hand I will explain what "doing business" is at this game. "Doing business" means you will run the hand twice and see two separate sets of community cards. If you decide to "do business" pre-flop then it will be two sets of five cards, but if the decision is made on the turn then only two river cards will be seen. Should one player win both hands then he gets the entire pot, but if the players should split the wins the pot will be divided between the two.
A general rule I have with friends is I won't ask to run it twice but if my opponent asks I will grant it. The Weatherford game is hosted at three guys' homes and since I went to college with one of them and have become friendly with the other two I consider this a friendly game. So that means I will stick to my rule about running it twice at this game. If they ask me to, I usually will.
Okay, on to the hand. I had A-J offsuit and simply called the $2 to see the flop. After another call after me, a player three to my left raised it to $7. It went around and two other players called before it got back to me. With that many people calling the raise I decided to call and see if I could hit something big. The guy after me called also and we went to a flop with a pot of about $35.
The three community cards were J-6-4. With only having a single pair, that is the best possible flop I could see. I have top pair and top kicker, which is likely the best hand as long as nobody hit a set or the original raiser doesn't have a higher pocket pair. I think I was first to act and I decided to make a sneaky sort of play here by check-raising the original raiser (who I figured would probably make a continuation bet). I checked as did the guy on my left. Sure enough my thought process was correct and the original raiser led out with a $15 bet. At this point I am putting him on a middle pocket pair and he is afraid of two things: the jack and so many callers. I was pretty sure when it got back to me that a good-sized raise would get this guy to fold and I could win a nice pot with my pair of jacks.
Well, a kink was thrown into my plan when one of the players after the bettor raised it himself. He made it $50 to go and it was on me. Now usually I would be prepared to fold my A-J without blinking an eye, but something didn't feel right about this. The new raiser (whose name is Jason and he is one of the hosts of this game) is a loose-aggressive player that likes to see a lot of hands. He has no fear to raise with a straight or flush draw, knowing if called he can still win the hand by hitting his out, but also knowing that this image gets him paid off when he is holding the real deal.
So it is $50 to me and I have only a pair of jacks. However, I still think the pre-flop raiser is going to fold at this point, so I just have to put Jason on a hand. The board wasn't that scary for a pre-flop raised hand, so I didn't think he would rush to raise with a set. This narrowed his possible hand holdings to two-pair (which is not likely since it was raised pre-flop, but I don't put anything past Jason), top pair, or a straight draw. I was beat by the unlikely two pair, I'm beating his top pair with my better kicker (or we are tied) and the draw I am beating but can lose to with two cards to come. I felt I had the best hand at the time and was going to let everyone at the table know that.
I raised it $100 more, making it $150 to go. The guy on my left and the original raiser folded, getting it back to Jason. Now, I made the $100 raise for two reasons. The first was it was a normal raise for the situation. There was $100 in the pot prior to my raise. My call would make it $150 and I raised it an additional $100, making it 2.5-1 for Jason to call. Normal raise. The second reason for the $100 raise was it was about half of Jason's stack at that point. He had started this particular hand with about $250 and after his $50 bet and the $7 call pre-flop he had close to $200 left.
Jason pondered his options for a little while and joked with me about forgetting I was even in the hand. After some time he finally picked up his remaining $87 and said he was going to go all in. Well, either this was the greatest acting job ever and he was playing me for the fool, or (and the more likely scenario) was he knew he was beat and was just hoping he could catch up. I called the $87 and we flipped up our hands. It was my A-J against his J-8. He had three outs.
This is where the "doing business" came in to play. The dealer asked if we would be discussing any deals and I said it was up to Jason. He pleadingly asked to run it twice and I said that was fine. I won the first run without any problems, but the second time he hit an eight on the river (although the turn was a five and gave him four more outs with a seven giving him a straight). So all that work and all I got out of it was about $20.
I won another $75 or so after calling two all-in bets pre-flop. One was with A-6 against something like K-J. The other was J-10 against pocket sixes. After another hour or two I had worked my way up to $500 or so.
A hand I got some pretty good respect from was a fold I made where I flopped top two pair. I held A-7 and the flop was A-7-3 with two diamonds. I bet $8 on the flop (a little less than the size of the pot) and was called by one guy. The turn was the eight of diamonds giving a flush possibility. I disgustingly checked, thinking I was beat at this point. The guy bet $10 and I called stating, "Okay, you can string me along for that amount. I'll be the sucker." The river didn't give me any help and I checked again. The guy reached toward his green chips (which are $25 each) and before he ever picked one up I threw my cards into the middle face up and said, "No, too much." The guy looked back at my two pair and did a half grin as he flipped up A-8. He also had two pair, but the winning two pair.
Although I was off on what exactly the guy had (thinking it was probably the flush) I was still correct to know it beat my hand. Guys at the table applauded the fold and were impressed I got away from it. In my opinion, not a hard fold, but it was still nice to receive the props.
A really big hand I won was with A-5 of diamonds. I called pre-flop, as did about four or five other players. The flop came 4-3-2 with two of one suit that weren't diamonds. So I flopped the wheel and was feeling really good. The first guy to act led out with a bet of about $7. Jason raised the bet to $14. The night's host, Jay, then called that bet. It was now on me and I certainly wasn't going to slowplay this. With so many people betting, raising and calling, another raise was definitely going to get some action. Therefore I didn't need to worry about being deceptive.
I raised it another $35, making it $49 to go. It got back to the initial bettor and he thought for about 10-15 seconds. He finally moved all in. I don't remember the exact amount the all in was for, but it was more than another $100 on top of my $35. I want to say it was somewhere in the range of another $165 or so. Certainly a large bet that meant business. Jason quickly folded. Now it was on Jay. He thought for more than a minute about what to do, but finally folded. If my memory serves me correctly, I think he folded a pair and a flush draw.
Against one player I was going to call the all in no matter what. If he had 5-6 for the higher straight then good for him. I'm not getting away from my second nuts. However, had Jay called the all in (which would have put him all in also), then I would have a decision to make. I most likely would still call, knowing I have the best hand but having to dodge a lot of cards to remain best. However, since Jay called I wasn't put to a decision. I called and my opponent showed pocket fours, having top set. He didn't improve and I won the large pot.
The hand I was most ashamed to win was where I made a big suckout with A-5 offsuit. I'm not sure how much the hand was raised to, but with the players involved it ended up being a pot of $30 or so on the flop. The three cards in the middle were A-9-4. I wasn't proud of my top pair, but when a guy on my left bet $25 I decided to call and see another card. The reason behind this play was I had seen the same guy lead out with a flop bet when he held second pair, so I thought my ace might be good but I wanted to play cautious at this point. Also, I had more than $1,000 and could afford to speculate for $25.
The turn was another ace, giving me three of a kind. If my ace was good before the turn, it certainly was good now. I decided to play the part of not having much and let my opponent think another bet would win it. Then I could make a decison as to what to do at that point. However, my opponent also checked and I didn't have to make any decision at that point. However, it did complicate things because now I was worried he might really have that ace this time and he was hoping I would get a little help on the river so he could make some extra money.
But everything changed when the river came out. It was a five, giving me a full house. I hadn't made a bet throughout the hand and believed my opponent didn't put me on much of anything. This would hopefully lead him to bet whether he had a hand or not. He bet the same $25 he had bet on the flop. I immediately raised him the minimum, making it $50. The reasoning behind this was that I felt confident he wouldn't lay his hand down for $25 no matter what he had. If he had the ace then I might get lucky and he would re-raise. If he didn't have the ace then he would call just to see my hand. The minimum raise usually screams big hand (which is exactly what I had) but I didn't think I needed to use deception any more at this point.
To my surprise, a few seconds after my raise he said he was all in. I didn't even ask for a count because it didn't matter. I was only beat by one hand (A-9). I called and flipped up my A-5. The guy huffed loudly and lowered his head, dejectedly flipping over A-4. He had flopped two pair, turned the boat and then lost when I hit a three-outer. It was a disgusting loss and I felt really bad about it. But I still took my money because that is how poker can be.
The worst part about that win was the guy had played for about six or seven hours on the same $100 and had just recently had to rebuy. He didn't want to, but some guys at the table talked him into rebuying, which almost immediately went to me on a sick beat.
I did restore my image of a solid (and not lucky) player following that hand by winning a pot not too much later by making a really good call on the host of the evening. I held pocket nines and called a pre-flop raise from Jay. Like Jason, Jay will play a lot of hands, but he isn't quite as much of a loose cannon as Jason. Jay has no problems making bluffs and pushing people around, but they are calculated bets made at timely moments.
The flop was Q-7-2 with two hearts. So I didn't have top pair, but it wasn't as bad as second pair on the board. Jay looked at his cards and made a continuation bet after I checked it to him. The bet was a standard thing for him to do. When he looked down at his cards I felt confident he wasn't on the flush draw or he would have remembered. So I decided to find out where I stood with my nines by putting in a normal-sized raise. Jay called and at this point there was about $90-100 in the pot. I wasn't thrilled with the call.
The turn was the five of hearts. I checked this time, thinking I would be done with the hand if he came out with a bet. Without him looking for the hearts (since I had ruled out the idea that he was going for a flush) his call of my raise on the flop scared me and I was ready to move on if he bet the turn. He thought for a second and silently checked his finger on the table.
We went to a river that was a non-heart eight. So I still have a pair higher than anything on the board except the queen. I was almost convinced I had the best hand after he checked the turn, but I didn't want to make a bet of about $50-75 on the river and get raised. That would confuse me even more on where I stood and I would be out a lot of money if I folded or called and lost. Since I wasn't wanting to risk a lot of money, I checked with the intention of calling a bet (depending on the size) and seeing where the chips fell.
Jay bet $45 (about half the pot). Usually this is a standard bet for a hand that is winning and wants to get paid. More than that (meaning $75 or more) makes one believe the person is overbetting to try to win with nothing. Obviously this isn't always the case because every opponent is different in this game. Since I believed I was the best hand I made the call and flipped up my cards, showing the nines. Jay was pretty shocked to see me call with that, since his thinking was the same as mine that the $45 bet should have meant he could beat a pair of nines. He finally showed 6-7, giving him a pair of sevens.
Since I had checked the turn and river, I had opened myself to losing the hand by being sucked out on, but that was one of the chances I was willing to take. But I was still proud of the call.
A few hands later I busted Jay when my aces got him all in pre-flop with him holding A-K. We ran it twice but I won both times.
There were two hands I folded pre-flop that I could easily have made more than $500 on combined had I made the calls. The first was with A-K offsuit. Jason raised the hand pre-flop to $7 and Jay called the bet. I looked down to see my hand. Lately I have had the strategy to simply call raises with A-K instead of re-raising and see what the flop brings, but since it was Jason and Jay in the hands I figured I was the best hand at that point and I was going to play it that way.
I re-raised it, making it $25 to go. It folded to the guy I had beat with the flopped straight when he held top set. He had made the initial $7 raise and then re-raised $50, making it $75 to play. Jason thought for a bit and then moved all in. His entire bet was for $160 or so. Jay then folded and it was back on me. It is obvious at this point I don't have the best hand. However, I still need to think everything through. I put the first raiser (whose name was also Matt) on a big pair. It was just a question of how big. Then there is Jason. He's not going to have anything worse than A-X suited, but that X is still probably pretty high. And the worst-case scenario for me is he also has a big pocket pair and I am drawing even thinner. Had I been able to get a side pot worth fighting for, I would have possibly made the call. Yet, when Matt called he had only about $15 less than Jason, so the side pot would have been worth only $30.
My decision to fold was pretty easy, but I think a lot of people would look at A-K and make that all in call hoping to get lucky. Matt ended up having pocket queens and Jason had A-Q of hearts. The two of them ran it twice (with Matt winning both I think), and the worst part about it all was I would have won both. The first run ended with Matt hitting a queen for three of a kind, but I would have ended up with a straight. The second run gave nothing to Jason, but a king hit that would have given me a higher pair than Matt's queens.
On the subject of the "doing business" and running it twice though, I won't run it multiple times with multiple opponents. To do business with me, it has to be heads up. That is just sort of an addendum to my rule.
My next to last hand of the night was another one I folded that I would have made a lot of money on. I had pocket dueces and called a $7 pre-flop raise. The player two to my left re-raised it to $45. It folded back to the original raiser and myself. This meant it was $38 for us to call. That was quite a large bump from $7, but so be it. The original raiser folded and I agonized on what to do. I did have more than $1,250 in front of me, but I had made a point in the last 20 minutes or so to lose back a hundred dollars or so to everyone at the table. Clint, who had ridden out with me, was ready to go and I felt bad about leaving before the end of the night with so much money on the table. I knew in the grand scheme of things, nobody really was mad at me or anything like that, but I didn't want to ruffle any feathers and not get invited back. That was the reason for giving up $100 in calls with inferior hands. Call it a PR move if you will.
Well, it was on me for $38 to call with pocket twos. The guy who re-raised was pretty conservative and at worst had A-K. So I am either dominated by a higher pocket pair or barely a favorite against two high cards and I have to hit a two anyway to feel confident. So I folded, but when the community cards were turned over just to see what would have come, the flop showed a two and I would have made a lot of money. Oh well, no need to get greedy.
With my winnings from Saturday night Joanna and I went refrigerator shopping on Sunday and got ourselves a new fridge. It made the wife joyful, but made me broke. Sad for me, but I'm happy for her.
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