O-Poker

After I busted out of the turbo tourney, I grabbed some pizza, checked out the new areas of the casino, and finally made my way to the cash tables.

Florida law (even at the Indian Casinos) is $100 max buy-in for NL cash games. The Hard Rock runs $1/$2 NL and $2/$5 NL with $100 max buy-ins. The $1/$2 games are usually nit fests and the $2/$5 games are incredibly loose.

I sat down as they were starting a new table. The game started off pretty interesting including one older wanna-be cowboy getting KK 5 times in the first 8 hands - no joke (I'm not sure what the odds of that are). He was down $200 plus because he ran one of them in AA and one into AK (flop an Ace). Needless to say the tilting pseudo-cowboy help make the game good.

Some random happenings of the day:

Slow Rolled

I guess a lot of live players are clueless and I'll write this off as him being clueless instead of an asshole.

I had a decent stack and wound up calling a guy's small bets down with 99 on a KK3K5 board. After I called his 1/12th of the pot size river bet almost certain that he had the King, I waited for him to turn up his hand. He says what I thought was "You got it." So I turn up my 99. He leans over and looks at my cards and then finally turns up his freaking KQ. I never screw around in a cash game (espec low stakes), if I think I have the best hand whether it is my turn to act or not I show it.

I said something along the lines of WTF?

He replied, I had the right to see what you called with and wanted to see it and that he didn't say "you got it" but instead said, "what you got?"

I proceeded to inform him that he was 1st to show and explain to him how much of a ass he was for slow rolling me. The dealer apologized to me for not asking him to show first.

I think the worst part of the situation is that the guy actually thought I had to show first since I called his bet.


Monster Draw

I had a monster hand when I had a decent stack (relative to the start).

My hand - 4c6c in multi-way limped pot and I was on the button

Flop - 3c7c9x
Turn - 3c7c9x4x

I obviously wound up getting all-in on the turn against QQ and wound up missing my 17 outs.

Tiliting Blackjack Players

I had been up and down, but managed to build a decent stack again when a new player sat down at the table. He was clearly in a horrible mood and looked really pissed. After a few minutes he went on and on about how he just "lost fucking $5k playing blackjack in 30 minutes" and he was waiting for a $200 SNG to start. (Oh, by the way, the Hard Rock can run $1k sngs and mtts, but the max buy-in for cash games is $100)

I open raised to $20 pf with AJo and some guy comments about how much I have been raising. Drunk Tilting BJ players (DTBJ) makes the call from the BB. The flop comes all raggy and he leads out for $40. I fold.

The very next hand I look down at AA. The situation couldn't have been any more perfect. DTBJ seems to want to get all his money in the middle and he thinks I am way too loose thanks to another's players comments about my pf raises. I make it $20 to go again. The button calls and DTBJ calls out of the SB. Flop is all rags with 2 clubs. He leads out for $30. I shove. He calls and says, "I AM going to suck out on you." He flipped over 4c8c and hit his flush on the river.

Somehow, this guy had my number. About 10 hands later, my stack was around $180 and he had me covered. I get dealt KK and raise 3 limpers to $35. DTBJ shoves all-in. Everyone else folds. I insta-call. He shows KhTc. The pot gets pushed to him thanks to 3 hearts on the flop and another on the river.

This seemed like a good time to leave the table and grab some dinner. :)

Funny Comments

I heard a few funny things at the table that show why live cash games are so good.

Early in the game. I had been playing pretty tight waiting for a good spot to double up. A girl in middle position open shoved for $45ish. I looked down at TT and I shoved my $120 all-in and a player behind me with more chips said, "Do you want a call?" I replied, "Surrrrrre! The more the merrier!" He thought for a few minutes and called with A9o. After the board ran out and I won the pot, he turned to me and said, "Hey, sometimes that works and you wind up winning a big pot." I think he honestly thought that way, too.

A lady at our table looked extremely tired and proceeded to tell the entire table, "I played all day yesterday until 4:30 AM. I probably should have gotten a couple more hours of sleep but I was so excited to come back and win more money. I won $342 yesterday!!! and couldn't wait to get back!!!!" The best part was she said that she won $342 like you might expect someone to talk about how they won $5k playing cash or came in 1st in a tourney. A few hours later she left after blowing through that $342 plus another $258 (6 buy-ins by my count). Some of her plays included folding the remaining $10 in her stack on the flop when the pot was around $150, shoving all-in over the tightest player at the table with 56 suited, and getting all in with on a flop that contained two spades because she had the Ace of spades and "might make a flush."

I need to play more live poker

I was meaning to put up this post on Monday, but work got in the way. (I can't complain about that.)

We had a baby sitter for the day on Saturday and my wife was heading to an ex-coworker's wedding with the girls, so it was the perfect opportunity to head over to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa.

Live MTT

Before heading over to Tampa (about 1 1/2 hr drive), I checked the MTT schedule. The only tourney running was a 10 AM $85+$15 MTT. I started a thread on 2+2 to find out just how horrible the structure of that tourney is and how many people usually play in it. I decided to play in it, knowing that it was going to be a turbo, and then play some cash games afterwards. One of the replies to my post summed up the tourney:

"The tournament is a turbo style that has 15 minute levels. It usually gets around 250-300 players in which half of them have received a free buy in from various promotions in the room. It has a patience factor of like negative infinity and I would rather play heads up Casino War for Rollz. Other than that GL."

I was running late and pulled into the Casino parking garage at almost 10 AM on the nose. No worries. I made my through the smoke filled metal warehouse filled with tables and slots between the parking garage and the "real" building and over to the poker room. (The Seminoles only recently made a deal with the governor of FL to have LV style gaming and they had obviously added as much space as possible as quick as possible.) After waiting in line to get my Player's card and then again to register, I found table 3-2 and paid the extra $5 dealer add-on for an additional 1,000 chips. So we started with 3,500 chips and blinds at 25/50. The bad thing was the blinds went up every 15 minutes (ridiculously fast for live play).

The finally tally was 285 players, paying 24 spots, 6k+ for 1st.

To say some of the players were horrible was an understatement. There was a guy that was clearly on a flush draw. I think the pot size was around 800 when he hit his flush on the river. He was first to act and immediately over shoved his remaining 3k into the pot. The other player thought for about 3 seconds and called with 2nd pair. Amazing. The blinds were still 25/50.

I managed to gradually chip up. It really didn't matter how much I chipped up because it quickly became an all-in shove fest. I was up and down. My 99 shove was called by J7o and I lost. I called a shove with 77 and won the race against AQ. I was dealt TT and I shoved over a guy that had been raising a ton. He had a huge stack and it was an incredibly small amount to call my all-in relative to the pot and his stack. He folding and showed the other tow Tens saying that I would have to have a huge hand to make that bet - LOL.

Fast forward to bubble time. I had around 20k chips when we got down to 3 tables and wasn't getting any opportunities to shove. Once we hit 25 players they started going hand for hand (still 15 min blinds levels and we were getting about 1 hand every 4-5 minutes). The blinds went up to 3k/6k right before my BB and I have 15k chips. UTG+1, I folded 25. UTG, I folded 49.

I post 6k of my 15k in the BB. A guy from mid position, that had been pretty active during the bubble period, pushed all-in. It folded around to me. I look down at AJ. My guess is that I am ahead of most of his range, so I called. Unfortunately, he had AQ and I was the bubble boy.

To give you an idea of how much of a turbo this tourney was:

It started around 10 AM with 285 players and I bubbled in 25th at 1:30 pm. I went and grabbed a slice of pizza and checked out some of the other areas of the casino. Around 2:15ish, I went to see who was left and it was over. :)

Low Limit ($100 max buy-in $2/$5 NL) cash game post tomorrow including being slow rolled, monster draws, tilting blackjack players waiting for a SNG, spewing players, and someone mentioning that they made a call because "Hey, sometimes that works and you win a big pot."

I overbet for value on the river thanks to the notes that I had on this player.

My notes read something along the lines of "bets big when bluffing, bets smallish when has a huge hand, has trouble folding his big hands." Based on the notes I figured he had a big hand and would bet if I checked the river to him. Once he made the last smallish bet on the river, I knew I was golden and he would call a shove. He insta-called.

Notes are you friend - especially against the guys that can't fold. :)

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $336.40
UTG: $403.00
UTG+1: $210.05
UTG+2: $692.30
MP1: $214.20
MP2: $278.25
CO: $200.00
BTN: $185.00
SB: $201.00

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with Q A

2 folds, UTG+2 raises to $8, MP1 calls $8, 2 folds, BTN calls $8, 1 fold, Hero calls $6

Flop: ($33.00) Q K 9 (4 players)

Hero checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, BTN bets $8, Hero calls $8, UTG+2 calls $8, MP1 folds

Turn: ($57.00) 5 (3 players)

Hero checks, UTG+2 checks, BTN bets $18, Hero calls $18, UTG+2 folds

River: ($93.00) 4 (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN bets $22, Hero raises to $302.40 all in, BTN calls $129 all in

Final Pot: $395.00
Hero shows Q A (a flush, Ace high)
BTN mucks J T
Hero wins $392.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Poker After Dark Cash Game

A few random thoughts from the PAD Nets vs. Vets Cash Game....

I always thought David "Raptor" Benefield was good, but this episode confirmed that he more than just a very good player. He was probably playing than anyone at the table on the day of the taping IMO. I'm definitely going to go back and watch everyone of his CR vids back to back from the first to the last.

Raptor's trip 6s lay down - How many people would lay that down? It looks bad because he had the best hand, but based on his thought process of the way Doyle played the hand it was close. Like he said, the only hand he beats that Doyle would make that raise with is KJ. Doyle's earlier bluffs had been huge pot to larger than pot size bets and this bet seemed like a value bet. Doyle thought he had the best hand too, so it probably made him seem all the stronger.

Doyle - Seems to play pretty tight until he gets impatient or a feel for the table. I'm not sure which. Maybe, it's both.

Gabe - Ummm, not sure what to say here. He seemed like he was trying to compete with Jamie Gold for the title of "Best Bluffer." The were several hands where his lines didn't make sense and that is why he was looked up.

Taylor "green plastic" Caby - Card Dead and probably looked like he isn't as good as he is to people that don't play. Anyone that plays poker realizes he never got a hand and often made the good fold of the 2nd best hand.

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BBT4

Al has put up the schedule and I can't wait.

From his blog:
"It takes a little longer these days to get things set up with all the crazy stuff going on. But we will be kicking the challenge off on Sunday, March 1st and running through Sunday, May 31st.

Full Tilt has given us 7 seats to the 2009 World Series of Poker. 2 Main Event seats and 5 prelim seats. We'll have other prizes announced shortly but that should be enough to whet your appetite."

I'm glad he added the $26 Monday tourney to take the place of the MATH that Hoy stopped running a while ago. I won't ever get a chance to play the Sunday Brit Game, so I'm not sure how that will effect the monthly standing.

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Sunday's at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donkament

Tournament: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament
When: Monday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 or token
Password: riverchasers

Tournament: Blogger Skillz Game
When: Tuesday's at 21:30ET
Game: rotation of non-NLHE games
Buyin: $10+1
Password: skillz

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

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Durrrr Challenge

I haven't started following it very close yet, but he is currently playing the first challenger Patrik Antonious. I think they are about 3k hands into the 50k hands of the challenge.

Nat Arem has put up a new site to track the challenge and that and 2+2 NVG is probably where I'm going to get all my info on the challenge.

You can check out his website for details of the challenge and where they currently stand at http://www.durrrrchallenge.com/

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Live Poker

It looks like I'll probably get to play a live tourney for the first time in a long while next weekend. We have a baby sitter on Saturday and my wife and her friends have decided to go to a friend of her's wedding with just the girls. I'll take the oppurtunity to head over to the Tampa Hard Rock. The only tourney they have running on Sat. is a $100 tourney, so I'll probably play that followed by some $100 max buy-in cash games.

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WSOP

I can't wait for the WSOP now that the schedule is out - Schedule

I'm not sure which events I will make it out there for, but I'm 75% sure I'll make it out there again this year. Hmmm, maybe the BBT4 will lead me there.

I don't think that I would play the WSOP rebuy events, but I think it's crap that they got rid of them.

I'm guessing that there will be an overall (meaning # of entrants in like event last year) decline in the entrants to each event year. I think that there are more events than last year, so I'm sure Harrah's will spin it as overall more entrants. I mean Joe Smith from the midwest that is worried about losing his job isn't about to head to LV to spend even just a couple grand playing in WSOP events. On top of that Joe Smith's wife will probably have a harder time than ever with him going to LV. I really really hope I'm wrong, but I don't think I will be.

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This Blog

I have really let my posting drop off over the last 6 months+. Hopefully, this random thoughts post will be a spring board towards more posting. :)

I stumbled across a few good podcast interviews of Cole South, the Dang brothers, and others. The show is on a Washington DC radio station. I couldn't find it on ITunes, but you can listen directly on their site.

I've only listened to the CTS and Dang Bros. interviews so far but they are definitely worth the listen.

http://mediocrepokerradio.com/podcasts/

CTS is a 2 part on 2/1
Dang Bros is a 3 part on 12/14 and 12/21

I'll probably start at the bottom of the page and listen to the rest.

Leave me a comment if you know how to download them on Itunes. (I'm a little technically challenged.)

INTERNETPOKERS had an interesting blog post up with a different take on variance, expectations, and running bad/good. It is definitely worth the read and might even get you thinking a little differently next time you feel like you are running bad.

Link to Post




.

Sounds good, but not when you are playing a razz tourney.

Thanks for the comments on the hand that I posted in my last post. I wasn't 100% sure what to do on the river, because the guy seemed pretty tight. I think that I let his final stats at the table shape my thinking of the hand. He wound up with stats something like 6/5.


1. Once the river hits, what is the best way to maximize value/minimize loss?

A. Lead into the pot again. If so, for how much? What do you do if he shoves over your raise?
B. Check/Call to give him the opputurnity to bet his missed draws or worse one pair hand.
C. Check/Raise. Why?
D. Something else that I haven't thought of.

I opted for option A and bet $65 on the river. The guy timed down and I started thinking that there were only 2 hands that he would call with - KQ and possibly AJ. He eventually called with KQ and I won the pot. Based on how tight his final stats were, I think that I probably got maximum value based on his hand. If I checked behind, he was prob bettinng less than $65. I was just wondering if I was losing value from missed draws bluffing, but again he didn't seem like the type of player that would make a big bluff with a missed draw on the river - the check/call would probably be more profitable against a very aggressive player that has a high river aggression or I have noted as bluffing missed draws on the river.


2. Is there ever a reason to check this turn against a really tight player that called an UTG open and then called the flop bet?

Gnome said, "As for question No. 2, why would you ever check the turn when you have the best hand?"

LOL. I agree. I really don't know why I even posted this question other than he had such tight final stats (6/5). If I bet the turn and he made a big raise, I could always fold against this type of player.



Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $184.55
SB: $200.00
BB: $43.00
Hero (UTG): $208.00
UTG+1: $339.30
UTG+2: $482.80
MP1: $41.75
MP2: $258.90
CO: $43.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG with Ac Qd

Hero raises to $7
1 fold
UTG+2 calls $7
6 folds

Flop: ($17.00) Qs Js 8d (2 players)

Hero bets $12
UTG+2 calls $12

Turn: ($41.00) 6h (2 players)
Hero bets $30
UTG+2 calls $30

River: ($101.00) 2d (2 players)

Don't be shocked, but I am putting up a post with some actual poker content.

I don't have much history with UTG+2. I think I probably had around 30-40 hands on him. He had played very tight (something like 10/8/fairly high agg factor - but doesn't mean much with the sample) and we had only been involved in one pot a couple of orbits earlier where I was the button and he was the BB. He raised my flop c-bet and I folded. Without any more reads and based on how tight he seemed to be playing over a small sample, I would assume he plays fairly straight forward until I have reason to believe otherwise.

My thought process on the flop. I make a standard c-bet. I would expect him to raise a set, an over pair or two pair since the flop is pretty scary. My guess for his range with something like AJ, AQ, AK, KQ, AT, AsXs, TT, 99.

1. Once the river hits, what is the best way to maximize value/minimize loss?

A. Lead into the pot again. If so, for how much? What do you do if he shoves over your raise?
B. Check/Call to give him the opputurnity to bet his missed draws or worse one pair hand.
C. Check/Raise. Why?
D. Something else that I haven't thought of.

2. Is there ever a reason to check this turn against a really tight player that called an UTG open and then called the flop bet?


Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $184.55
SB: $200.00
BB: $43.00
Hero (UTG): $208.00
UTG+1: $339.30
UTG+2: $482.80
MP1: $41.75
MP2: $258.90
CO: $43.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG with Ac Qd

Hero raises to $7
1 fold
UTG+2 calls $7
6 folds

Flop: ($17.00) Qs Js 8d (2 players)

Hero bets $12
UTG+2 calls $12

Turn: ($41.00) 6h (2 players)
Hero bets $30
UTG+2 calls $30

River: ($101.00) 2d (2 players)

Since I haven't been up for posting much poker content lately, I thought I would share a video that had me LMFAO.

Party Hard. Life is short. You never know when your ticket will be punched.

I haven't played too many MTTs lately and was wondering if the MP's shove over my short stack raise is a +EV shove. I'm curious (not because I lost the hand) because I have been in the same situation several times before in both MTTs and SNGs and am not sure where the cutoff line for hands would be.

Tourney - FTP $50/$50k - 12 players left
Me - 6 BBs after losing a decent size pot about 6 hands earlier (not to MP); I have been active, but not overly active. I don't think that I have shoved from SB to MP's BB or raised his BB very often since we hadn't been at the same table for very long.

MP - 15 BBs remaining. If he shoves and loses to me it leaves him with around 8.5 BBs.

CO - Has been playing fairly LAGgy with the big stack and has called some shoves with a fairly wide range of hands. I would say he is calling MP's shove with any pair/ATo+/AXs.

SB/BB - would both have a very tight range for calling his shove.

So, the question is - Is MP's shove a +EV shove considering he is probably sitting around 6th or 7th with 12 players remaining? (payouts for 10-12 is $720; 9th - $923; 1st - $11k; 2nd $7k; 3rd - $4.8k; etc)

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 5,000/10,000 Blinds, 1,000 Ante, 6 Players

LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


MP: 149,371
CO: 453,614
BTN: 24,813
SB: 343,550
BB: 155,638
Hero (UTG): 60,306

Pre-Flop: (21,000) A 6 dealt to Hero (UTG)

Hero raises to 59,306 and is All-In, MP raises to 148,371 and is All-In, 4 folds

Flop: (139,612) 4 5 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (139,612) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (139,612) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 139,612 Pot

MP showed T K (a flush, King high) and WON 139,612 (+79,306 NET)
Hero showed A 6 (a pair of Sixes) and LOST (-60,306 NET)

GO GATORS!!

I got a little nervous, but book another National Championship for the GATORS!!!!!!!

Sometimes I go on auto-pilot (multi-tabling while watching TV, etc) amd I forget one of the most basic things in poker that I should be asking myself every time I play:

What am I hoping to accomplish with my bet/call/fold in this particular hand? What do I think will be the results of my action? What is my plan if the results are different than I expect?

Sounds simple enough, but it seems that I sometimes forget to ask myself those basic questions before I act. I could go into further detail, but it varies so much depending on the situation. The important thing is to have a plan for each hand with a detailed reasoning that makes sense.

I was going to do a long post about poker goals for the New Year, but decided to keep it simple and to the point.

Online
1. Blog more (with poker content and analysis)
2. Always play my best poker ("A" game) no matter what game I'm playing.
3. Spend more time reviewing my sessions.
4. Watch more training videos (and really pay attention while I'm watching)
5. Read hand histories/strategy posts on forums and post difficult decisions.
6. Play more blogger tourneys. They are always fun.
7. Make Supernova on Pokerstars by the end of April

Live
1. Try to make it out to the WSOP this year (either for ME or prelims). This might be a little difficult finding the time with the new business, but I'm going to try to make it happen.
2. I'll have to figure out more live goals as the year goes on and I see how busy I will be with work.

Not too comprehensive right now, but I'm not sure how much work will get in the way. I'll probably set some more specific mini-goals in the near future.