Won 2170 last night. There was a woman who was a complete train wreck last night. She got very drunk and very belligerent and kept demanding to know why she was cut off. It was a very poor sight to see. She also kept demanding to that the floor man call Haig Kelegian, saying that Haig would never treat her like that. She claimed that she drove 3 hours to drink and gamble. She also claimed to have 3 addictions, sex, gambling, and booze. And I kind of believe her. Very sad.
I played well and ran well last night. I played two hands exceptionally well in my opinion. I raised pocket queens UTG and get cold-called in middle position by the resident prop and the big blind. Flop comes all babies, I bet and get called in both spots. Turn is another baby putting a wheel draw out for anyone who held an ace. I bet, prop calls, big blind folds. River is a jack. Now, I know exactly what the prop has here. He has to have exactly AJ offsuit, with a small outside chance of AT suited. AQ AK AJs 3-bet preflop, pocket pairs between 7-T, likely 3-bet preflop or at least raise the flop, and all big pocket pairs JJ+ 3-bet preflop as well. Smaller pairs muck preflop. So I check, since I will only get called by AJ, and everything else will muck, but AJ will bet. He dutifully bets, and I spring a check-raise in, and he dutifully pays me off, and shows me AJo, just like I thought.
Other hand against the drunk lady, I defend red deuces in the big blind, with like a 4-way pot. Flop comes AJx all spades. Checked around. Turn is a blank, I bet, she raises, everyone else clears out, and I call. River is a low spade, and I donk. She hems and haws and then eventually folds. I pick up my cards to admire my play, and my neighbor gets a glimpse of my cards, and she demands to see it. I show and she gets extremely agitated.
After this hand, she was gunning for me, and tried to beat me out of so many pots by bluff raising the turn numerous times. Every time I had it, unfortunately and she just got more and more frustrated. She eventually went busto a little after 1am, and the game broke almost immediately after she left.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Riding the Train
Since my debacle last Thursday, I have been an on extreme heater winning close to 8.5k in about 30 hours of play in the 20/40 game. Lately, I have been playing poker very much in a zen mode. Just taking the cards and the flow of the game as it comes. Even when I take a beat, it doesn't bother me, and when I make a mistake and play a hand bad, instead of getting upset about it, I replay the hand, decide what I did wrong and why, and then immediately stop thinking about it before the next hand gets started.
Sometimes when I am playing poker, I just know what my opponents have, exactly what they are going to do with it, and exactly how I should respond/act to maximize my expected value.
Sometimes when I am playing poker, I just know what my opponents have, exactly what they are going to do with it, and exactly how I should respond/act to maximize my expected value.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Days Like This
Some days at the poker table remind me of this Van Morrison song.
Thursday's session was absolutely horrid in the beginning. I got to the poker room around 5pm, and by 9:30pm or so I was in 10 racks. By the time I quit, I finished off with a little less than a 4 rack loss. For the first 4 hours or so, I just lost and lost and lost, mostly to absurd hands, but some I played badly too.
I guess if the first two hands I played were any indication of the type of day I was going to have, I should have just got up and quit. First hand I played, a local business man, who shows up on occasion and always makes for a good game, cold-called my early position raise with jack-ten offsuit. I happened to have ace-king offsuit. I bet flop, turn, and river, on a 4246T rainbow board. He just called on the river and was relieved to see that I just had ace-high. This is a very thin value bet by me, as I know he will call me with ace-high as well and sometimes even king-high. Plus I am always value betting thin, and check-calling this river or check-folding makes it too easy to play against me.
Second hand I played this day a few hands later, same gentleman opens in MP, gets 3-bet by Laurie, button cold-calls, and I call with 22 in the SB. Pot goes off 4-handed, and I flop the world 2JJ. I check, opener bets, Laurie raises, button folds, I 3-bet, opener caps, Laurie calls. Turn is a 6, I check, opener bets, Laurie calls, I raise, both call. River is a Q. I bet, he calls, Laurie now raises, I hate life and call, and get overcalled as well. Laurie has QQ for the nut boat, and the opener had AJ. Very sick cooler, that if we had a 5-bet cap, will play differently, or if I had just lead the turn, I'm fairly sure that AJ will raise and then Laurie would fold, and I would win the pot. However, in the long run, getting 5 bets out of 2 players is better than getting 4-bets out of 1 player, and I have Laurie drawing super slim, while AJ still has like 17% equity in the pot, so getting it heads up with him is actually not super desirable. An expert probably bet/folds that particularly river, but I don't like shrimp cocktail. Plus, I am not as expert as I seem.
Then as the night progresses, the opposite seems to happen, and I simply can't lose a hand. The local pro in the game is winning as well, and the wanna-be-pro is simply fading fast and can't seem to win a hand before he goes busto and the game breaks not too soon thereafter. I did play this hand, and lost to Andy's 93o. As I go through the hand again, I am not sure if I played it badly or not, but does make me think about what my range needs to be in this particular spot, where I just call the flop and then c/r the turn.
Fast forward to Saturday night, and it's simply a continuation of my last session in which I can do no wrong. The lineup is simply awesome, with angry Sean in 1, Rajan the king in 2, Andy in 3, Jed for part of the time in 4 and then Asya for a little bit, Helen in 5 and then she moved into 8, Jon in 6, Amir in 7, and an unknown from Los Angeles in 8 until he busted. Andy had the Jesus seat, and I like to make my office in the 9 seat. I generally don't seat change unless the wheels are falling off the bus, and I just hunker down in seat 9 and adjust to the players at the table as necessary.
And I just won and won and won. When I finally quit, I had to grab a rolling table to escort my 9 racks of chips to the cage.
Thursday's session was absolutely horrid in the beginning. I got to the poker room around 5pm, and by 9:30pm or so I was in 10 racks. By the time I quit, I finished off with a little less than a 4 rack loss. For the first 4 hours or so, I just lost and lost and lost, mostly to absurd hands, but some I played badly too.
I guess if the first two hands I played were any indication of the type of day I was going to have, I should have just got up and quit. First hand I played, a local business man, who shows up on occasion and always makes for a good game, cold-called my early position raise with jack-ten offsuit. I happened to have ace-king offsuit. I bet flop, turn, and river, on a 4246T rainbow board. He just called on the river and was relieved to see that I just had ace-high. This is a very thin value bet by me, as I know he will call me with ace-high as well and sometimes even king-high. Plus I am always value betting thin, and check-calling this river or check-folding makes it too easy to play against me.
Second hand I played this day a few hands later, same gentleman opens in MP, gets 3-bet by Laurie, button cold-calls, and I call with 22 in the SB. Pot goes off 4-handed, and I flop the world 2JJ. I check, opener bets, Laurie raises, button folds, I 3-bet, opener caps, Laurie calls. Turn is a 6, I check, opener bets, Laurie calls, I raise, both call. River is a Q. I bet, he calls, Laurie now raises, I hate life and call, and get overcalled as well. Laurie has QQ for the nut boat, and the opener had AJ. Very sick cooler, that if we had a 5-bet cap, will play differently, or if I had just lead the turn, I'm fairly sure that AJ will raise and then Laurie would fold, and I would win the pot. However, in the long run, getting 5 bets out of 2 players is better than getting 4-bets out of 1 player, and I have Laurie drawing super slim, while AJ still has like 17% equity in the pot, so getting it heads up with him is actually not super desirable. An expert probably bet/folds that particularly river, but I don't like shrimp cocktail. Plus, I am not as expert as I seem.
Then as the night progresses, the opposite seems to happen, and I simply can't lose a hand. The local pro in the game is winning as well, and the wanna-be-pro is simply fading fast and can't seem to win a hand before he goes busto and the game breaks not too soon thereafter. I did play this hand, and lost to Andy's 93o. As I go through the hand again, I am not sure if I played it badly or not, but does make me think about what my range needs to be in this particular spot, where I just call the flop and then c/r the turn.
Fast forward to Saturday night, and it's simply a continuation of my last session in which I can do no wrong. The lineup is simply awesome, with angry Sean in 1, Rajan the king in 2, Andy in 3, Jed for part of the time in 4 and then Asya for a little bit, Helen in 5 and then she moved into 8, Jon in 6, Amir in 7, and an unknown from Los Angeles in 8 until he busted. Andy had the Jesus seat, and I like to make my office in the 9 seat. I generally don't seat change unless the wheels are falling off the bus, and I just hunker down in seat 9 and adjust to the players at the table as necessary.
And I just won and won and won. When I finally quit, I had to grab a rolling table to escort my 9 racks of chips to the cage.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Vegas!
Have my summer Vegas trip planned. I will be staying at the Aria from July 5 through July 7. My sister-in-law will be visiting from the mid-west, or mid-east depending on how you want to look at it, with her husband and kids, and the wives have said that the husbands can go have some fun!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Suited Connectors
I won a 30 big bet pot (that's 1200 dollars), in the 20/40 game at Oceans. Action went off 6 ways capped preflop, with me being the capper preflop with 9hTh on the button.
Flop came KQ8 two diamonds. I was donked into, just called, then all hell broke loose and it was 3-bet back to me, so I capped it. Turn was an interesting card the 6 diamonds. I now have a double gutter in a 24 big bet pot, and once again I get donked into. I of course called, two players dropped out, so going into the river we have a 28 big bet pot. The river is an offsuit jack, and now everyone checks to me. I contemplate, slam out a bet, and get called by very likely top-set or middle set, and scoop a ginourmous pot!
Flop came KQ8 two diamonds. I was donked into, just called, then all hell broke loose and it was 3-bet back to me, so I capped it. Turn was an interesting card the 6 diamonds. I now have a double gutter in a 24 big bet pot, and once again I get donked into. I of course called, two players dropped out, so going into the river we have a 28 big bet pot. The river is an offsuit jack, and now everyone checks to me. I contemplate, slam out a bet, and get called by very likely top-set or middle set, and scoop a ginourmous pot!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Who's more famous?
Weird pattern lately. I have been playing full ring games, losing early, then getting even or winner, the games then have gotten short with massive action players and then the wheels fall off the roller coaster. Most of the players are losers or maybe break even players in full ring games, and are definitely dogs in short handed games, but for whatever reason, I seem to be running horrid against them here lately.
Taxicab Dave was in the game last night, and proceeded to lose a ton early and then go on a massive heater where he couldn't lose a hand. Whatever he needed he got on the river. 8d2d, limp on the button, ok here have running diamonds. Very silly.
Have played quite a bit with Gavin Griffin here lately. I have played with him in the 20/40 mainly. He plays good, but I will say I think he gets a bit over emotional when he takes a beat. For the most part he's an upstart guy, well mannered, speaks intelligently, and seems like a good guy. However for a professional, I would think that he would be used to taking a beat by now, particularly in limit holdem. I think he is more bothered, by when he thinks a good/reasonable player beats him, rather than a poor player. Either way, it's part of the game, muck your hand graciously and move on to the next hand.
Last night we had a discussion as to who was the more famous person at our table as there is a local celebrity playing as well, plus another individual with a famous name.
So from Google:
Gavin Griffin : About 10,300,000 results
Local Celeb: About 411,000 results
Famous Name: About 2,250,000 results
My real life name: 132,000,000 results
My pseudonym: About 5,110 results
However, my real life name is pretty common and I think there is a famous jazz musician with the same name, but it's pretty funny that I have the largest number of google hits.
So I guess I win.
Taxicab Dave was in the game last night, and proceeded to lose a ton early and then go on a massive heater where he couldn't lose a hand. Whatever he needed he got on the river. 8d2d, limp on the button, ok here have running diamonds. Very silly.
Have played quite a bit with Gavin Griffin here lately. I have played with him in the 20/40 mainly. He plays good, but I will say I think he gets a bit over emotional when he takes a beat. For the most part he's an upstart guy, well mannered, speaks intelligently, and seems like a good guy. However for a professional, I would think that he would be used to taking a beat by now, particularly in limit holdem. I think he is more bothered, by when he thinks a good/reasonable player beats him, rather than a poor player. Either way, it's part of the game, muck your hand graciously and move on to the next hand.
Last night we had a discussion as to who was the more famous person at our table as there is a local celebrity playing as well, plus another individual with a famous name.
So from Google:
Gavin Griffin : About 10,300,000 results
Local Celeb: About 411,000 results
Famous Name: About 2,250,000 results
My real life name: 132,000,000 results
My pseudonym: About 5,110 results
However, my real life name is pretty common and I think there is a famous jazz musician with the same name, but it's pretty funny that I have the largest number of google hits.
So I guess I win.
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