Monday, May 11, 2009
Off to Minnesota
Wife is in Minnesota, since last Monday. I have a few things to take care of this week at work, and then I'll be heading for Minnesota on Wednesday evening. Hope the Canterbury Park regulars are ready to see me again. Not sure if I'll actually get a chance to play out there however, as I think I'll probably have a full schedule while I'm out there since it's my father in laws 70th birthday. We'll see.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Heater check?
After a pretty big downswing, I think variance is starting to swing the other way now. I have been on a mini weekend heater, and picked up 5 dimes this weekend. I played 20/40 last night and some 20/40 this afternoon/early evening and just crushed it. I love sessions like these, where it seemed I had no tough decisions, and all my river value bets were correct, my ace high call downs were good, and even the hands that I lost I felt that I played properly. Today's lineup was great for me. Only 1 other good player at the table, 1 nit, 1 super LAG, and everyone else was loose passive. I simply ran over the table. It felt good to know that I was the best player at the table.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Finally
I finally booked a win last night, 1820 in 7.5 hours in the 40/80 game at Oceans-11. There was a super tilting player, who normally plays pretty solid, but is a super lag too. I made two correct call downs with very marginal holdings. I 2-bet AQo, and I was 3-bet preflop, and it was heads up after that. I check/called 2 streets, and the river went check/check and my hand was good, with just ace high. The next time a little while later, when the game got short handed, I 2-bet KTo, and was 3-bet by the same player, and again it was heads up. Flop went check/check, and I check/called the turn, and the river went check/check. Neither one of us had a pair, and I ended up chopping the pot, as we both had the same hand KTo.
There was one final pot played the last hand before the game broke, that was huge. Two people made a flush, and the tilting player made a straight. The flop was Jd9s7d, and some bets went in. Turn was the Kd, and all hell broke loose, 4-bets from two of the players, and almost 3-bets from the tilting player. River was a blank, and then the first player bet, the other player raised, and the first player, an excellent limit holdem player, folded his Qd8d face up. Winner had Ad3d for the nuts, and the other all-in player had QcTd for the turned straight. Both players were drawing dead on the turn.
I may have misplayed a hand too, where I may have lost 2 or 3 bets I could have made. Temporarily 3-handed because a bunch of people were walking. Button raises, who is an excellent tight aggressive player, although sometimes too aggressive post flop. I 3-bet pocket 7's from the small blind, big blind clears out, and the button just calls. Flop comes J7x. I bet, button calls. Turn is a 7. I bet, button raises, I 3-bet, button 4-bets, and I just call. River is K. I bet, button calls. I'm pretty sure that I should have 5-bet, even though it turns my hand face up. I was pretty sure that the button had AA, KK, or JJ. So I thought that the river card was a good chance to get a b/3b in. On the other hand, with me just calling the 4-bet on the turn, I may have also been able to get a check/raise in on the river. In any case the button just called with his AA. So in retrospect, I think I lost at least 1 bet on the turn by not 5-betting. I don't think I'll get 6-bet by him here like ever. Having not 5-bet, I probably should have gone for the c/r, since I think the button is aggressive enough to make the very thin value bet of AA here on the river, but I'm not totally sure.
There was one final pot played the last hand before the game broke, that was huge. Two people made a flush, and the tilting player made a straight. The flop was Jd9s7d, and some bets went in. Turn was the Kd, and all hell broke loose, 4-bets from two of the players, and almost 3-bets from the tilting player. River was a blank, and then the first player bet, the other player raised, and the first player, an excellent limit holdem player, folded his Qd8d face up. Winner had Ad3d for the nuts, and the other all-in player had QcTd for the turned straight. Both players were drawing dead on the turn.
I may have misplayed a hand too, where I may have lost 2 or 3 bets I could have made. Temporarily 3-handed because a bunch of people were walking. Button raises, who is an excellent tight aggressive player, although sometimes too aggressive post flop. I 3-bet pocket 7's from the small blind, big blind clears out, and the button just calls. Flop comes J7x. I bet, button calls. Turn is a 7. I bet, button raises, I 3-bet, button 4-bets, and I just call. River is K. I bet, button calls. I'm pretty sure that I should have 5-bet, even though it turns my hand face up. I was pretty sure that the button had AA, KK, or JJ. So I thought that the river card was a good chance to get a b/3b in. On the other hand, with me just calling the 4-bet on the turn, I may have also been able to get a check/raise in on the river. In any case the button just called with his AA. So in retrospect, I think I lost at least 1 bet on the turn by not 5-betting. I don't think I'll get 6-bet by him here like ever. Having not 5-bet, I probably should have gone for the c/r, since I think the button is aggressive enough to make the very thin value bet of AA here on the river, but I'm not totally sure.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Limit - I win, No Limit - I lose
Hmmm, no-limit seems to be all the rage these days, and it has been for what seems to be quite a while. However, and while I admit I haven't really played/studied/practiced no-limit holdem all that much, I can't seem to beat this damn game. Now I have a very limited sample size, and I can't for certainty say that I am a winner or loser in this game, but if last night's results are any indication I am a huge fish at no-limit. I played the 5/5 no limit holdem at Oceans last night for two hours and 20 minutes and lost 1967 American, not Canadian, dollars.
The 5/5 has a max buy-in of $1000 and I bought, lost, bought another 1k, lost, bought another 1k (for those of you counting that is 3 dimes I was into this game for at this point), built it up and then lost another big pot. Let's see I lost with JJ against AK, AA against K9, AA against KK, and some other monstrosities that were pretty sick. The AA versus KK was a total cold deck. All fold to me in the SB, and I ask the BB if chops. He says no he plays, he has about 1100 hundred behind and I have him covered.
Ok, I look at my hand and I have AA. I raise it to 20, he re-raises to 60 and I call. Flop comes K42 rainbow. I check, he checks. Turn is a T. I check, he bets 60 or 80, I check raise to 200, he reraises to 600 basically committing him and me to the hand if I decide to call. I, of course, put him all-in and he beats me into the pot with KK. Of course, I think I played this hand awfully in retrospect, and will just chalk this up as a 1100 dollar poker lesson, but geeze c'mon, that's a total cold deck there small blind versus big blind AA and KK?
I think if he doesn't flop a set and we both have overpairs I end up stacking him on the turn anyways. But whatever. So, then I finally get called for the 20/40 game and I am back much more in my comfort zone and I win 1640 in 4 hours. So in all I was down on the night by little over 300 dollars, so it's not like it was a big deal or anything.
I guess maybe it's more of a shot to my ego than anything else. I may have to give up limit for a while and maybe start concentrating on the no-limit game so I can at least become competent at mid-stakes no-limit live games. Whatever . . . .
The 5/5 has a max buy-in of $1000 and I bought, lost, bought another 1k, lost, bought another 1k (for those of you counting that is 3 dimes I was into this game for at this point), built it up and then lost another big pot. Let's see I lost with JJ against AK, AA against K9, AA against KK, and some other monstrosities that were pretty sick. The AA versus KK was a total cold deck. All fold to me in the SB, and I ask the BB if chops. He says no he plays, he has about 1100 hundred behind and I have him covered.
Ok, I look at my hand and I have AA. I raise it to 20, he re-raises to 60 and I call. Flop comes K42 rainbow. I check, he checks. Turn is a T. I check, he bets 60 or 80, I check raise to 200, he reraises to 600 basically committing him and me to the hand if I decide to call. I, of course, put him all-in and he beats me into the pot with KK. Of course, I think I played this hand awfully in retrospect, and will just chalk this up as a 1100 dollar poker lesson, but geeze c'mon, that's a total cold deck there small blind versus big blind AA and KK?
I think if he doesn't flop a set and we both have overpairs I end up stacking him on the turn anyways. But whatever. So, then I finally get called for the 20/40 game and I am back much more in my comfort zone and I win 1640 in 4 hours. So in all I was down on the night by little over 300 dollars, so it's not like it was a big deal or anything.
I guess maybe it's more of a shot to my ego than anything else. I may have to give up limit for a while and maybe start concentrating on the no-limit game so I can at least become competent at mid-stakes no-limit live games. Whatever . . . .
Monday, April 27, 2009
No longer dieing!
No posts for a while since I have been sick. I got strep throat, felt like I was dieing, finally drug myself to urgent care. They confirmed I had strep throat, gave me a prescription for antibiotics, and now I am feeling a ton better. It's amazing what those drugs will do for you.
I am a downswing since coming back from Palm Springs. While out at Palm Springs, like I said previously I won 622 dollars playing 8/16, the next night I went back and didn't get to play any poker. Instead I played blackjack while I was waiting and I won 4000 instead in like 2.5 hours. Go figure.
Since then however, I am down a little under 5k. I booked a nice win last night, however, my first night back in a casino in a little over a week. I won 288 in an 8/16 game in like 20 minutes, and then booked a 1605 win in 5.75 hours in the 20/40. Normally the 20/40 is not played with a kill, but recently the regulars there have seemed to want to juice up the action lately, and we played the 20/40 with a kill last night. On Friday and Saturday night, when I thought I was on my deathbed, apparently they got a 40/80 game running with a kill as well. I also missed out on my chance to meet bicyclekick at Oceans-11. Apparently he and DeathDonkey made a trip to our local friendly casino.
I am a downswing since coming back from Palm Springs. While out at Palm Springs, like I said previously I won 622 dollars playing 8/16, the next night I went back and didn't get to play any poker. Instead I played blackjack while I was waiting and I won 4000 instead in like 2.5 hours. Go figure.
Since then however, I am down a little under 5k. I booked a nice win last night, however, my first night back in a casino in a little over a week. I won 288 in an 8/16 game in like 20 minutes, and then booked a 1605 win in 5.75 hours in the 20/40. Normally the 20/40 is not played with a kill, but recently the regulars there have seemed to want to juice up the action lately, and we played the 20/40 with a kill last night. On Friday and Saturday night, when I thought I was on my deathbed, apparently they got a 40/80 game running with a kill as well. I also missed out on my chance to meet bicyclekick at Oceans-11. Apparently he and DeathDonkey made a trip to our local friendly casino.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Palm Springs, err Desert Hot Springs
So I'm sitting in my hotel room in Desert Hot Springs. The hotel is pretty nice (other than the cockroach I found in the bathroom that I had to catch and flush down the toilet), and they have a bunch of nice hot pools that are sourced from the underground aquifer that is nice and hot.
My wife made reservations two nights ago at some place I had never heard of. She just said it was somewhere in Palm Springs. Well sort of. It's close to Palm Springs, about 30 minutes north of it. The only slight problem with the place, is that isn't really much more than a resort town, and it turns out it has a huge gang and crime problem, according to this article.
I did get out last night and played 8/16 at Agua Caliente. I played there many years ago, almost 5 now. Back then they had 20/40 and bigger. Here's the trip report I wrote back then after I went there for the first time.
This time around it was much different. The poker room itself I think was in the same location, but I can't say for sure. The biggest limit game they had going was 8/16, and only one table at that. They may have had a 3/6 and 4/8 game going too, I don't quite remember. The place has basically turned into a no-limit room, with plenty of small stakes no limit being spread, and I think one fairy large 5/10/20 game being run. Not sure if that means it's 5 dollar ante from each player, and then 10/20 blinds, I wasn't really paying attention to that table.
I played 8/16 and won 622 dollars in about 3 hours or so. I got really drunk for some reason, I didn't drink that much, but I drank on an empty stomache, so that probably caused my problems. I ended up heaving in the bathroom for like 2 hours around midnight. I don't know what time the game broke, because when I came back at 2am, the game had already broke and I had gotten picked up. I grabbed my chips and cashed in, and then I tried to get a room at the hotel there, so I wouldn't have to drive back. Unfortunately they were sold out, so I got the minivan from valet, parked in the parking garage and passed out in the back for 2 hours or so. Very cold and uncomfortable. After I felt good enough to drive, I drove back to the hotel and slunk into bed next to my wife. She was pretty understanding of it, all things considered. Also since she was the one who fed me Udon noodles, and not a real meal, I think she probably felt partially responsible anyways. It's really not her fault though.
My wife made reservations two nights ago at some place I had never heard of. She just said it was somewhere in Palm Springs. Well sort of. It's close to Palm Springs, about 30 minutes north of it. The only slight problem with the place, is that isn't really much more than a resort town, and it turns out it has a huge gang and crime problem, according to this article.
I did get out last night and played 8/16 at Agua Caliente. I played there many years ago, almost 5 now. Back then they had 20/40 and bigger. Here's the trip report I wrote back then after I went there for the first time.
This time around it was much different. The poker room itself I think was in the same location, but I can't say for sure. The biggest limit game they had going was 8/16, and only one table at that. They may have had a 3/6 and 4/8 game going too, I don't quite remember. The place has basically turned into a no-limit room, with plenty of small stakes no limit being spread, and I think one fairy large 5/10/20 game being run. Not sure if that means it's 5 dollar ante from each player, and then 10/20 blinds, I wasn't really paying attention to that table.
I played 8/16 and won 622 dollars in about 3 hours or so. I got really drunk for some reason, I didn't drink that much, but I drank on an empty stomache, so that probably caused my problems. I ended up heaving in the bathroom for like 2 hours around midnight. I don't know what time the game broke, because when I came back at 2am, the game had already broke and I had gotten picked up. I grabbed my chips and cashed in, and then I tried to get a room at the hotel there, so I wouldn't have to drive back. Unfortunately they were sold out, so I got the minivan from valet, parked in the parking garage and passed out in the back for 2 hours or so. Very cold and uncomfortable. After I felt good enough to drive, I drove back to the hotel and slunk into bed next to my wife. She was pretty understanding of it, all things considered. Also since she was the one who fed me Udon noodles, and not a real meal, I think she probably felt partially responsible anyways. It's really not her fault though.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Vacation
I'm on vacation until April 13th. Not sure what exactly my wife has planned, but hopefully it will be restful and relaxing. But probably not, not with two little ones running around the house.
I did get my one "free" day yesterday and I spent it playing 20/40 at Oceans-11. I had a good day/night and won 1855 in about 12 hours of play. I was winning even more, but then I got rivered or turned in two huge pots. In the first I had pocket kings and raised under the gun. Next up a buddy of mine 3-bets, and then some random unknown caps. Flop comes 9 high, I check, buddy bets, unknown raises, I 3-bet, all call. Turn was a blank, bet-call-call. River 9. Bet-call-call. My buddy flips over 89 suited. Nice. A little while later he got me again when I had AJ against his 86 suited on a jack high board with 2 of his suit. Again I raised preflop and he 3-bet me again.
Oh yeah, then there was the pot where I flopped the nuts with 96 suited in like a 7 way limped pot. Flop came 578. Don't worry it came running 7's. I folded on the river like I was supposed to.
On a nicer note, I may have misplayed one hand, where I turned quads and then only called a turn c/r, but did get to raise the river and get paid off.
I did get my one "free" day yesterday and I spent it playing 20/40 at Oceans-11. I had a good day/night and won 1855 in about 12 hours of play. I was winning even more, but then I got rivered or turned in two huge pots. In the first I had pocket kings and raised under the gun. Next up a buddy of mine 3-bets, and then some random unknown caps. Flop comes 9 high, I check, buddy bets, unknown raises, I 3-bet, all call. Turn was a blank, bet-call-call. River 9. Bet-call-call. My buddy flips over 89 suited. Nice. A little while later he got me again when I had AJ against his 86 suited on a jack high board with 2 of his suit. Again I raised preflop and he 3-bet me again.
Oh yeah, then there was the pot where I flopped the nuts with 96 suited in like a 7 way limped pot. Flop came 578. Don't worry it came running 7's. I folded on the river like I was supposed to.
On a nicer note, I may have misplayed one hand, where I turned quads and then only called a turn c/r, but did get to raise the river and get paid off.
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