Interesting night my last session. Tuesdays are Alan nights, so after dinner with the wife and kids at Souplantation, I headed to my night job.
I get to the casino and there are two 20/40 games running. I get a seat in the must-move game and we are 7 or 8 handed, for most of the first part of the night. I don't really do much, and my chip stack stays within +- 300 of my buyin. Then the game gets short, and I end up playing heads up with AB. AB is horrible. He wins like the first 4 pots off of me, and then I win like the next 10 in a row, some with real hands, 2 or 3 with ace high only.
Then some others join us and we get back up to 4 or 5 handed. When 4-handed the following monstrosity happens:
I get Kd Kc in the BB, UTG opens, AB cold-calls on the button, David T calls in the SB, I 3-bet, UTG caps, all call.
Flop comes 9d 7d 2d. I lead, UTG raises, AB cold-calls, David T 3-bets, I call, UTG caps out of turn, we all call.
In case you haven't noticed, the pot is pretty big at this point, and I have an overpair, plus the second nut flush draw.
Turn is the ugliest card in the deck for me, the ace of spades. Checked to the button who of course bets, David T check-raises. Here's the decision point of the hand for me. The pot has 19 BB in it, and I am getting 19:2 immediate odds to call, but the action will not be closed. I am very likely in 3rd place, and could be drawing dead. However with AB holding any ace here, I have to think I am live. So I cold-call two on the turn, which I rarely do. UTG mucks JcJs exposing it to the dealer and in the process to me, so the dealer tables it for all to see, AB calls. River is a rag diamond. Yah, I just got there! David T checks, I fire in a bet, and now AB raises, David T mucks disgustingly, and now I crying call getting 25:1 to get shown the nuts, A9o, with the ace of course being the ace of diamonds.
So in fact I was drawing dead. David T later told me he had QdTd for the flopped flush. So let's look at the hands and the percentages at each point in the hand
SB QdTd 13.8% 66.3% 75.0%
BB KdKc 47.8% 2.8% 0.0%
UTG JcJs 16.9% 2.1% 0.0%
BTN Ad9s 21.6% 28.8% 25.0%
So I was drawing dead on the turn, like I feared, and went from a favorite to a huge dog, just like that.
Later while I am 3-handed with David T and AB, I flopped a set of kings against AB's set of 3's and he just called my flop and turn bets. The river was an A, which I successfully check raised him on, but again he didn't put in 3-bets on the river and just called. Where's the rest of my POT! He is supposed to go animal with that hand and a K73 rainbow board, what he just magically knows that I flopped top-set?
Later, the main game finally loses a player and I am forced to move over there. I have to immediately change mind sets from playing a 3/4-handed game to a full ring game. I play here for quite a bit, but only get to play with Alan for like an hour or so before he takes off, so once again I miss his weekly visit.
Even here, the game eventually gets short, which is my strength, and I pound some on the fish. All in all, I book a 1385 win, which is always nice. Lately I have been killing the 20/40 game. Since June 1, I have been beating the game for over 2.5 BB/hour. Too bad, that in the 40/80 in the same time frame I have lost 120.7 BB. So for those keeping score, in terms of big bets I am up 71.4 BB, but down actual dollars in that time frame. Joy.
What a strange night, I go from playing full to short to full to short.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
How much is your time worth?
So I normally try and play most Tuesday nights at Oceans-11. That's the night that Alan usually plays. Alan is a super nice guy, multimillionaire who owns a very successful movie chain. He likes to gamble. Sometimes however he has really good nights, like last night where he cashed out what looked to be somewhere in the 5 to 8 rack range, I wasn't really paying attention when he racked up and left. The game broke as soon as he quit, however. He normally only plays until like midnight, although last night he stayed until 1 am.
I only got to play for two hours with him. I got to Oceans around 8:30pm and there was a long list for the 20 and I was buried like 7 names deep. So instead I played 8/16 for 2 and half hours. The first was a must move 8/16 game that was perpetually short, with two props. It wasn't the greatest game in the world, but it wasn't super horrible either. I eventually got a seat in the main game, and unfortunately I had to sit to the immediate right of the world's most annoying Mexican kid. I did get to bust a TAGfish nit, who thought he was the greatest 8/16 limit player in the world, when my 44 flopped a full house versus his QQ, so that was at least kind of fun. I won a 114 dollars in this game before I got a seat in the 20/40.
At the 20/40, I never really got anything going and hovered between -200 and +200 for pretty much the entire night, eventually losing 64 dollars when the game broke. So on the night I won 5.525 big bets total and in actual dollars won 50. I got a little closer to the 800 hours I need to get my 2500 dollars in rake back from Oceans-11 Racing for Dollars promotion. I got 5 scans, with each one currently worth 8 dollars so in virtual dollars I made an additional 40 bucks.
Was it worth it? Probably not, I could have spent those 5 hours doing something else, relaxing, vegging out, catching up on my reading, etc, etc. I'm a little under the 100 hour mark I need for the required 800 hours to cash out 2500 dollars. However, I am not really in the mood to play poker these days, and these last 100 hours are likely to feel like pulling teeth, which fortunately I've never had to do, so I guess I don't really know what it feels like.
My sister is coming into town tomorrow, and staying until next Tuesday, so I will probably not get any more poker playing in this week, which is probably a good thing. I plan on taking a break from live poker playing after I get my 800 hours for the year, which will probably take me sometime until late August or early September.
Run good all, play fearlessly, and make that thin value bet, but fold to a raise. That's why it's called a value bet. If you just do this, you'll earn rate will go up significantly. Don't be a mindless payoff donkey.
I only got to play for two hours with him. I got to Oceans around 8:30pm and there was a long list for the 20 and I was buried like 7 names deep. So instead I played 8/16 for 2 and half hours. The first was a must move 8/16 game that was perpetually short, with two props. It wasn't the greatest game in the world, but it wasn't super horrible either. I eventually got a seat in the main game, and unfortunately I had to sit to the immediate right of the world's most annoying Mexican kid. I did get to bust a TAGfish nit, who thought he was the greatest 8/16 limit player in the world, when my 44 flopped a full house versus his QQ, so that was at least kind of fun. I won a 114 dollars in this game before I got a seat in the 20/40.
At the 20/40, I never really got anything going and hovered between -200 and +200 for pretty much the entire night, eventually losing 64 dollars when the game broke. So on the night I won 5.525 big bets total and in actual dollars won 50. I got a little closer to the 800 hours I need to get my 2500 dollars in rake back from Oceans-11 Racing for Dollars promotion. I got 5 scans, with each one currently worth 8 dollars so in virtual dollars I made an additional 40 bucks.
Was it worth it? Probably not, I could have spent those 5 hours doing something else, relaxing, vegging out, catching up on my reading, etc, etc. I'm a little under the 100 hour mark I need for the required 800 hours to cash out 2500 dollars. However, I am not really in the mood to play poker these days, and these last 100 hours are likely to feel like pulling teeth, which fortunately I've never had to do, so I guess I don't really know what it feels like.
My sister is coming into town tomorrow, and staying until next Tuesday, so I will probably not get any more poker playing in this week, which is probably a good thing. I plan on taking a break from live poker playing after I get my 800 hours for the year, which will probably take me sometime until late August or early September.
Run good all, play fearlessly, and make that thin value bet, but fold to a raise. That's why it's called a value bet. If you just do this, you'll earn rate will go up significantly. Don't be a mindless payoff donkey.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Short-Handed Frenzy
Been playing a lot of short handed limit lately, both live and online. Online I have been playing 4/8 6-max, and I am doing okay so far in that game. Live, I have been playing 20/40 and a little 40/80 when the game goes. Both games are weak however and almost always get short early in the night.
I took my family to the Padres-Dodgers game last night. They had fireworks after the game, that I didn't get to see. My youngest daughter fell asleep in my arms around 9:20 pm or so, and my eldest daughter wanted to go home. So we left early after the 7th inning stretch and the Padres down 6-3, which ended up being the final score.
I then got to Oceans-11 around 10:45 pm or so. There were 2 40/80 games going and a 8-handed 20/40 game. The main 40/80 game looked pretty good, but you had to go through a tough short handed 40/80 game first. So I declined the must move 40/80 and took a 20/40 seat. I promptly got stuck like $700 in about 20 minutes. I rebought another dime, switched seats when a good seat opened up and started winning a little. Slowly but surely the people starting leaving and we were down to 6, 5, 4, and then 3. When we were down to 3, the floor came over and was about the break the game, when I offered to play 3-handed, the other two players agreed.
Player 1 was a major fish, calling station, no hand-reading abilities, just all around bad. Player 2 was a TAGfish nit. In a full-ring game with mediocre loose players, he'll do fine and grind out a win. In a game full of people who know what they are doing, he'll get eaten alive. Plus he didn't really adjust for 3-handed play all that well.
In any case, seat 1 the fish said he was only going to play until 1 am. This was at 12:20am or so. I said ok, fine by me. After losing the first 4 or 5 pots, I then started running them over. The fish in seat 1 had over 3 racks in front of him at the start of short-handed. By the time that game broke, he had less than a rack. At least three times my unimproved ace high was the best hand against him and took down the pot. I think he was really upset when I called his button raise with 96o in the BB. I flopped bottom pair plus a gutter and I check-raised him on the flop, bet the turn, and checked the river, and he couldn't beat a pair of sixes.
Anyways 1am rolls around, he's now stuck and doesn't look like he's planning on leaving. Around 1:20am or so, Mac leaves the 40/80 game and takes seat 8 to my left. Great, I think to myself, why can't you leave these guys to myself? Mac is a good player and knows how to play short, so I really don't want him in the game. At this point I am no longer stuck and I am a little more than a rack winner. I decide to go to the bathroom, take a break, and then decide what I am going to do.
I get back to the table 5 minutes later, and the game has broken and the floor man is racking up my chips. Apparently the fish in the 1 seat was pissed saying that I took all his money and now I'm quitting. I never said anything about quitting, and in fact he was the one who said he was only going to play until 1am, but now that he's stuck he wants to play longer? Whatever, I hope that guy is pissed at me and continues to donate his chips my way.
I took my family to the Padres-Dodgers game last night. They had fireworks after the game, that I didn't get to see. My youngest daughter fell asleep in my arms around 9:20 pm or so, and my eldest daughter wanted to go home. So we left early after the 7th inning stretch and the Padres down 6-3, which ended up being the final score.
I then got to Oceans-11 around 10:45 pm or so. There were 2 40/80 games going and a 8-handed 20/40 game. The main 40/80 game looked pretty good, but you had to go through a tough short handed 40/80 game first. So I declined the must move 40/80 and took a 20/40 seat. I promptly got stuck like $700 in about 20 minutes. I rebought another dime, switched seats when a good seat opened up and started winning a little. Slowly but surely the people starting leaving and we were down to 6, 5, 4, and then 3. When we were down to 3, the floor came over and was about the break the game, when I offered to play 3-handed, the other two players agreed.
Player 1 was a major fish, calling station, no hand-reading abilities, just all around bad. Player 2 was a TAGfish nit. In a full-ring game with mediocre loose players, he'll do fine and grind out a win. In a game full of people who know what they are doing, he'll get eaten alive. Plus he didn't really adjust for 3-handed play all that well.
In any case, seat 1 the fish said he was only going to play until 1 am. This was at 12:20am or so. I said ok, fine by me. After losing the first 4 or 5 pots, I then started running them over. The fish in seat 1 had over 3 racks in front of him at the start of short-handed. By the time that game broke, he had less than a rack. At least three times my unimproved ace high was the best hand against him and took down the pot. I think he was really upset when I called his button raise with 96o in the BB. I flopped bottom pair plus a gutter and I check-raised him on the flop, bet the turn, and checked the river, and he couldn't beat a pair of sixes.
Anyways 1am rolls around, he's now stuck and doesn't look like he's planning on leaving. Around 1:20am or so, Mac leaves the 40/80 game and takes seat 8 to my left. Great, I think to myself, why can't you leave these guys to myself? Mac is a good player and knows how to play short, so I really don't want him in the game. At this point I am no longer stuck and I am a little more than a rack winner. I decide to go to the bathroom, take a break, and then decide what I am going to do.
I get back to the table 5 minutes later, and the game has broken and the floor man is racking up my chips. Apparently the fish in the 1 seat was pissed saying that I took all his money and now I'm quitting. I never said anything about quitting, and in fact he was the one who said he was only going to play until 1am, but now that he's stuck he wants to play longer? Whatever, I hope that guy is pissed at me and continues to donate his chips my way.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Quadruple Dipping, no not really
Sunday was an interesting day. My wife took the kids and me up to North County and dropped me off at the casino while she took the kids shopping.
I played the 5/5 NL for 20 minutes, played 2 hands in the blinds that I check/folded either the flop or turn, and then left for the 20/40 that just started. I played for 3 hours and booked a 515 dollar win. Then my wife called and we left and picked strawberries at the fields in Carlsbad and then went home for dinner.
After dinner, my wife gave me her blessing to return. So I played 20/40 again, some of the same people were there, some new faces too. This time I played for only 40 minutes and picked up $68, when the game got short handed and broke, so I'm not entirely unhappy with that. Since it was early, I decided to play 8/16.
I got into a very interesting game. There was a TAGfish nit, a maniac, a couple of calling stations, one other solid player, and some other randoms. The other solid player had about 5 or 6 racks in front of him. He eventually went busto when he moved 2 seats to my left to try and get position on me and the maniac who was mostly 2 to my right for most of the time, and then on my immediate right after the nit TAGfish moved to my left.
This maniac was a true maniac, check raising bluffing the river with air, 3-betting the river with bottom pair top kicker, etc. So of course, I run into his aces twice when I have big hands as well and he gets lots of bets out of me.
In a couple of pots I nailed him good. In one pot, he limped UTG, I 2-bet QsJs UTG+3, and got it heads up. I flopped the nizzles, when the board came 89T rainbow. 5-bets went in on the flop, 3-bets went in on the turn, and 4-bets went in on the river, with me holding the nuts at the end. Another time I rivered a full house with QQ on KT44Q, 3 club board on the turn, with me holding the Queen of clubs.
He did however, get atrociously lucky in a kill pot against me. I had 48 suited in the big blind in a kill pot. Unraised preflop I put in the 4 chips and saw a flop of A88. I bet, only he called. Turn was a blank, and I bet/3-bet him and put him all in. River came the case ace, as the TAGfish nit told me he folded an ace preflop. Joy, he should have been busto at that point. Unfortunately he seemed to take those chips and sprinkle them around the table. I ended up losing 2 racks in the game, but I would love to play with this fella again.
I played the 5/5 NL for 20 minutes, played 2 hands in the blinds that I check/folded either the flop or turn, and then left for the 20/40 that just started. I played for 3 hours and booked a 515 dollar win. Then my wife called and we left and picked strawberries at the fields in Carlsbad and then went home for dinner.
After dinner, my wife gave me her blessing to return. So I played 20/40 again, some of the same people were there, some new faces too. This time I played for only 40 minutes and picked up $68, when the game got short handed and broke, so I'm not entirely unhappy with that. Since it was early, I decided to play 8/16.
I got into a very interesting game. There was a TAGfish nit, a maniac, a couple of calling stations, one other solid player, and some other randoms. The other solid player had about 5 or 6 racks in front of him. He eventually went busto when he moved 2 seats to my left to try and get position on me and the maniac who was mostly 2 to my right for most of the time, and then on my immediate right after the nit TAGfish moved to my left.
This maniac was a true maniac, check raising bluffing the river with air, 3-betting the river with bottom pair top kicker, etc. So of course, I run into his aces twice when I have big hands as well and he gets lots of bets out of me.
In a couple of pots I nailed him good. In one pot, he limped UTG, I 2-bet QsJs UTG+3, and got it heads up. I flopped the nizzles, when the board came 89T rainbow. 5-bets went in on the flop, 3-bets went in on the turn, and 4-bets went in on the river, with me holding the nuts at the end. Another time I rivered a full house with QQ on KT44Q, 3 club board on the turn, with me holding the Queen of clubs.
He did however, get atrociously lucky in a kill pot against me. I had 48 suited in the big blind in a kill pot. Unraised preflop I put in the 4 chips and saw a flop of A88. I bet, only he called. Turn was a blank, and I bet/3-bet him and put him all in. River came the case ace, as the TAGfish nit told me he folded an ace preflop. Joy, he should have been busto at that point. Unfortunately he seemed to take those chips and sprinkle them around the table. I ended up losing 2 racks in the game, but I would love to play with this fella again.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Not afraid of the Nuts!
So I put in two sessions over the weekend. Friday night, where the 20/40 game was really weak, and I ended up playing Helen heads up for like an hour and a half. I told Helen she could quit at any time. Twice I had her down to the felt, less than 5 big bets left, and twice she made a comeback. In fact she ended up taking 200 bucks off of me. That's typical heads up limit poker for ya.
On Saturday night, I got to the casino rather late and had to wait around for a bit before I got a seat around 11pm or so. For the first two hours I ran like a god. I didn't lose a showdown.
My first two hands, I mucked in my big blind and small blind preflop. My 3rd hand, Helen limped, Peter 2-bet, and Chi completed out of the small blind out of turn. I called time, Chi took back his call, I looked at my hand and 3-bet two nines. Chi and the big blind folded, Helen called, Peter called. Flop came 822. Checked to me I bet, Helen folded, Peter called. Turn was 7. Peter c/r me, and I 3-bet. River was a J. Peter checked, and I checked, hating the Jack, and knowing that he won't call with any hand that I am beating. He tables KTo, making a move on the turn. I collect my first pot of the night.
An orbit later, it's folded to me in the small blind. I don't chop, so I 2-bet pocket sevens. Chi calls in the big-blind. Flop comes 533 rainbow. I bet, Chi calls. Turn is a 7. I bet/3-bet/5-bet/7-bet. Chi finally just calls. I tell the dealer, no 5 please. River brings an ace, I bet and Chi calls. Chi had the pocket fives that I knew that he had to have. I was just calling an 8-bet. 8-bet is my limit with the top-full house with one card to come.
On Saturday night, I got to the casino rather late and had to wait around for a bit before I got a seat around 11pm or so. For the first two hours I ran like a god. I didn't lose a showdown.
My first two hands, I mucked in my big blind and small blind preflop. My 3rd hand, Helen limped, Peter 2-bet, and Chi completed out of the small blind out of turn. I called time, Chi took back his call, I looked at my hand and 3-bet two nines. Chi and the big blind folded, Helen called, Peter called. Flop came 822. Checked to me I bet, Helen folded, Peter called. Turn was 7. Peter c/r me, and I 3-bet. River was a J. Peter checked, and I checked, hating the Jack, and knowing that he won't call with any hand that I am beating. He tables KTo, making a move on the turn. I collect my first pot of the night.
An orbit later, it's folded to me in the small blind. I don't chop, so I 2-bet pocket sevens. Chi calls in the big-blind. Flop comes 533 rainbow. I bet, Chi calls. Turn is a 7. I bet/3-bet/5-bet/7-bet. Chi finally just calls. I tell the dealer, no 5 please. River brings an ace, I bet and Chi calls. Chi had the pocket fives that I knew that he had to have. I was just calling an 8-bet. 8-bet is my limit with the top-full house with one card to come.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Variance sucks!
So I get to Oceans-11 on Saturday night around 8:30pm. I took the kids out for dinner and then to the mall for candy. The wife had the night off. After I dropped the kids off at home, I hit the road to the casino to attempt to make some money for my kid's tuition (that's what I use my poker winnings for, at least if I have any winnings).
Oceans-11 is dead, which is not entirely surprising, since the WSOP is going on in Vegas right now. In any case, there's no 20 game, and only a short-handed 40 game going. So I take a seat, and end up getting buried 2 racks in like 45 minutes. I'm in seat 9, seat 2 is a tight old man, seat 4 is bad, and seat 5 is awful. Eventually seat 5 goes busto, and the 3 of us agree to keep playing until at least 10:15pm or so. Well I eventually start running over the table and build it up to 5+ racks. Of course, the game keeps going.
Then, the hour from hell starts, and I get massively cold-decked for like the entire down, and don't drag a pot for like over an entire hour. Every draw missed, TP no good, etc, etc. I eventually quit when I'm a 5 rack loser, saying enough is enough. I quit, and the table breaks at about 1:30 am or so.
Whee, variance.
Oceans-11 is dead, which is not entirely surprising, since the WSOP is going on in Vegas right now. In any case, there's no 20 game, and only a short-handed 40 game going. So I take a seat, and end up getting buried 2 racks in like 45 minutes. I'm in seat 9, seat 2 is a tight old man, seat 4 is bad, and seat 5 is awful. Eventually seat 5 goes busto, and the 3 of us agree to keep playing until at least 10:15pm or so. Well I eventually start running over the table and build it up to 5+ racks. Of course, the game keeps going.
Then, the hour from hell starts, and I get massively cold-decked for like the entire down, and don't drag a pot for like over an entire hour. Every draw missed, TP no good, etc, etc. I eventually quit when I'm a 5 rack loser, saying enough is enough. I quit, and the table breaks at about 1:30 am or so.
Whee, variance.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Heater definitely over
Ugh. Last three sessions, 40/80 -5000, 20/40 -3000, 20/40 -2500. Lost 200 BB's in 3 back to back to back sessions. Doesn't feel good.
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