Diary of a Poker Journeyman
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "The Jersey Worm" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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06:46 am
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[WRGPT19] Now open!
Hello, poker people. Been quite a while. For those of you not keeping up with my real life, here's the scoop: I've quit my job and relocated to the boonies of Northwest New Jersey. As such, there have been many changes in my life lately. Two of the largest such changes affect the goings-on at this here blog, and they are: (1) no more regular access to B&M casino poker, and (2) bankroll has switched from "money to play poker with" to "money to live off of." :) So my poker activity (and content here) has been necessarily sparse. Okay, nonexistent. Whichever. :)
But!
Tough financial times and lack of casino access can't stop the WRGPT, the Internet's premier play-by-email free poker tournament! That's right, friends, registration is now open for this year's World Rec.Gambling Poker Tournament. Registration can be perpetrated here. It's open from now until the next Friday the 13th, which is to say, November 13. The tourney will probably start mid-November, and since they're breaking in a new server setup this year, we're scheduled for four weeks of practice tournament instead of two. Practice round should start October 10. Trivia: 10/19 is police radio code for "return to base." Also ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ts4z's birthday. So happy birthday, return to base, and get your WRGPT on, everybody. Peace!
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03:46 pm
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Best shirt ever
Hello, friends. As the complete lack of entries in this blog might indicate, I haven't really been playing a lot of poker lately. Just had to chime in this once, though, with a link to a Wicked Chops entry which shows what I think is the greatest poker shirt of all time. The humor in this might be lost on my online-only brethren, but trust me...to a B&M player, this is funny as hell.
( Image below cut )
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04:19 pm
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WRGPT18 - Out
Well, I'm out of this year's WRGPT. AKs vs. KK. Ah, well. 'Twas a good run.
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02:00 am
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2008 wrapup; 2009 beginning with a whimper
Hello, and a belated Happy New Year to y'all. I've been off the radar for a little while, largely due to not playing much, but also slightly due to just plain laziness. For those keeping score, when last we left off I'd been laid off from the day job and so had decided to take a break from poker for a while as well as my bankroll could suddenly be put to more important and immediate use. Since that last writing (about two months ago), I've been re-hired at the same job but at a somewhat lower capacity than previously. Things at work started off slow and have lately gradually been picking up, so in my time in limbo I managed to blow through a lot of bankroll for living expenses. I'm basically starting off 2009 from scratch, or at least resolved to act like it. I'm unsure as of this moment just how much poker I'll be able to play in the near future. The hope is, of course, that the answer will be "plenty," but only time will tell. Time to build up the old bankroll again.
Since the layoff, what time I have spent at the tables has basically been in the low-stakes limit arena. It's been an interesting time, going back to limit. I think it did take me a little while to get adjusted, but...once I got back into the groove it was...well, it was just like old times. Comforting, in a way. Of course, I get run down like crazy, but, hey...it's limit. Whaddaya gonna do.
I managed to squeeze in enough hours in November and December that I played in the freeroll tourney offered by the Trop. Yeah, I lasted about a whole hour in that debacle. Nothing really exciting went down. I basically just made a really ill-timed steal, and that was all she wrote. Everything else has been low-stakes limit, basically hanging around the 2/4 and 4/8 levels. The only exception in recent memory was when a few pals came to town and I joined them in a cheapo NLHE tournament. Did so-so in that one; made it to about the top third before busting out. And at least the bustout was strategically sound: got my money in good and all that. (All-in pre-flop with pocket nines against KQ suited. I flop a set, he flops a straight. Doh!)
Going back to limit's not so bad. Also I guess I'm sticking with the Trop as my primary place. When they first got a bad beat jackpot going over there I was thinking about setting up shop somewhere else, but pretty much forgot about it when I switched over to no-limit. Now that I'm back to limit, though...in the meantime, every place else in A.C. has set up a BBJ, so...might as well stay at the Trop.
One big side effect of going back to limit, at least as far as this blog is concerned, is that I feel like nothing really exciting happens any more. :) I have good days, I have bad days...but I feel like the hands are all ho-hum. I mean, that's only natural; I never have to make decisions for my whole stack any more. So I've gone back to being a grinder, basically, which probably means I see nothing really exciting coming up for the blog in the near future. :) Still...looking forward to working the bankroll back up to a decent level and trying my hand at no-limit once again.
Oh, and a couple asides. One, I didn't sign up for the WBCOOP this year, a little since my free time has become so unpredictable lately (as part of the re-hire at work is a wacky, varying schedule), but mostly because my Internet connection completely sucks and I don't do any online poker any more. Two, I am, amazingly, still in the WRGPT this year, though it's still slow and difficult going, as always. I've already pretty much given up hope on this one, but it's okay -- no matter what else happens, I did manage to double up with Presto, so...the rest is gravy. :)
And...I think that's about it. If anything big changes in my situation, I'll be sure and post about it, but for now just consider me a low-stakes limit grinder who doesn't even play that much, so just assume that I have nothing fun to talk about. Until more exciting times, then, everybody. Peace!
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11:00 pm
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We interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast...
My life, reflected in established poker blogs: I got caught in this. For those not clicking, I got laid off from work. As such, I'm doing some laying off of my own by laying off the poker for a little while. If I play at all in the foreseeable future, I'll probably go back to low-stakes limit hold 'em. I probably wouldn't even bother at all, frankly, were it not for the fact that if I log a bunch of hours this month I can enter a freeroll in like mid-December, so if I can log hours with low variance, so much the better for me for the time being. :) In any case, though, for the moment, I'm going to be taking a little break.
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03:56 pm
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Double-down
I've got two sessions to recap, but both will be brief.
Saturday (11/1) - To be honest, I remember very little from this session. It was of significant length, but I took no notes and by the end was basically braindead, so I've got nothing specific to go over. I do know that I took a really early dive and spent the whole session trying to dig out of a hole. Toward the very end of the night, as tables were breaking and new players were filing in (who all had very short stacks), I made up a lot of lost ground, but overall, I booked a loss for the night. Definitely not as bad as it could have been, though. I think this was another one of those nights where I end up down where I was never really up. It's weird how that works out. I wish had more specifics from this session, but...well, I don't. :)
Monday (11/3) - This was last night, and it was definitely my worst session in recent memory. It got off to a terrible start, and sadly it didn't get much better. I hit a few losses really early on, and I definitely dropped a buy-in within the first hour. The very sad ending to this phase of things was my calling off my stack with AQ with an ace on the flop vs. opponents AK. Rookie shit right there, I feel, but...in my own defense, I did at least sit and think about it for a while. :) For pretty much the first half, though, things just overall didn't go right. Like, ever. It is entirely likely that I was just pure and simple getting outplayed. For sure I was more the victim than the perpetrator of aggression. Would bluff, and someone would jam. I would bet a mediocre hand, and someone would jam. It got pretty ridiculous after a while.
Something else that sticks in my mind about this particular table lineup was that there was a lot of that bizarre pre-flop limp-calling mania afoot. I know I used to run into that all the time, but I feel like it's been a while since I've seen that. But it's like...five people limp, late position makes a significant raise, every limper calls. Usually I don't mind situations like that, since it's also often the case that with that kind of pre-flop play, I can often take down a nice pot post-flop with just a c-bet, if I was the pre-flop raiser. Which I did do, by the way, at this table. Complicating factors, though, was that it was often a two-barrel operation. It would generally go like this: pre-flop, many limpers, I raise in LP, all limpers call, flop comes, checked around to me, I bet the pot, one caller for a heads-up turn, turn card comes, check to me, I bet half the pot, Villain grumps for a while and folds. This sequence was totally agnostic to the actual value of the cards. It's a nice setup, but it's high variance, since the times it doesn't work (usually meeting a jam over my turn bet), I've already put in a significant amount of money. So, whatever. It is what it is.
I definitely made some decent laydowns over the course of that session. I probably also bluffed to much, but it's so hard not to when you see the above pattern emerge, and you know what kind of money you can take down with bluffs. I was also experimenting with a new, more aggressive pre-flop strategy, which definitely upped variance, but (hopefully) gets more money flowing. Basically I'm finding that with that kind of loose-passive pre-flop play, I like to raise a lot more with speculative hands, just to juice the pot up. I don't think the technique holds water from a purely pot-odds perspective, but when you factor in the number of times that a pre-flop raise can lead to a post-flop win with just betting, I think it makes a lot of sense. I was pre-flop raising everything. I mean, not everything, but everything I would normally limp with. The results were so-so. Like...assuming I would take down the same pots post-flop as I normally would, they were bigger. But it also meant that I was often going in pre-flop with the worst of it, and it made it a lot harder to gauge when this was the case (e.g. the AQ vs. AK incident). Also, I was trying to throw in the odd check on the flop after pre-flop raising, which I almost never do. One time it really paid off when it turned out someone in front of me had flopped a junk two-pair; I got out of that trap cheaply. ;)
Anyway. I never dug myself out of the initial hole I fell into. As a rule of thumb, if I'm down less than a buy-in, I don't sweat it too much, but this last session was definitely more than that. If my calculations are correct, I think that's three losing sessions in a row. Bummer. I definitely got the feeling that I was playing badly. It was a little hard to tell, to be honest, because I was trying a bunch of new stuff out which was abnormal for me, and also my opponents played pretty erratically, so it was really hard for me to suss out what was working and what wasn't. All I know for sure is that I booked a pretty significant loss, and that I have no particular thing I can point to about why, except it is undeniable that I was playing more aggressively than usual, and probably also more loosely. I guess the loose-aggressive world is not really one where I'm most comfortable, but it just seemed like the thing to do at that table. I was probably very much mistaken about that, in retrospect, considering the number of times people jammed on me. ;) (To make it better, though, they often did show their cards, and they had a reason to jam, it wasn't just stealing.)
Anyway. I only really remember the specifics on a couple hands.
One was pretty early on, during that dismal first hour. I had raised in late/middle with JJ after several limpers. We went to the flop like five-ways or something stupid like that. The flop came T94. The guy on my right opens the betting for some small amount, relative to the pot. Something like $15 into $60? I raised it, I forget how much, but I probably made it like $50, everyone else folded, and the dude three-bet me all in for like a couple hundred. Huh? I actually tanked on that for quite a while. Not that I shouldn't clearly fold there, but I really had to talk myself into it. Overpairs are such pains in the ass. Most of my hesitation was trying to put him on a hand. I kind of rejected T9. I forget now why...I just did. Eventually I figured set of fours. Anyway, it didn't matter...I eventually folded face-up. He showed T9.
Heh. You know, in retrospect, that hand doesn't seem nearly as significant as it seemed at the time. I guess that's how it goes. :)
One thing that stuck was just a coin flip that I lost. I somehow found myself heads-up OOP with A7c against a pre-flop re-raiser. (Yeah, I made a crappy pre-flop call, so what. Everyone else was doing it!) I flopped pretty much the best I could hope for under the circumstances, all rags with two clubs and a seven. So I check-raised all-in and got called by QQ. No help for me, and I double Villain up. I think I was super close to 50/50 on that, so, clearly I'd take those odds (overlay from the pot, plus...what the hell...even a 1% chance he'll fold puts me in the lead ;) ). Anyway, nothing special about that. Just an example that not all these losses are my fault. ;)
Here's the one that blew my mind. I'm not going to tell you my cards (yet), just so you can see how bizarre I found this guy's play. I believe I was in the big blind for this hand. Maybe six people limped in to the pot, which comes something like A82. It checks around to Villain in middle position who bets out $10 (pot is like $12). Folds around to me, and I check-raise to $30. Interloper, behind me but in front of Villain, cold-calls the check-raise. (This is perfectly normal for this guy and nothing to be worried about; better than even money says that he's got a backdoor draw and will fold on the turn.) Villain calls the raise. Turn comes a blank, like a 6 or something. Pot is now about $100, I bet out $70. Interloper, as always, folds. Villain thinks a little while, then calls. River is a 9. Board is now A8269 rainbow. I bet out $75, thinking I had bet $75 on the turn, but whatever. Villain tanks for several minutes, then folds A8 face-up.
What. The. Fuck. So, firstly, what the hell do you think I have? Secondly, what do you think I have that you can call on the turn and fold on the river?! Bizarre.
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04:26 pm
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Same old stuff?
Well, despite telling myself I was going to stop doing it for a while, I skipped out of work early again last night and went to play poker instead. :) I don't know...I just felt like gambling instead of working. Turns out this would not be the smartest decision I would make, but hey, what is. :) As befits my seemingly recurring pattern lately, I hit an early, crushing rush, eventually took a beat, and then spiraled down. I was keeping fairly careful watch this time, I felt, and I really don't think there's much to this...it's just how things are happening to shake out lately. As the night went on, I did become aware that I was playing a little more loosely and crazily, but not to the tune of huge losses, and it was just that kind of table that encourages a bit more pre-flop looseness (passive play early, with the potential of payoffs if I hit). What this table was not was a table where I could bluff my way to victory, so...I didn't. This was much more the kind of thing where I just had to wait for the cards to come. Sadly, after my initial rush, they didn't, so I did basically a slow bleed and then ended up walking away booking a loss. Sometimes, it just goes like that.
( The specifics, which are boring )
So, the afterthought. In this hand, I was somewhere in MP with KK. I raised after two limpers, got a couple callers behind me, and we ended up going I think five-way to the flop. The flop came K55 with two diamonds. It checked to me, and I bet out, it folded around to one guy who thought about it for a little while, and he eventually folded. One thing I think about from time to time is that I rarely slowplay any more. Apparently this has somehow become me not slowplaying at all. :) I mean...that seems like a great place to slowplay. What could I possibly be afraid of? AA catching an A? Some 5 catching a 5? I mean, that's crazy talk. There's definitely an argument to be made that I don't want a diamond to show up, as it may kill any putative action I might have gotten without it, but I feel it's just as likely that a diamond could give someone second-best, not to mention that if someone stays in to catch a diamond and give me action, surely they'll call a flop bet to chase it, too. But what I really want is to check and let some underpair catch their set, know what I mean?
Anyway. I'm not agonizing over it. Generally speaking, and especially true at that particular table, I feel there's better reasoning to bet there rather than check. That is to say, I don't think I'm particularly losing money by not slowplaying. One of the big factors in that thought process, though, is that I play a fairly aggressive game, and I expect people to know that. And in most cases, they do. Like...I don't think it takes long for my opponents to suss out that I play on the aggressive side and am more than likely to be c-betting on any flop once I've raised pre-flop. With that in mind, I'm likely to be betting both my bad flops and my good flops, even if my good flops are monsters. The theory is that my habitual c-betting generates action on the hands where I flop good. What I failed to take into account on this hand, though, was that it was pretty early in my session, relatively speaking. I had probably only been at the table an hour or so when this hand took place, and the only big hand anyone had seen me play was when I called all-in on the flop with top set. I mean...nothing tricky about that. :) So it's just possible that this would have been a good time to slowplay, since theoretically, nobody there had me pegged as a habitual c-better. Because they all folded to my flop bet, if I had checked and elicited action on the turn, anything there would have been more money than what I ended up getting. This is a hugely results-oriented thought, though, and so I don't know if it holds across the board, but...it's definitely something to keep in mind for the future -- to not only base my moves on a strategy that (hopefully) takes into account my overall image, but also to be aware of what my image might be right then. In that case, checking would not have been necessarily seen as way out of character, and therefore a trick. :) It may have actually have been seen as what it was supposed to look like: weakness.
Anyway, I'm probably overthinking that one hand. It just stuck in my mind. Villain didn't show his cards, but he later said he had pocket jacks. (I had showed my hand already.) So checking that flop may well have gotten a little more money out of him on the turn. Plus I stood to stack him if he catches his J. But in the broad sense...I don't know. I'm still more likely to bet that flop than not. Just in the future I should remember to keep in mind what the tables knows about me so far, and not just how I play in general.
Also one random thought I had. One of the dealers, who knows me a bit, said after his down: "You play way too tight, man!" I'm sure this was true from his point of view, as this was during my slow phase, and I basically spent the whole time folding pre-flop. I just thought that was funny he would say that, as I know there are other dealers who think I play ridiculously loose and crazy, mostly because they happen to be around when I'm on a mad bluffing spree. ;) At any rate, I just thought it was interesting that the dealers at the Trop, who I'm sure have observed more of my play than anyone except me, have these wildly varying views of me. I generally take that as a good thing; I think it almost always behooves a poker player to keep his play unpredictable. ;) It also, though, highlights the idea that my play may be somewhat...inconsistent. I realize I'm just splitting hairs, and that "inconsistent" is probably just the same thing as "unpredictable," just with different connotations. But still...I wonder if my style is swinging more wildly from session to session than I'm really intending. Might be something to keep an eye on.
Until next time, poker people. Peace!
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11:41 pm
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Multi-session wrapup
So I've been kinda lax with my poker blogging of late. I've had a few sessions, but nothing really remarkable. For posterity's sake, I'll do some recaps here. For interest's sake, I think these can safely be skipped without you guys missing out on anything.
( Like a week and change )
Thoughts - And I think that catches me up. The session that gave me the most to think about was Wednesday night, when I got off to a roaring start, hit a couple beats, and then spiraled down. I think in a lot of ways it mirrors this session, in the sense that things started out well enough, and when they weren't going well, I was still fine...until I hit a beat. It wasn't even a bad beat...it was just a beat. Well, okay, the aces against AQ was bad, but I don't think that's the one that set me off. I think it was the QQ vs. AK. Anyway...the point is that I'm certain I started playing much looser after the beat happened, in both cases. Also in both cases, that kind of play just led to ruin. That's definitely something I gotta work on more -- keeping that stuff under control.
Oh, and the all-in thing. For those who skipped the recap, here's the situation: I have KcJc, and because I (wrongly, it turns out) assume I have a tight image, I've opened for a raise pre-flop in EP. We've gone to the flop five-handed to see AcKhxc, so I've flopped second pair and the nut flush draw. Pot is $50, and I lead out $40. It folds to a guy who min-raises me (remember this is a flat call of an EP raise pre-flop). Everyone else folds. So it's $170 in the pot, and I'm facing action of $40. I've got several hundred behind, and Villain has me covered. I jammed.
This may seem overly aggressive, but I've been working on something lately where I'm trying to go all-in more. Overall, I do try to take a more math-centric view to my poker strategizing. But I've really come to respect the psychological difference of the all-in move. It's one thing to mathematically commit yourself to a hand. And it's quite another to actually push all your chips in the middle and say without any possibility of equivocation, "I'm going to see this through to the end." And the side-effects on both your own psyche and that of your opponents is big, too. You both become quite aware that you (the jammer) no longer have any decisions to be made; now all the heat is on the person facing the decision. Anything that makes opponents uncomfortable is a good thing. :)
In the past, I would mostly only go all-in late in the hand, generally on the river, and usually as a raise, not a bet. And I'd pretty much have to be certain about it, like I'd need the nuts, or close to it. In short, I'd thought of it more as a value bet...something I'd want to be called and would use to maximize my return. I'm trying to work it more into a bluffing/semi-bluffing strategy, though, just to balance things out a bit more and, hopefully, win a few more pots. :) But anyway...so there's that. Just another thing to chew over.
Bonus: As an extra bit of entertainment from Wednesday's session, we had a guy at the table fold a couple bills in half lengthwise into a "V" shape, put a chip on top of one end, and balance the whole contraption on his nose like a circus seal. It was pretty cool! You don't get that kind of stuff with online poker!
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02:52 am
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How the mighty have fallen
In summary: I wasn't sure I should be playing or not tonight when I set out for the poker room, since I wasn't sure I was 100% all there, but I threw caution to the wind and went anyway. As my session got rolling, all my fears were put to rest as I was totally in the zone, caught good cards, made good moves, and basically came in and rolled over the whole table. During the first hour, I was totally blazing. About three and a half hours in, I hit my first big beat, thought it wasn't a bad beat, it was just a big confrontation that I lost. After that, I went on a disgusting run of playing too loose, bluffing too much, and generally spewing a lot of chips around. I ended the session booking a moderate loss, and generally bummed about how I handled the later part of the session. Oh, well, though...hopefully I'm just better prepared for next time.
( The specifics )
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05:12 pm
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[WRGPT18] It's that time again
Yep, it's that time of the year. The annual, venerable, really slow-ass, play-by-email poker tournament, WRGPT, has opened registration for it's 18th run. Contrary to my thoughts from last year, I actually am going to give it another try this year, as I think I can mitigate my timeout problem by creating a completely separate email account to use for WRGPT that I can use on breaks at work. So...we'll see how that goes; I'll try and feel it out during the practice round.
Anyway. If you're interested, registration closes on October 31st. Sign up here!
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01:53 am
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Just like the old days...only better
Things were slow at work again tonight, so I took another early out and headed to the Trop to ply my other trade. Once again, I decided to keep an eye out for limit hold 'em opportunities, just to take a break from NL and keep things fresh and exciting (and, hopefully, lower variance). Sadly, there was no pink game being spread tonight, although their normal limit games (2/4 and 3/6) were kicked up a notch as there was a 5/10 game going. If I consider myself bankrolled for 1/2 NL, I gotta consider myself bankrolled for 5/10, so I decided to give it a shot. I pondered the wisdom of this as I sat down, as the game was a little short, but things seemed to be going all right, so I set down to grind it out.
Turns out I needn't have bothered. I went on a disgusting rush that basically lasted me the whole night. ("The whole night" being somewhat disingenuous, I guess, as I took my sick rush and cashed out after a few hours, but what the hell. :) ) There were two or three super-fish at the table, plus a mediocre player here and there, and between that and being smacked with the deck, I made a really good night of it. I was catching not only good starters, but good boards and opponents to pay me off. AK offsuit: I get the nut four-flush; KK: ace on the flop, I turn the nut four-flush; 99: set on the flop, boat on the river. Strong aces outkicking weak aces. Draws coming through. Everything was just right. That, of course, got me a little looser and wilder, and then those hands started coming through. I saw a flop with 34, Flopped a 3, turned a 4, and then rivered another 4! I flopped middle pair and hit a backdoor flush to crack aces.
My favorite hand of the night: I have KcTc in late position and cold-call two bets after like four people. We see the flop six-handed, which comes jack-high with two clubs. The betting is capped on the flop four-ways, with me in position on the field. Turn comes a Q, adding the open-ended straight draw to my flush draw. I bet the turn and got two callers. The river comes a red 9, and I've got the nuts with one caller paying off my river bet. Almost a $200 pot! Just crazy.
I'd like to be able to say that it was through cunning and advanced training that I made this money, but that's really not the case. I was just catching hand after hand, and the opposition was, overall, so weak that it didn't even matter. Every check-raise went through, and every one was paid. I made a river bluff raise. In limit. And it worked! I mean, that's just sick. (That one was against one of the big donators, and I was sure I had him read.)
Anyway. So a great night of poker. Better money than the day job, plus a short enough session that I've still got plenty of time left to chill for a while. Wish every session could be like this!
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05:49 am
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P.S.
Just one more thing I wanted to note from tonight. As I made my return to poker recently, I had also told myself that I was going to play more limit hold 'em in addition to my new no-limit ways, just to keep things varied and interesting and also hopefully to cut down on variance a smidge. I also, though, want to play at decent-ish stakes just so I know that the rake won't eat me alive. At the Trop tonight, they actually got around to spreading a Pink Game, the $7.50/$15 limit game that is by far my favorite limit game to play, and is spread all too rarely these days. I was just getting into my 1/2 game, though, when I heard the announcement, and I decided to skip it. Sad, since I don't get the chance to play that game much any more, but...well, I dunno. I think it was the right thing to do. Still...in retrospect, it feels a little strange that I didn't play it. Guess I really am changing a lot as a player.
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05:37 am
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I like weekends
I took another short day at work tonight, so I decided to try and make good use of my time playing poker. Nothing really Earth-shattering went on at this session, so there's not a lot to go over lesson-wise. There was a waiting list when I first got to the casino, but after only a few minutes they opened up a new 1/2 NLHE table, so I plopped down and started my night.
I've decided I much prefer opening a table to joining a table already in progress. When a new table opens, with the buy-in cap, I'm never facing a big stack right off the bat. Not only that, but with all the people that buy in short, sometimes I am the big stack. ;) Also everyone is more or less new to each other, so that gives me license to open up a bit more and play a little more fast and loose than I do by default.
( A winning, if uninteresting, session... )
Peace out, everybody.
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04:19 am
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What goes up, must come down.
Probably the less said about tonight's session, the better. :) It was pretty much the polar opposite of yesterday, in that I was pretty much card dead the whole time. That's not completely true, as later on I caught a few nice hands and actually managed to take down a pot or two, but overall things didn't go too well today. The game is, of course, 1/2 NLHE.
To give you an idea of the pace of today's session, my first two and a half hours were spent folding, folding, folding. Only once did I enter a pot, and that one I took a stab at after missing the flop, and got blown out by a turn bet. A couple hands after that, I flopped two pair out of position and basically got no action on it (though that one was my own fault for playing it passively; I honestly expected there to be more action on the hand behind me, but...oh, well.) So pretty much the first half of my night was a big yawn.
Things picked up slightly after that, though nothing really exciting went down. It was basically me getting blown off of semi-bluffs alternating with me taking down pots uncontested. One I remember was pocket jacks, wherein my pre-flop raising got me heads-up with the table's loosest and craziest player. The flop came ace high, and I bet out, hoping just to run him off if he missed, but he called. The turn came a king (could it get any uglier?), and I just fired again, basically having nothing else to do. He folded, and I took it down. The other notable win was having pocket kings in late position. Somebody had raised it to $5 early on, and there were two callers to that when it got back to me. I popped it to $20. The guy on my left, who had called the $5 out of turn, then called the $20. Loose Crazy Guy called out of a blind, and the other people in for $5 also called. The flop was three rags with two hearts. Checks around to me, I bet $75 (into a pot of $100). It folds around to the guy on my right, who is really giving it a lot of thought. Finally he folds, so I take that pot down, too.
That's pretty much it. I lost two big hands in a row, though, and those two hands basically spoke to me to call it quits for the night, so this is how my session ended.
In the first one, I'm in the big blind. The guy to my left (a different guy than the guy to my left above), UTG, looks at his cards, announced, "I've been waiting for this hand all night! I raise!" and he goes to $17. This guy was a total motormouth, and he'd been at the table the whole time I was there. Based on all the comments he's been making all night, I'm almost positive he has jack-nine. Whatever, though. :) There's a flat call to his left, then a bunch of other callers. Geez! It comes back to me in the BB, and I squeeze a pair of ladies, pocket queens. I announce a raise, complete the $17, and think for a minute. While I'm counting callers, UTG mucks his hand. (Technically this is an out of turn move, since I haven't completed my action yet. A little dealer trivia for y'all.) Somebody else complains, there's a little back-and-forth, but it's of no consequence. There are five other players in the pot, so I make it $75 more to go. This may seem a bit excessive, but it was basically a pot-sized raise. UTG+1, who flat called UTG's raise, calls me. Hrm. Not only that, but that call puts him basically all-in. Hrm again. It folds around, and then further down the line, this girl in middle position also calls. She says something like, "Let's make this hard on the overpair," or something like that. Frankly I didn't really understand what she meant by that. In any case, her call left her something like...probably a hundred and change behind. UTG+1 has got like $30 left. I've got them both covered by a couple hundred, so I figure no matter what happens, I have to jam the flop. Sadly, the flop comes ace-high. I jam, short-stack calls, and the middle position girl folds. Short stack has AK. Oh, well. The flop has two hearts, and one of my queens is a heart (and AK has no hearts), and the turn gives me slightly more hope by coming a heart, but the river is no help, and I lose. Bummer, but hey, I can't complain too much about that one. It was a coin flip with a big overlay, so hey, I'd take it again next time. I'm pretty sure that the middle position girl had a pocket pair. That's just her way.
So I'm bummed about that hand, but not shaken. The next hand, I'm in the small blind. There's some limping or so, but late position girl raises to $17. There's one caller, and it's back to me. I squeeze KJ off, and steam call it, mostly just since it's one of my favorite hands. Note that this is a crappy call, and I know that. I just felt like mixing it up after that last hand. Anyway, I no longer care about the crappy call when the flop comes KJx rainbow. Cha-ching! Not giving a shit about EV and just wanting to take down the pot, I jam it all in. (I'm first to act, remember.) Basically I wouldn't mind at all just taking down the pot, but I also figure people might read me as steaming and call the bet. Middle position girl shrugs, sighs, and calls off her last hundred or so. I find this an excellent sign, as I don't think she's good at this point. The third party folds. I roll over my KJ and wait. She called me with ace-queen and turns the gutshot straight. River no help, and I double her up. So, so dirty. She called off her last hundred to make $150 on a gutshot draw. And made it! Hate! Hate so much!
Anyway. At that point I figured it just wasn't my night tonight. It was getting late, and I had already figured I'd be done by then, so I just finished out my orbit and left. Suck. I came home and made dinner. In fact it's waiting for me right now as I type, so I'm going to sign off, eat, chill, and let the sadness of the beats ebb from my body. Better luck next time, huh?
So dirty!
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04:08 am
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The stars align
I'll try and keep it brief this time, mostly because this was a great session, and I don't have too much to go over in the way of lessons. There were no 1/2 seats open when I first showed up, so I passed a bit of time at a 2/4 limit game. I wasn't sure if it was a good omen or not that on my very first hand, I got dealt KK in the big blind and they held up nicely against multiway action by flopping a set. :) On the one hand, it's nice to start the day so well. On the other hand, it was at 2/4, and regardless, you know it's all going to be downhill from there. :) Anyway, I'll forgive myself for not logging that session in my records. I'm sure my results will stand up to the discrepancy of that 15 minute, $3 swing. :)
Anyway, soon enough a new 1/2 NLHE table opened up, and I jumped right in. What a world of difference from last night's opposition. Firstly, it was nice to not have to sit down with a bunch of giant stacks. Half the table bought in short anyway, and I was able to take decent control early on just with aggression. I abandoned last night's strategy of rock-like play and just started mixing it up right away. I had mixed results with that, frankly, but I won a bit and enjoyed the action. We started off short-handed, too, which let me cut loose a bit more than usual. It wasn't long, though, until the table filled up, and one of those players was the reason things went so well tonight.
We had a super, super, super fish sit down and join us. Firstly, this guy was in for a pre-flop raise probably on 80% of his hands. Not kidding. Secondly, though, and more importantly, he would stack off with anything, and then instantly rebuy. It was amazing. This is absolutely not an exaggeration, but I stacked this guy six or seven times over the course of the night. It was incredibly juicy. Not only that, but he just could not be swayed from playing. Like I said, he sat down not too long after the table opened, and he was with us the whole time. He was still there when I left. I know, I know, there was no reason I should have left that situation. I was just tired and getting punchy. I caught myself getting way looser than I should have been, and that's a recipe for disaster when I'm the big stack; it's way too easy for me to give back too much money that way. So I don't feel bad about leaving. I was just happy to (finally!) book a win.
There's not much to go over. I ran a few decent bluffs, and I had a few bluffs picked off. All in all, I think that part of the game went well. It was, of course, always a mistake to bluff Superfish since he was willing to stack off with anything. I, of course, tried it once and got snapped off for my trouble, but I deserved it. It's one of the first rules: never bluff a calling station. Honestly, though, everything just magically clicked into place for my game tonight; I got good cards, and I got paid off. Not much more you can ask for than that.
I just can't get over my experiences with Superfish. The (failed) bluff I ran against him was pretty early on in the session. He made himself a pretty nice stack with that hand (there was a third guy involved), but within two or three hands he gave half of it away. A couple hands later, I get QQ in early position and open for a standard raise of $10. Superfish raises me to $40, it comes back around, and I jam it. So for his action, the pot is like $80 and he calls off the rest of his stack (maybe $150) with...ace-nine off. He gets crushed on the flop of Q22, and I stack him. He rebuys.
Seriously, less than an orbit later, I'm dealt AA in middle position. UTG opens for $6. It comes around to me, and I make it $15. Two flat callers behind me, and Superfish in the small blind pops it to $45. Blinds fold, UTG folds, I jam, having everybody covered. The two flat callers behind me fold. Superfish doesn't even hesitate, and he calls. This time? Ace-jack off. Stack. Rebuy.
All night! Seriously! I opened for a raise with KQ suited, flop trip kings, jam into Superfish, and stack him. I came into a multiway pot with 77, I crush the flop of 755, and I stack Superfish with QQ and another guy in the hand with AK. (?!) The worst I did to him was suck out runner-runner Broadway on one hand when he had position on me. I jammed it, I stacked him. The worst he did was crack AK and QQ with five-freakin'-deuce offsuit when he called $75 cold pre-flop. Yes. It's a 1/2 game. He was facing a raise and re-raise to $75, and calls it cold with five-deuce off. He caught a straight that hand, stacked the QQ and took a chunk out of the AK, which happened to be me, by they way. ;) Sick stuff. :)
Anyway. High-variance game, as I'm sure you can imagine. It worked out well for me, though. This time, anyway. But I'm happy to have booked a win, and I'm happy to have had such a fine opponent at my table. Hope I see him again soon!
P.S. I won a dollar on a prop bet, too!
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04:02 am
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Afterthought
I talk too damn much. I spent not even five hours playing poker tonight, and way more than an hour blogging about it. That's a terrible ratio. :) That may have had something to do with why I stopped blogging for a while, too. :) But, yes, I be wordy.
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03:14 am
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Not...so bad?
Tonight's session was on the short side, considering how much time I had available to devote to it, but as we'll see, I got to the point where I think I was losing my concentration and discipline, so I figured it was a good time to leave, so...I did. :)
I booked a loss again tonight, about $100 (at 1/2 NLHE), but I consider it a good sign that I didn't lose even more, considering the massive cooler I ran into. Overall I think I did fairly well. I have the nagging feeling that I didn't bring my A game to the table, but that may just be a tainted impression from the final, oh, half-hour or so when I really loosened things up. In any case, it's not that important; I don't think anything hugely significant went down, with one or two exceptions.
( A cooler, an interesting situation, and really dumb luck )
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03:46 pm
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More bad moves
Just as an addendum to the commentary on last night's session, I forgot to talk about the gem of my donkey hands.
( But first, some background... )
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05:35 am
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All the wrong moves
Hello again, poker people. Of late, poker has fallen way by the wayside in my life, so I decided recently that it was time to do something about that. I'm going to try to hit the tables a lot more regularly in the near future, and I'd also like to get more blog posts going on a per-session basis. This is mostly just a notes-to-self kinda thing; I find I don't really keep game notes any more, so I'm hoping this can help me fill in those gaps as I try to get back in the game.
Also, I know my last post was a "What Would You Do?" setup and I never came back with answers or analysis. I may or may not get back to that; as time has passed, it seems to have gotten a lot less interesting. ;) At any rate, none of that will be showing up in this post. So there.
Anyway. So today I had a short day at work, so I decided what better way to kick-start my poker surge than to hit the tables when I actually should be at my job. :) I rushed home, changed clothes, and headed right back out to the casino for a little 1/2 NLHE.
I booked a losing session tonight, which is pretty much the long and short of it.
( When not to bluff, and other stuff I do wrong )
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03:52 pm
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What would you do? -- Draws and sidepots.
Hello again, everybody. I took a bit of a break from the tables after my last post, although in the past couple weeks I've logged a few sessions, but just haven't gotten around to blogging about them. Mostly because nothing interesting happened. :) But I had an interesting hand last night that I'm still sort of taking apart in my head, so I thought I'd post an open question and see what y'all think. The setup is, as usual, 1/2 no-limit hold 'em.
Blinds are posted, and UTG blind raises to $6. (The rest of the world calls this a straddle. One of the many peculiarities of Atlantic City poker is that there is no straddle, in that blind raises are just raises: you get no option to re-raise yourself.) You're UTG+3, and it folds to you, and you flat call with 6h5h. Several people call behind you. We saw the flop maybe four or five handed, I can't remember. So between the unspecified number of callers, blinds, and rake, I'm calling the pot $25. The flop comes out 8h6d3h, giving you middle pair, flush draw, and some backdoor straight possibilities. UTG (the blind raiser, remember), bets out $13. You flat call, deciding to see how this plays out, since most of the action is behind you. A short-ish stack behind you moves all-in for $64 on top. It folds around to UTG. He gives it just a little thought, but then calls. It's apparent he thinks this is a stronger move than it actually is. He very vocally does not expect you to stay in the pot (thanks to your small acting job hesitating before calling his flop bet).
Okay. So here are the vital statistics.
Short stack is just a hair short of decent as a player, but he's not terrible. He has been known to overvalue his hands, but he's nothing close to maniacal. You give him at least top pair. Overpair is possible, but not extremely likely, since he'd probably re-raise pre-flop. If, if, he's got an overpair, it's probably nines, maybe tens; anything higher he'd reraise. Most likely he's got a big eight. Or maybe even not so big an 8. But at the end of the day, you're likely to have all your flush and pair-plus outs against him (trip up or hit your kicker -- call it 14 outs; against only him, it's an auto-call).
UTG is obnoxious, but pretty skilled post-flop, and tends to be careful. More careful than his persona would suggest, anyway. He also marries himself to his blind-raised hands, though (as you've seen in the past), so it's very hard to nail down his range. He's not stupid about it, but he's more loose, say. He's making a point of talking up his hand to the short-stack, and he really seems to want you out of the pot. (Basically, as you contemplate, you get the feeling that he's regretting calling instead of jamming; he just assumed you were going to fold.) You suspect he is not strong, but you don't know if that just means weak or drawing.
The numbers: The pot is currently $192. You're facing action of $64 to call. You've got a total of $171 behind, and UTG just has you slightly covered (which is to say, if one of you stacks the other, the loser will be effectively felted).
The situation: You feel you are behind short stack for sure, but with plenty of outs. You're not sure about UTG, but there's a good shot that the situation is the same with him. The big worry is that he's got a better flush draw than you. Ironically, though, if that's the case, that puts you ahead of him currently, though his equity would be huge, as he's not only drawing to a better flush, but also has at least an overcard. Remember that with short-stack all-in, any action beyond you calling this current bet is going to be in a side-pot with UTG.
What do you do?
Analysis and results next time. Happy pokering, everybody!
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