For those who have not seen this or heard about this, check this out.
Holy Shit. This happend in Tunica at the World Poker Open a couple of weeks ago.
Good poker player - Master Prick.
Steak
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Back to the Tables
Well, after the Tunica debacle, I needed some time off. So I did not play live with the guys for over two weeks, which is a long time for me.
So last night I decided to play at Dave's Bungalow with the regular crew. I was 30 minutes late (as usual) thanks to a missing library book of my son's due today at his school. So I am already coming in after missing a couple of laps around the table.
Now, concerning playing poker, I had already decided that I am changing my style. I have done enough reading and watching on TV to know that an aggressive style is how you win poker tournaments. You may end up going home early a lot more often, but you put yourself in a much better place to win by playing aggressively. I am not playing any two cards (ATC), but I will be playing a much broader range of hands when I am in position, hoping to take down a pot or two here and there I would have normally had no shot at.
So the second hand I see last night in middle position is Q7d. The player to my right limps in for 50, I decide to bump it up to 200. I get min-re-raised to 400(technically, I guess it is not a min-re-raise, but it was pretty close to that) by a player who is liable to do that with ATC, and he always seems to be tangled up in pots I am involved with. The big blind and the guy sitting on my right (who has hardly ever not called a pre-flop raise/re-raise in a pot he has limped in on) joins in on the fun. The pot now has about 1250 in it. I am the biggest of all the stacks left, with about 7900 going into the hand.
The flop comes Q7x rainbow (some other low card, possibly a 4). The BB checks, the player to my right checks, and I fire 700 into the pot (between half and 2/3 the pot). The min-raiser does it again, bumping it up to 1400. The BB folds, and then the guy to my right says "Let's do this". At this point, I know at least on of them has a Q with a good kicker. The thing I needed to figure out was did either of them have a set. I knew the guy to my right didn't - he would have shipped his whole stack in at that point. The other guy could have had that, but I truly thought he had something like JJ and was trying to figure out where he was. You see, I usually play really tight. I do occasionally bluff, so he easily could have min-raised me there thinking that if I did not have a Q that I would then give the hand up, while he risked the minimum to get that information now, and not later when the bets would be much more expensive. So then I turned my attention to the other guy - who now I really was thinking was holding a Q. I was now thinking he had AQ or KQ. As much as I would have liked to have just called, I did not want either player to have a chance to outdraw me to a better 2 pair, or hit a set. I never like to go farther in a hand with more than one person, so I decided I was going to make the guy who I had position on pay to see that next card. I re-raise and pop it an additional 3000. This virtually pot-commits me to the pot, but it does so for everyone else. I had them covered, so if I was pot-committed, they were going to be as well. I don't mind getting re-popped for all-in here at this point, nor do I care too much if I get two folds. The pot is already a nice size, but if I get called I have top 2. If one of them has a set, more power to them.
The original raiser thinks for a long time. OK - no set there, so the longer he waits the more I want him to call now. Eventually he throws it away. The other guy then sits and thinks. OK - my read was right and he did not have a set. So now I am thinking that since we are heads up, please let him shove. He then finally folds. The original re-raiser said he had KQ. The other guy said he had AQ and thought I had a set. I showed them the Q7, and the table just exploded. Not because the other guys just got bluffed - I had the best hand. But because they could not believe I played that hand. I strategically showed my cards all night. And I got people playing at me with garbage hands when I held good starting cards simply because I was able to change my perception at the table.
I ran my stack up to almost 40K, and then a couple of guys hit some hands against me (JJ got beat by AQ). One of the bigger hits I took at the final table came when The Shadow accidentally went all-in because he did not see my 3X the BB raise and cards (he thought he was in the hand by himself). I was pretty much pot-committed, especially when he legitimately thought he was going all-in against noone else - he really just meant to buy the blinds. I call - with QJ. He flips over 78d. Wouldn't you know it - he flops a flush. Uggghhhh. Situation sound familiar?
I ran my stack back up to about $35K - lost another race against a short stack. Then finally got all-in with a stack of about 24K with the blinds 1K/2K when a stack ahead of me raised to 6K. I look down at 77 and push. He insta calls with AK off. Turn is an Ace. Game over. Out in 7th out of 22 and no money, although I picked up 3 bounties, so I did not lose too much money at all playing. I hit some hands, and then I had other hands go against me. I rarely got someone all-in with the worst hand. And here is the kicker - I made it as far as I did, and ran my stack up as far as I did, without ever catching a hand better than trips. No sets. No straights. No flushes. No boats. I played for almost 5 hours. This style of play allows you to get chips without having super strong hands. Of course, this style can make you go broke quick as well. It was a mixed bag for me - I played for a long time and still did not cash, which actually sucks (long time to play for no result). But you have to think that some nights the stars will align. I will run the stack up, and I will also hit some good hands that will pay me off even more. A few more chips in certain spots would have allowed me to completely run over the table instead of just somewhat bullying the table. It will happen, and I am going to get better at this style over time. I may pay a little bit early on learning this way, but in the long run this is how I am going to make my final tables at WSOP Circuit Events and other games. It was the most fun I have had playing poker in a long time.
So last night I decided to play at Dave's Bungalow with the regular crew. I was 30 minutes late (as usual) thanks to a missing library book of my son's due today at his school. So I am already coming in after missing a couple of laps around the table.
Now, concerning playing poker, I had already decided that I am changing my style. I have done enough reading and watching on TV to know that an aggressive style is how you win poker tournaments. You may end up going home early a lot more often, but you put yourself in a much better place to win by playing aggressively. I am not playing any two cards (ATC), but I will be playing a much broader range of hands when I am in position, hoping to take down a pot or two here and there I would have normally had no shot at.
So the second hand I see last night in middle position is Q7d. The player to my right limps in for 50, I decide to bump it up to 200. I get min-re-raised to 400(technically, I guess it is not a min-re-raise, but it was pretty close to that) by a player who is liable to do that with ATC, and he always seems to be tangled up in pots I am involved with. The big blind and the guy sitting on my right (who has hardly ever not called a pre-flop raise/re-raise in a pot he has limped in on) joins in on the fun. The pot now has about 1250 in it. I am the biggest of all the stacks left, with about 7900 going into the hand.
The flop comes Q7x rainbow (some other low card, possibly a 4). The BB checks, the player to my right checks, and I fire 700 into the pot (between half and 2/3 the pot). The min-raiser does it again, bumping it up to 1400. The BB folds, and then the guy to my right says "Let's do this". At this point, I know at least on of them has a Q with a good kicker. The thing I needed to figure out was did either of them have a set. I knew the guy to my right didn't - he would have shipped his whole stack in at that point. The other guy could have had that, but I truly thought he had something like JJ and was trying to figure out where he was. You see, I usually play really tight. I do occasionally bluff, so he easily could have min-raised me there thinking that if I did not have a Q that I would then give the hand up, while he risked the minimum to get that information now, and not later when the bets would be much more expensive. So then I turned my attention to the other guy - who now I really was thinking was holding a Q. I was now thinking he had AQ or KQ. As much as I would have liked to have just called, I did not want either player to have a chance to outdraw me to a better 2 pair, or hit a set. I never like to go farther in a hand with more than one person, so I decided I was going to make the guy who I had position on pay to see that next card. I re-raise and pop it an additional 3000. This virtually pot-commits me to the pot, but it does so for everyone else. I had them covered, so if I was pot-committed, they were going to be as well. I don't mind getting re-popped for all-in here at this point, nor do I care too much if I get two folds. The pot is already a nice size, but if I get called I have top 2. If one of them has a set, more power to them.
The original raiser thinks for a long time. OK - no set there, so the longer he waits the more I want him to call now. Eventually he throws it away. The other guy then sits and thinks. OK - my read was right and he did not have a set. So now I am thinking that since we are heads up, please let him shove. He then finally folds. The original re-raiser said he had KQ. The other guy said he had AQ and thought I had a set. I showed them the Q7, and the table just exploded. Not because the other guys just got bluffed - I had the best hand. But because they could not believe I played that hand. I strategically showed my cards all night. And I got people playing at me with garbage hands when I held good starting cards simply because I was able to change my perception at the table.
I ran my stack up to almost 40K, and then a couple of guys hit some hands against me (JJ got beat by AQ). One of the bigger hits I took at the final table came when The Shadow accidentally went all-in because he did not see my 3X the BB raise and cards (he thought he was in the hand by himself). I was pretty much pot-committed, especially when he legitimately thought he was going all-in against noone else - he really just meant to buy the blinds. I call - with QJ. He flips over 78d. Wouldn't you know it - he flops a flush. Uggghhhh. Situation sound familiar?
I ran my stack back up to about $35K - lost another race against a short stack. Then finally got all-in with a stack of about 24K with the blinds 1K/2K when a stack ahead of me raised to 6K. I look down at 77 and push. He insta calls with AK off. Turn is an Ace. Game over. Out in 7th out of 22 and no money, although I picked up 3 bounties, so I did not lose too much money at all playing. I hit some hands, and then I had other hands go against me. I rarely got someone all-in with the worst hand. And here is the kicker - I made it as far as I did, and ran my stack up as far as I did, without ever catching a hand better than trips. No sets. No straights. No flushes. No boats. I played for almost 5 hours. This style of play allows you to get chips without having super strong hands. Of course, this style can make you go broke quick as well. It was a mixed bag for me - I played for a long time and still did not cash, which actually sucks (long time to play for no result). But you have to think that some nights the stars will align. I will run the stack up, and I will also hit some good hands that will pay me off even more. A few more chips in certain spots would have allowed me to completely run over the table instead of just somewhat bullying the table. It will happen, and I am going to get better at this style over time. I may pay a little bit early on learning this way, but in the long run this is how I am going to make my final tables at WSOP Circuit Events and other games. It was the most fun I have had playing poker in a long time.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tunica, Screw You!
Well, I am not going to sit here and moan about my bad beats, even though I had a lot of them. I played some bad hands as well, and that hurt me too. I have learned one thing:
(1) Fuck NLHE cash games. I am sure that is where the big money is at. I fucking hate them, though. Spend an entire day playing at a table, slowly building your stack (and rebuilding your stack), only to have one hell of a fluke wipe you out. Not my cup of tea. More on this later
(2) This trip only confirmed to me that I love Omaha Eight or Better. Yes, I bombed out of the O8 tourney I played. But that was all to do about the cards and not the play. I have never had an experience like that. I never (and I am not exaggerating here) had an A2 that gave me a nut lo where I was not quartered. I understand that at times you should expect that someone else will have A2 as well at a full table. But every single time? That is definitely a statistical anomoly. I just love the way the game flows and plays, even when it does not go well. I cannot say that about NLHE.
(3) The O8 cash games were juicy. I only played the 3/6 table with a full kill. For those who don't know how that works, in a limit split pot game, if someone scoops a pot of a certain size or higher in a game with a kill, then the next hand that is played is played at a higher limit. If it is a half kill, then the limits are increased by 50% for the next hand. A full kill means the limits are doubled. In this game, the scooped pot had to be $40 or more (this included the rake and jackpot rake). If this happened, then the next hand was played at 6/12. The person who killed the pot had to put a mandatory $6 out, while the small and big blinds also still had to post their normal 1/3 blinds (unless they were the killer). The action started to the left of the kill. The kill had the option of raising (it basically was a forced straddle). After the flop all the action takes place as normal in terms of position, but the limits of betting were in $6 increments. Turn and River betting were in increments of $12. Asyou can see, this was definitely a game much larger than you typical 3/6 game, but it was so much fun. Almost all of the money I won playing in Tunica was playing this game. I hope that the next time I go (in the very distant future) I will be playing in the 10/20 O8 game. I cannot remember if they had a kill in that game or not.
(4) I will be taking a break from playing live. I plan on spending some time at home doing other things. I will be playing online, but that is not quite as bad as I can break away fairly easily to do stuff around here, while when I am away there is no such luxury. I had my fill of playing live last week, logging in on 24 hour day of playing, and a couple of other 14+ hour days. Very little sleep - lots of coffee - I am glad to be home.
Anyway - I lost what little money I took with me. I lost my last $350 on my last hand (playing $1/$2 NLHE). It was sick. This is the only bad beat story I am going to tell, simply based on how it went down. I played it bad too, which is why my entire stack got in the middle:
I flop a set of 4's on a KJ4 board, re-raise the cutoff who I checked to, and he accidentally calls me. How is that? He misread my raise and put a small amount into the pot thinking he called me, when only called about half my raise. He was told by the floor he had to keep the amount he put into the pot already in the pot. So he just goes ahead and calls. A Ten hits the board. I check and he gets $60 (about half the pot). I think for about 20 seconds and put him on 2 pair (KT or KJ) or top pair with an OESD (KQ) and was willing to gamble that he was not going to hit on the river, or at least make him pay to see it. I shove my stack in (I actually had him covered by a little, but it was a $200+ raise). He insta calls me and flips over Q9. He had raised pre-flop with that hand, which turned out to be my downfall, because I just could not put him on that hand. I had thought he might have had AQ, but it seemed more likely to me based on his demeanor he had a semi-strong hand when he phantom called me on the flop, and not a completely inside-straight drawing hand. Give me limit O8 anyday over NLHE. Next time I will wait for the game I want rather than just hopping into another game because I am impatient.
I am glad to be back home - I will not be travelling to play for awhile (unless I somehow end up with some money to play the Razz tourney at the WSOP). Otherwise, I will be nickel and diming myself online.
Steak
(1) Fuck NLHE cash games. I am sure that is where the big money is at. I fucking hate them, though. Spend an entire day playing at a table, slowly building your stack (and rebuilding your stack), only to have one hell of a fluke wipe you out. Not my cup of tea. More on this later
(2) This trip only confirmed to me that I love Omaha Eight or Better. Yes, I bombed out of the O8 tourney I played. But that was all to do about the cards and not the play. I have never had an experience like that. I never (and I am not exaggerating here) had an A2 that gave me a nut lo where I was not quartered. I understand that at times you should expect that someone else will have A2 as well at a full table. But every single time? That is definitely a statistical anomoly. I just love the way the game flows and plays, even when it does not go well. I cannot say that about NLHE.
(3) The O8 cash games were juicy. I only played the 3/6 table with a full kill. For those who don't know how that works, in a limit split pot game, if someone scoops a pot of a certain size or higher in a game with a kill, then the next hand that is played is played at a higher limit. If it is a half kill, then the limits are increased by 50% for the next hand. A full kill means the limits are doubled. In this game, the scooped pot had to be $40 or more (this included the rake and jackpot rake). If this happened, then the next hand was played at 6/12. The person who killed the pot had to put a mandatory $6 out, while the small and big blinds also still had to post their normal 1/3 blinds (unless they were the killer). The action started to the left of the kill. The kill had the option of raising (it basically was a forced straddle). After the flop all the action takes place as normal in terms of position, but the limits of betting were in $6 increments. Turn and River betting were in increments of $12. Asyou can see, this was definitely a game much larger than you typical 3/6 game, but it was so much fun. Almost all of the money I won playing in Tunica was playing this game. I hope that the next time I go (in the very distant future) I will be playing in the 10/20 O8 game. I cannot remember if they had a kill in that game or not.
(4) I will be taking a break from playing live. I plan on spending some time at home doing other things. I will be playing online, but that is not quite as bad as I can break away fairly easily to do stuff around here, while when I am away there is no such luxury. I had my fill of playing live last week, logging in on 24 hour day of playing, and a couple of other 14+ hour days. Very little sleep - lots of coffee - I am glad to be home.
Anyway - I lost what little money I took with me. I lost my last $350 on my last hand (playing $1/$2 NLHE). It was sick. This is the only bad beat story I am going to tell, simply based on how it went down. I played it bad too, which is why my entire stack got in the middle:
I flop a set of 4's on a KJ4 board, re-raise the cutoff who I checked to, and he accidentally calls me. How is that? He misread my raise and put a small amount into the pot thinking he called me, when only called about half my raise. He was told by the floor he had to keep the amount he put into the pot already in the pot. So he just goes ahead and calls. A Ten hits the board. I check and he gets $60 (about half the pot). I think for about 20 seconds and put him on 2 pair (KT or KJ) or top pair with an OESD (KQ) and was willing to gamble that he was not going to hit on the river, or at least make him pay to see it. I shove my stack in (I actually had him covered by a little, but it was a $200+ raise). He insta calls me and flips over Q9. He had raised pre-flop with that hand, which turned out to be my downfall, because I just could not put him on that hand. I had thought he might have had AQ, but it seemed more likely to me based on his demeanor he had a semi-strong hand when he phantom called me on the flop, and not a completely inside-straight drawing hand. Give me limit O8 anyday over NLHE. Next time I will wait for the game I want rather than just hopping into another game because I am impatient.
I am glad to be back home - I will not be travelling to play for awhile (unless I somehow end up with some money to play the Razz tourney at the WSOP). Otherwise, I will be nickel and diming myself online.
Steak
Monday, January 7, 2008
Tunica, Here I Come!
As you might imagine, I have not had much to say. I had been doing really good in cash games lately, then I went to Geoff's one night and dropped two buy-in's playing freaking $1-$3 spread limit mixed. Once again, donk. Maybe not so much me this time - but donking was the theme of the night. I don't even want to talk about it - it was that bad. Let's just say that I had every lower pocket pair hit their sets on me. My sets lost to straights. My straights were flushed. My flushes were boated. Hell, I even had by boat out boated in stud. Sick, sick night.
So I am hoping like hell that was my bad karma being released, because now I am going to play for the big money. Tomorrow afternoon I fly out to Tunica for tournaments and cash game play. Both the WSOP and WPT are out there. I am staying at the GoldStrike, which I am happy about. I usually stay at the Grand when I go, usually because I am concentrating on WSOP Circuit Events. But the Goldstrike is having a good rate for their tournament, and I like the location of the GoldStrike. First, the hotel is attached to the casino (which is not the case for the Grand and the rooms you get for the cheap rate). Plus, there are two casinos in that vicinity (the Horseshoe is right next door), so there is more variety for less travel.
But my first tourney is going to be at the Grand. My intent is to play the Omaha 8/b $300 WSOP Circut Event on Wednesday. I am going to try and satellite into it. And I am also going to be cash gaming it in between. Being the realist I am, I am also planning on playing the $500 WPT NLHE Shootout tourney on Thursday. And depending on how things are going, I will also try and play in a tourney at either the GoldStrike or Grand on Friday. Who knows - I may be a luckbox and make a final table. Amazingly, I have cashed in the two and only $500 Circuit Events I have played in. I will try and keep that streak alive.
I plan on trying to add to the blog during the week to keep up with the progress, but that will all depend on how much free time I have. I am planning on spending almost every waking moment I have playing, and I don't plan on sleeping much. You do the math.
OK - next time I hit this blog it will be to give my first update for my trip.
Steak
So I am hoping like hell that was my bad karma being released, because now I am going to play for the big money. Tomorrow afternoon I fly out to Tunica for tournaments and cash game play. Both the WSOP and WPT are out there. I am staying at the GoldStrike, which I am happy about. I usually stay at the Grand when I go, usually because I am concentrating on WSOP Circuit Events. But the Goldstrike is having a good rate for their tournament, and I like the location of the GoldStrike. First, the hotel is attached to the casino (which is not the case for the Grand and the rooms you get for the cheap rate). Plus, there are two casinos in that vicinity (the Horseshoe is right next door), so there is more variety for less travel.
But my first tourney is going to be at the Grand. My intent is to play the Omaha 8/b $300 WSOP Circut Event on Wednesday. I am going to try and satellite into it. And I am also going to be cash gaming it in between. Being the realist I am, I am also planning on playing the $500 WPT NLHE Shootout tourney on Thursday. And depending on how things are going, I will also try and play in a tourney at either the GoldStrike or Grand on Friday. Who knows - I may be a luckbox and make a final table. Amazingly, I have cashed in the two and only $500 Circuit Events I have played in. I will try and keep that streak alive.
I plan on trying to add to the blog during the week to keep up with the progress, but that will all depend on how much free time I have. I am planning on spending almost every waking moment I have playing, and I don't plan on sleeping much. You do the math.
OK - next time I hit this blog it will be to give my first update for my trip.
Steak
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