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
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Omaha 8/b Is Such a Great Game
When Geoff sent an email that he was having an Omaha 8/b tournament this Friday, I was all over it. I love Geoff's tournaments. Usually some sort of limit game, and usually mixed. I love mixed games, because I play all of the games to a degree. Maybe stud a little less than the others, but I play the crap out of Razz and Omaha 8/b online (as well as Hold 'Em), so I feel pretty confidnet playing it.
What I love about Omaha 8/b tournaments is that the format usually allows for a lot of play at the beginning. You can play pretty loose and portray an image of a wild and crazy player, and then when the tournament gets into the later stages, if you pick your times right, you can win huge pots from those who portray you as loose. In all actuality, you should play even tighter in O8OB than you do in Hold 'Em. It is so easy to get in bad trouble playing mediocre hands in any Omaha game, but especially in O8OB. You always seem to be drawing to something, and it is easy to get caught up in the drawing game. But the one rule I have read and heard from everyone I think knows what they are doing is that if you are drawing to either a high, low, or both, you better be drawing to the nuts. Betting and calling with anything less than the nuts on the river is usually a recipe for disaster. And usually, even if you end up winning a hand with something mediocre, it only seems to warp your perception, making you think that what just happened was some sort of correct play, when in all liklihood it would cost you a lot of chips 9 out of 10 times.
While I am far from perfect, I think I usually have a pretty good grip on the game. I'll never say never, but I rarely raise on the end with just a lo hand. I have seen so many times when someone holding a nut lo with no high hand at all keeps raising the pot. I saw it several times last night. And almost every single time that happened, the winner was the high hand winner, because there was usually 2 identical lo hands out there. You see two lo hands quartering the pot quite frequently - it is much more rare to see someone quartering the high pot while you are collecting your lo. It is a dangerous gamble to make. You really should have no worse than 2 pair with no flush potential on the board to be justifying raising on the river with a nut lo. Unless you know for certain that all of your other opponents are going for a high, the only time you should be raising with a nut lo on the river is when you are thinking you have a chance to scoop.
Anyway - back to last night. I started off slow - made a little headway in the middle, exploded towards the end, and then fizzled at the very end to finish 3rd out of 11. When we got 3 handed and played for a bit - we all ended up fairly close in chips. So we split $180 of the $220 prize pool by 3 and each took $60 (Third paid $30 and 2nd paid $70, so this pretty much a good deal). Then we finished the tournament out with the winner taking the last $40. Worked out pretty good, and I went out on the next hand.
I then went to the cash game and made another $50 or so. All in all, it was a good night for me. I have aspirations of playing the O8OB tournament at the WSOP Circuit Event in Tunica in January. I am looking forward to playing that quite a bit, and last night just whet my appetite even more.
Steak
What I love about Omaha 8/b tournaments is that the format usually allows for a lot of play at the beginning. You can play pretty loose and portray an image of a wild and crazy player, and then when the tournament gets into the later stages, if you pick your times right, you can win huge pots from those who portray you as loose. In all actuality, you should play even tighter in O8OB than you do in Hold 'Em. It is so easy to get in bad trouble playing mediocre hands in any Omaha game, but especially in O8OB. You always seem to be drawing to something, and it is easy to get caught up in the drawing game. But the one rule I have read and heard from everyone I think knows what they are doing is that if you are drawing to either a high, low, or both, you better be drawing to the nuts. Betting and calling with anything less than the nuts on the river is usually a recipe for disaster. And usually, even if you end up winning a hand with something mediocre, it only seems to warp your perception, making you think that what just happened was some sort of correct play, when in all liklihood it would cost you a lot of chips 9 out of 10 times.
While I am far from perfect, I think I usually have a pretty good grip on the game. I'll never say never, but I rarely raise on the end with just a lo hand. I have seen so many times when someone holding a nut lo with no high hand at all keeps raising the pot. I saw it several times last night. And almost every single time that happened, the winner was the high hand winner, because there was usually 2 identical lo hands out there. You see two lo hands quartering the pot quite frequently - it is much more rare to see someone quartering the high pot while you are collecting your lo. It is a dangerous gamble to make. You really should have no worse than 2 pair with no flush potential on the board to be justifying raising on the river with a nut lo. Unless you know for certain that all of your other opponents are going for a high, the only time you should be raising with a nut lo on the river is when you are thinking you have a chance to scoop.
Anyway - back to last night. I started off slow - made a little headway in the middle, exploded towards the end, and then fizzled at the very end to finish 3rd out of 11. When we got 3 handed and played for a bit - we all ended up fairly close in chips. So we split $180 of the $220 prize pool by 3 and each took $60 (Third paid $30 and 2nd paid $70, so this pretty much a good deal). Then we finished the tournament out with the winner taking the last $40. Worked out pretty good, and I went out on the next hand.
I then went to the cash game and made another $50 or so. All in all, it was a good night for me. I have aspirations of playing the O8OB tournament at the WSOP Circuit Event in Tunica in January. I am looking forward to playing that quite a bit, and last night just whet my appetite even more.
Steak
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I am a Donk
Plain and simple, the last two days have been a complete clusterfuck.
I am down $299 with only a $26 token to show for it. I have played bad, then tried to play bigger to make up. I play good but get sucked out on, and that ends up with the same result as if I played bad, except for more money. I play in the $17,500 Guarantee this afternoon and actually cash, but it was completely disappointing. I was Top 5 in chips right before we hit the money (933 players and it paid 90 players), but I donk off chips, and then end up all-in with KT suited when someone behind me yet to act had AK. Game over - out in 53rd. I know now that if I had been more patient I could have moved much further up the money ladder, and that my aggressiveness was poorly timed and gave me no real chance to steal/win chips, but every chance to piss them away. So I kind of made some progress, but not nearly what I should have made.
So then I decided to play the Razz tourney tonight, paying full price. I was making great reads - but you know what happens when you have a great draw and know your opponent has a weak hand? You still need a hit a hand to win, because by the time you reach 7th there is so much money in the pot that the player is going nowhere. It was a just gnarly tourney.
Then I played in a $11 Knockout 90-person SNG. What can I say? I have been absolutely destroyed before in tournaments, but I have never felt more deflated after a tournament than I did after this tournament.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1836265
Six hands later:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1836272
Very next hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1836278
End of tourney. I had doubled up early on in the tourney when one player donk went all in with Top Pair on the turn when I turned a flush. But he had 100 more chips than me, so someone else ended up with that bounty. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!
I end the night by losing a $26 buy-in $75 token tourney, and then winning a $26 token.
So I am so screwed on my goals right now. Just like Shaun mentions in his blog, I am thinking I need to take a break. At least online. Play some live games over the next couple of weeks, and get my mind straight before I head to Tunica the second week of January. When I get back, then I will start thinking about June and the WSOP. But I can tell you, unless I get myself straight, and do so soon, I have no business being out in Vegas for anything at all. Period. Anyway - my Road to Event 26 is taking a detour after this disastrous past couple of days, and we shall see if I hop back on that road soon or not. I am on vacation for work the next week and a half, so I am sure that I will probably end up playing some online simply because I will not be able to control myself not to. But I need to reflect on my game a little bit and see where it takes me. Maybe the best thing to do is just stop playing completely and focus on other things in my life. I just don't know. What I do know is that I need to win my Fantasy Football league bad now. Go Brady!!! Go Pats Defense. Shut those Dolphins out!!!!!!!!!!!
Steak
I am down $299 with only a $26 token to show for it. I have played bad, then tried to play bigger to make up. I play good but get sucked out on, and that ends up with the same result as if I played bad, except for more money. I play in the $17,500 Guarantee this afternoon and actually cash, but it was completely disappointing. I was Top 5 in chips right before we hit the money (933 players and it paid 90 players), but I donk off chips, and then end up all-in with KT suited when someone behind me yet to act had AK. Game over - out in 53rd. I know now that if I had been more patient I could have moved much further up the money ladder, and that my aggressiveness was poorly timed and gave me no real chance to steal/win chips, but every chance to piss them away. So I kind of made some progress, but not nearly what I should have made.
So then I decided to play the Razz tourney tonight, paying full price. I was making great reads - but you know what happens when you have a great draw and know your opponent has a weak hand? You still need a hit a hand to win, because by the time you reach 7th there is so much money in the pot that the player is going nowhere. It was a just gnarly tourney.
Then I played in a $11 Knockout 90-person SNG. What can I say? I have been absolutely destroyed before in tournaments, but I have never felt more deflated after a tournament than I did after this tournament.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1836265
Six hands later:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1836272
Very next hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1836278
End of tourney. I had doubled up early on in the tourney when one player donk went all in with Top Pair on the turn when I turned a flush. But he had 100 more chips than me, so someone else ended up with that bounty. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!
I end the night by losing a $26 buy-in $75 token tourney, and then winning a $26 token.
So I am so screwed on my goals right now. Just like Shaun mentions in his blog, I am thinking I need to take a break. At least online. Play some live games over the next couple of weeks, and get my mind straight before I head to Tunica the second week of January. When I get back, then I will start thinking about June and the WSOP. But I can tell you, unless I get myself straight, and do so soon, I have no business being out in Vegas for anything at all. Period. Anyway - my Road to Event 26 is taking a detour after this disastrous past couple of days, and we shall see if I hop back on that road soon or not. I am on vacation for work the next week and a half, so I am sure that I will probably end up playing some online simply because I will not be able to control myself not to. But I need to reflect on my game a little bit and see where it takes me. Maybe the best thing to do is just stop playing completely and focus on other things in my life. I just don't know. What I do know is that I need to win my Fantasy Football league bad now. Go Brady!!! Go Pats Defense. Shut those Dolphins out!!!!!!!!!!!
Steak
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Final League Tournament and some SICK Cash Game Action
So last night was the final tournament of our league. The tournament for me was inconsequential. I played good at first, and sucked ass at the end. Actually, pretty much a reversal of the way I usually play. I was making good moves and reads early on, and chasing way too much when the blinds were high. I paid a severe price, and ended up getting busted somewhere right in the middle of the pack. So $500 not in my pocket for Tunica in a couple of weeks. That sucked.
Then I played in the cash game that popped up. So sick. It was just a $0.50 / $1.00 cash game at first. All NLHE. When the tourney wrapped up, we moved to the main table at The Shadow's Poker Pit - sweet table and sweet environment to play. We switched the game up to playing dealer's choice. And when we say dealer's choice, it really morphed into dealer's choice of ANYTHING that even remotely resembled poker. And we all got hooked on a game called 52. This is the sickest game ever. It has nothing to do with skill at all - purely a luck game. Pure gamble, and could be very expensive.
For those who don't know what this is, everyone at the table has to ante. Then everyone is dealt 5 cards. You look at your cards, and you have to decide right then if you are in or out (going around the table declaring one way or the other, with the dealer declaring last). You declare by throwing another ante into the pot. Those who stayed in get dealt two more cards. If two or more players stayed in, the winner takes the pot in the middle, and the loser(s) have to match whatever was in the pot and put it into the pot for the next hand. Then everyone antes again, and you start all over again. So if only two people stayed in, then the pot only grows by the amount of the antes. If three or more people stayed in, then you have two or more people matching the pot. The first hand usually has about 4 people in it, so you are looking the pot growing several times the initial pot for the second hand. As you can see, this can get big quick. The way the game ends is if only one person stays in. When that happens, they get their 2 additional cards, and then a ghost hand is dealt in the middle of the table. The player left must beat this ghost hand, and if they do they take the pot. If they do not, then they must match the pot.
The first few times we played this, the pot never got ridiculous. I think we had one $100+ pot the first dozen times we played it. But the last game was a classic.
The initial ante was $1.50 each, and we had 5 players in the pot. After that, each additional ante was $1.00 each. It starts off a little slow, with the pot never getting too big, and usually only one person calling. But at some point, it got ridiculous. I think what happened is we actually had 3 players in the pot when it was up to about $46. So after that hand was over, it was almost $100. Then the craziness ensues. Runner Runner Ricky lost his nickname, as luck was not on his side tonight. He faced off against the ghost hand and lost, and was stuck almost $100. So now the pot was almost $200. Then Robert held 2 pair against the ghost hand - and lost on the river. He was stuck $200 in the game now. So the pot is a sick amount of over $400. So Ricky gets two pair again, and tries to take down the massive pot. Now, please remember that it is after 4:00AM (we had been playing this cash game for quite some time). We had been playing this particular game for awhile, as once the pot got this big most of us were folding and re-anteing to see another hand. So Ricky is feeling pretty good about his hand. I will never forget this. The ghost is dealt:
K-K-K
Now Ricky had a K in his hand. The case Kings are dealt as the first 3 cards to the ghost hand. Ricky is now stuck another $400. By the time this was finalized, the pot was well over $800. Robert takes it down with a high two pair, and we (except Ricky) sigh a huge breath of relief. One crazy hand, and that pot could have easily topped $1700. I think going forward we will call for the pot to be capped, as it is really insane to think that a few hands not going your way could lead to you losing a mortgage payment in a game where skill is next to non-existent. Considering the stakes we were playing for, the end of the night was intense. It was fun, but a stressful fun. I actually had a chance to take down the $800 pot when I was dealt AAKQT, but I had pretty much made up my mind that unless I was dealt a straight, I was not even considering making that call. Then again I would have won and pretty much had my Tunica trip paid for in one psychotic hand of 52. Oh well, as Ricky once taunted John before losing his ass "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda". Ricky probably is probably thinking today he "Shoulda" not made a couple of those calls. Oh well. Live and learn.
I guess this is why I try to steer clear of dealer's choice games. While I like variety, I need to be playing skill games and not chance games. Money much better invested that way. For me, it was a live and learn scenario as well.
Steak
Then I played in the cash game that popped up. So sick. It was just a $0.50 / $1.00 cash game at first. All NLHE. When the tourney wrapped up, we moved to the main table at The Shadow's Poker Pit - sweet table and sweet environment to play. We switched the game up to playing dealer's choice. And when we say dealer's choice, it really morphed into dealer's choice of ANYTHING that even remotely resembled poker. And we all got hooked on a game called 52. This is the sickest game ever. It has nothing to do with skill at all - purely a luck game. Pure gamble, and could be very expensive.
For those who don't know what this is, everyone at the table has to ante. Then everyone is dealt 5 cards. You look at your cards, and you have to decide right then if you are in or out (going around the table declaring one way or the other, with the dealer declaring last). You declare by throwing another ante into the pot. Those who stayed in get dealt two more cards. If two or more players stayed in, the winner takes the pot in the middle, and the loser(s) have to match whatever was in the pot and put it into the pot for the next hand. Then everyone antes again, and you start all over again. So if only two people stayed in, then the pot only grows by the amount of the antes. If three or more people stayed in, then you have two or more people matching the pot. The first hand usually has about 4 people in it, so you are looking the pot growing several times the initial pot for the second hand. As you can see, this can get big quick. The way the game ends is if only one person stays in. When that happens, they get their 2 additional cards, and then a ghost hand is dealt in the middle of the table. The player left must beat this ghost hand, and if they do they take the pot. If they do not, then they must match the pot.
The first few times we played this, the pot never got ridiculous. I think we had one $100+ pot the first dozen times we played it. But the last game was a classic.
The initial ante was $1.50 each, and we had 5 players in the pot. After that, each additional ante was $1.00 each. It starts off a little slow, with the pot never getting too big, and usually only one person calling. But at some point, it got ridiculous. I think what happened is we actually had 3 players in the pot when it was up to about $46. So after that hand was over, it was almost $100. Then the craziness ensues. Runner Runner Ricky lost his nickname, as luck was not on his side tonight. He faced off against the ghost hand and lost, and was stuck almost $100. So now the pot was almost $200. Then Robert held 2 pair against the ghost hand - and lost on the river. He was stuck $200 in the game now. So the pot is a sick amount of over $400. So Ricky gets two pair again, and tries to take down the massive pot. Now, please remember that it is after 4:00AM (we had been playing this cash game for quite some time). We had been playing this particular game for awhile, as once the pot got this big most of us were folding and re-anteing to see another hand. So Ricky is feeling pretty good about his hand. I will never forget this. The ghost is dealt:
K-K-K
Now Ricky had a K in his hand. The case Kings are dealt as the first 3 cards to the ghost hand. Ricky is now stuck another $400. By the time this was finalized, the pot was well over $800. Robert takes it down with a high two pair, and we (except Ricky) sigh a huge breath of relief. One crazy hand, and that pot could have easily topped $1700. I think going forward we will call for the pot to be capped, as it is really insane to think that a few hands not going your way could lead to you losing a mortgage payment in a game where skill is next to non-existent. Considering the stakes we were playing for, the end of the night was intense. It was fun, but a stressful fun. I actually had a chance to take down the $800 pot when I was dealt AAKQT, but I had pretty much made up my mind that unless I was dealt a straight, I was not even considering making that call. Then again I would have won and pretty much had my Tunica trip paid for in one psychotic hand of 52. Oh well, as Ricky once taunted John before losing his ass "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda". Ricky probably is probably thinking today he "Shoulda" not made a couple of those calls. Oh well. Live and learn.
I guess this is why I try to steer clear of dealer's choice games. While I like variety, I need to be playing skill games and not chance games. Money much better invested that way. For me, it was a live and learn scenario as well.
Steak
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