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Category: Poker

  • When all the draws come in…

    …you better fold.

    Party Poker 2/4 Hold’em (10 handed) converter

    Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 2h, 2c.
    1 fold, Hero calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, 2 folds, CO raises, 1 fold, SB calls $5 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, CO calls.

    Flop: (16 SB) Ac, Td, 2s (5 players, 1 all-in)
    Hero checks, UTG+2 checks, MP1 checks, CO checks.

    Turn: (8 BB) 3s (5 players, 1 all-in)
    Hero bets, UTG+2 calls, MP1 calls, CO folds.

    River: (11 BB) 4s (4 players, 1 all-in)
    Hero checks, UTG+2 bets, MP1 raises, Hero folds, UTG+2 calls $7.50 (All-In), MP1 calls.

    Final Pot: 16.75 BB

    SB has Ah 7h (one pair, aces).
    UTG+2 has 5d 8h (straight, five high).
    MP1 has 4h As (two pair, aces and fours).
    Outcome: UTG+2 wins 16.75 BB.

    When something like this happens you wonder if there’s anything you could have done, short of magically transforming it into a big bet game–then again, I fully expected to see MP1 to show down something better than 2 pair.

  • Adelphia blows big hairy monkey chunks

    This is me winning a huge pot, giving me nearly a 2:1 chip advantage against a loose overplayer while heads-up in a 5-table SNG at Full Tilt.

    This is also me before Adelphia completely crapped out, leaving me in second place for my troubles.

    I’ve had a lot of issues with Adelphia, but I’ve been hesitant to get locked into a year long agreement with a DSL provider or pay the $100 startup cost for a month-to-month plan. But as smarter people around me have pointed out, I lost that much tonight just by not having a reliable internet connection.

  • Must have been a blogger

    The other night a player sat down and immediately started to play a lot of hands. Let’s call him VPIP79. This is one of several hands I played against him:

    Party Poker 5/10 Hold’em (10 handed) converter

    Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Jd, Js. CO posts a blind of $5.
    1 fold, UTG+1 (VPIP79) calls, UTG+2 raises, Hero 3-bets, 6 folds, UTG+1 (VPIP79) calls, UTG+2 calls.

    Flop: (11.40 SB) 7s, 9c, 2h (3 players)
    VPIP79 bets, UTG+2 folds, Hero raises, VPIP79 3-bets, Hero calls.

    Turn: (8.70 BB) 4s (2 players)
    VPIP79 bets, Hero calls.

    River: (10.70 BB) 9s (2 players)
    VPIP79 bets, Hero calls.

    Final Pot: 12.70 BB

    VPIP79 has 7h 2d (two pair, nines and sevens).
    Hero has Jd Js (two pair, jacks and nines).
    Outcome: Hero wins 12.70 BB.

    Call me a lemur, but it’s hard to fold an overpair while heads up against a loose player, especially when the pot’s that big. Of course, when the top card paired on the river, I figured I was dead, but I’d see what he had. It never even occurred to me that he had bottom two pair on the flop. I mean, who the hell plays seven-deuce offsuit?!

    Then again, maybe he was bored.

    When I’m bored, I prefer raising, and I prefer connectors:

    Party Poker 5/10 Hold’em (10 handed) converter

    Preflop: Hero is UTG with 7s, 6s.
    Hero raises, 7 folds, SB (VPIP55) calls, BB (VPIP25) calls.

    Flop: (6 SB) Jh, 5s, 8d (3 players)
    VPIP55 checks, VPIP25 bets, Hero raises, VPIP55 calls, VPIP25 calls.

    Turn: (6 BB) 4h (3 players)
    VPIP55 checks, VPIP25 checks, Hero bets, VPIP55 calls, VPIP25 calls.

    River: (9 BB) 2d (3 players)
    VPIP55 checks, VPIP25 checks, Hero bets, VPIP55 calls, VPIP25 calls.

    Final Pot: 12 BB

    VPIP55 has 4s As (one pair, fours).
    VPIP25 has Jd Qh (one pair, jacks).
    Hero has 7s 6s (straight, eight high).
    Outcome: Hero wins 12 BB.

    The flop raise was definitely an attempt to see the turn and river for the price of 1SB. But all the pieces fell into place and I got my straight. The SB remarked that he didn’t put me on that hand at all.

    I guess that hand made an impression, since someone cold-called a later raise with A2o. The SB from the hand above saved me some money by 3-betting with his flopped boat (he had T7s in EP) after A2o raised. I mucked and the two players went to war. A2o busted and left the table.

  • Expected Value

    Phil Gordon went to a charity event for the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation and did a little gambling:

    They had a raffle for some brilliant prizes, and being the sorta guy I am, I decided to take a shot. Raffle tickets were selling for $25 a piece until you go to the $500 donation level when they went for $20 a piece. At a $1000 level, you get 100 tickets ($10 a ticket). Everyone seemed to be buying $25 tickets, so I thought what the hell, lets make a nice sizable donation…. I bought $2000 worth and got 200 tickets in exchange. Then, I found out that I bought them from the “wrong girl” and that there was a contest going on whereby the girl with the most tickets sold got a prize. So, I ended up buying another $2000 in tickets. $4000 in tickets purchased in all. By my calculations, I had about 1/3 of the tickets in play.

    To make a long story short, I won the top two prizes:

    Two round trip tickets to Sydney on Qantas in the “sleeper” seats plus 6 nights at the Sydney Harbor Marriott. $25k value.

    and…

    Two round trip business class tickets to anywhere in Europe courtesy of American Airlines. $18k value.

    $43,000 for $4000. Not bad. My girlfriend was extremely happy as well, as you might imagine.

    So if he had 1/3 of the tickets in play, and we assume the other 2/3 were purchased at $25 per ticket, he contributed 20% of the donation pool for a 33% chance of winning at least one prize and ended up with an ROI of 1075%. Not bad.

    Read more at his MySpace blog.

  • Hammer Good

    In case you are wondering, I raised to steal the blinds, flopped a boat, bet the flop, called the check-raise, raised the turn, and bet the river. He had 55.