Category: Poker

From what I’d seen at the $25 NL tables and from what’d I’d heard from HD, I would have expected a little more tight playing at the $25 PL tables. I guess not:

I know, I know, MP3 had implied odds, but at some point that starts to sound more like a rationalization than rational play.

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Didn’t Izmet say not to slowplay a set? My ass was somewhat at risk with this little manouever:

Okay, so I don’t think I actually did anything wrong. I had top set, the flop was rainbow, turn was a rag, and I took all his money in the end. But how much would it have sucked if the river had been a diamond, but not a board pair? Yeesh. Didn’t even see the flush. Not sure if I would have been as blind if I hadn’t made my boat.

Anyway, I think I’ll go review some of the thoughts on “big bet poker with training wheels” over at The Cards Speak.

5:15 PM Update: the same guy whose flush lost to my boat just lost another big pot. The card that made his nut flush on the river made someone else’s boat. In both cases, this guy was beat from the flop, but kept fishing for his hand, got it, and lost. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

In the long run, I expect to win money when I play poker. It’s not because I’m a great poker player, but because I’m somewhere above the halfway mark in the poker food chain. Since June, I’ve been eking out a decent 3BB/100 hands. That only represents a little under 4,000 hands, but I like the trendline.

In the short run, I expect to run into bouts of terrible runs that push me to and over the brink of tiltdom. This is why having a bankroll capable of handling the beats and bad runs is so important. Play within your limits!

Now as a student I don’t really have the extra cash lying around to fund a bankroll adequately, so I am running a higher risk by playing with a bankroll of 50-100BB, but thus far I’ve been fortunate in being able to run up the bankroll after each initial deposit and withdraw the money to the safety of my bank account. After that, it’s OPM, and while I’d be sad to see it go, it doesn’t become a problem.

Of course, my ultimate goal is to build up that 300BB bankroll, and then push it even higher to fund excursions into the higher limits. I’m not a patient person, but I’m trying. It’s frustrating because I’ve gone through periods of huge run-ups only to see it all dissipate in a flurry of suck outs and cold decks. It’s a heartbreaking cycle, and it keeps me scraping around at 1/2. After all, one of the primary reasons I play poker is to beat other people and take their money as proof of my abilities. But if the game slaps you around like a mean girlfriend, you really start to question your manhood.

Well, maybe not quite that.

Anyway, I hope you’re not reading this blog for any poker advice, because I’m not the one to give it. I do have a favor to ask you, though: bet and raise at every opportunity. Someone has to teach those fish a lesson, and if not you, then who?

…and they will reward you with riches. Either that or chat with HD on IM while rockin’ two 1/2 tables at a time. I believe I was IM’ing with him the last time I had a session this good. Maybe I ought to give him a commission.

Bottom line: Up $65.12 for a win rate of 20.61BB/100 hands, not including this morning’s tourney finish.

This wasn’t like the July 17th session when I just kept getting massive hands. In some ways it was even crazier because I’d be sitting on crap in the BB, get a bunch of limpers, then be able to check-raise my flopped two pair or set on the flop and rake it in.

For instance, 52o flopped two pair and riverred a boat; 94o flopped middle pair then riverred two pair after checks on the flop and turn (amazingly I got three callers); 97o flopped top two pair; A4o flopped a boat; and A6o flopped a set. I don’t know this for sure, but I’ve probably never won so many hands from the big blind. I could have won even more money with one particular BB hand if I hadn’t ditched my 23s flush draw after a flop bet. I knew I had odds to make my hand, but was it really going to be the nuts? Yep. Winner riverred a set of jacks and took the pot.

Of course, don’t let me give you the impression that this was smooth sailing the entire session. After flopping the nut flush on my fourth hand, this uberfish cracked my cowboys with QTo on the river. Unbelievable. Had I been observing this guy a bit more, I would have realized that he always raises with top pair. But it was tough to figure out. Before the flop, he called a raise, then called my re-raise. When QJ7 showed up on the flop and he raised on me, I thought it not out of the question to be up against two pair or a set. I probably should have reraised while it was cheap to test things out since my pair was better than any card on the flop, but then again, knowing what I know now about the uberfish, he probably would have been happy to call me down to the river and suck out on me anyway.

At any rate, I was hovering at a little above my buy-in for over half of the hands at this table. It was only when I launched the second table that I started to win on the first one. I won a big pot when I flopped two pair with Q9s, and then I managed to win 3-5 big bets about once every orbit. I was on fire and it felt great. Now that I’m working, going to school, and trying to have some kind of social life, making these infrequent poker sessions count is important.

Came in 11th in the weekly $1000 freeroll. I was short stack and figured pocket queens would be good; big stack to my left had pocket kings and knocked me out. Figures.

There was one hand early on that I made a terrible mistake on. I had AJ suited and limped. I flopped two pair and tried to be tricky by checking. Someone made a straight when a 10 showed up on the turn and raised on me. Instead of folding, I reraised, got raised, called. Rag appeared on the river and I called his all-in like a fool. I instantly went from being 800 above average to 1000 below average. Luckily I got pocket aces a few hands later and was able to save my stack from certain doom.

After a one week hiatus, we had our weekly game last night:

   This week  Cumulative  Average
CR   +$2.40     +$9.60    +$1.60
EM   +$1.45     +$5.45    +$0.78
ER   -$0.85     +$3.15    +$0.53
JB   -$0.25     -$9.75    -$1.39
JC   -$2.50    +$12.00    +$1.71
Me   -$0.25    -$12.30    -$1.76

The night started off with no showdowns for the first hour. We need to inject some new blood into these games. No monster pots all night either, though there were some hands where big pocket pairs were either misplayed or held to the showdown with better hands showing on the board.

JC’s 5-game streak came to an end. I’m guessing the cards just weren’t coming his way. CR continues to gain on JC in the stats.

I started off winning a few small pots (mostly consisting of the blinds and 1 or 2 small bets), then started losing a number of pots, then came back to just below even. I need to mix up my game a bit. One hand where I flopped two pair and turned a boat netted me virtually nothing. On another hand I folded top pair with a weak kicker when I completely misjudged what the other people had. I basically conceded 6 big bets to CR, which would have put me in the black and EM into first place this week. Doh.