StudioGlyphic

Category: Poker

  • Poor showing in the morning freeroll

    Two bad plays, two bad beats, and I bounced out in 98th place.

    Bad play #1: Hiltons in the big blind, 6 callers. I should have raised before the flop. Flop comes up K-x-x and I fold to a 2.75xBB bet. Winner had pocket sevens. Damn.

    Bad play #2: Tens in LP, 4 players. Fold to one small bet after a pair flops with an ace. Turn is a 10. Damn.

    Bad beat #1: ATo in the SB, 2 players. Flopped an ace, with a flush draw on the board. I bet 2xBB and the other guy raises 5xBB all-in. I outchip him by 5 times and call. He’s Q5s and makes his flush on the river.

    Bad beat #2: With about 2xBB left in my stack, I raise all-in in LP with rockets. Two people call, including Mr. Flush from SO#1. His KJo makes a straight on the turn. And I’m out.

    Good thing these are freerolls. I clearly need the practice.

  • When winning isn’t good enough

    The problem with having monster sessions is that perfectly respectable ones lose their luster. I know that 7.09BB/100 hands is a good win rate, yet ending up only $32.75 after 3.25 hours of game time somehow feels inadequate. It’s not just the money: part of the reason for this feeling is that a lot of my big wins was the result of getting some lucky turn and/or river cards or playing against really really bad players who will call to the showdown or try to bluff with nothing. In the monster session, I usually had my opponents beat from the flop or before the flop. I had a feeling that I was getting and playing the right cards, and got rewarded for it. I guess ultimately I want to win the money and know that I deserved it.

  • Lucky, not good

    After coming in ninth ($2.50) in this morning’s MultiPoker freeroll, I fired up a 1/2 table and played until the afternoon turbo freeroll. Man, I got killed on some hands in a big way. This table was a bit more loose-aggressive than the normal 1/2 tables, and that magnified my losses. After busting out of the afternoon freeroll with pocket jacks (the caller had 9To and flopped a set), I went looking for a second table to try to average out the wins and losses.

    I found the best table in the world.

    I won 11 of the 94 hands I played, and split a few more. I won 4 of the 10 biggest pots, including the largest one of all:

    Party Poker 1/2 Hold’em (9 handed) converter

    Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with Qc, Qh.
    UTG calls, Hero raises, MP1 calls, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO calls, Button folds, SB calls, BB calls, UTG calls.

    Flop: (12 SB) 2s, Qs, 4h (6 players)
    SB bets, BB folds, UTG folds, Hero raises, MP1 calls, CO folds, SB 3-bets, Hero caps, MP1 calls, SB calls.

    Turn: (12 BB) Th (3 players)
    SB bets, Hero raises, MP1 3-bets, SB caps, Hero calls, MP1 calls.

    River: (24 BB) Ah (3 players)
    SB checks, Hero bets, MP1 calls, SB calls.

    Final Pot: 27 BB
    Main Pot: 27 BB, between MP1, SB and Hero. > Pot won by Hero (27 BB).

    Hero shows Qc Qh (three of a kind, queens).
    MP1 shows Ts Qd (two pair, queens and tens).
    SB shows 2d 4d (two pair, fours and twos).
    Outcome: Hero wins 27 BB.

    Over the course of an hour and half, I flopped a set on three hands, got Hiltons three times, rockets twice, cowboys once, and won each time. In the first 50 hands or so, I was getting a ridiculous 90+BB/100 hands. By the time I left the table, this was down to 46.28BB/100 hands. Wow. You’d think that after winning all that money, the table would stop calling my pre-flop raises, but they almost always threw out one more small bet to call. The only time they didn’t was when I had rockets on the button and the table folded around to me. Guess the SB and BB didn’t have anything worth defending.

    I ended the day up $66.75, for a win rate of 14.77BB/100 hands.

    I still don’t know anything about table selection, but I suspect avoiding having multiple loose-aggressives at my table will probably help my win rate quite a bit.

  • Last hand of the night

    Seat 1: EM
    Seat 2: JB
    Seat 3: JA
    Seat 4: MA
    Seat 5: Me
    Seat 6: JC

    JC is the button.

    I’m annoyed that I’m slightly down. After my big lead early on, a couple pots and missed flops have whittled away my lead. I look at my cards and decide to play.

    JA folds, MA calls, I call, JC folds, EM calls, JB checks.

    Flop: K K 4

    EM checks, JB checks, MA bets, I call, EM folds, JB folds.

    Turn: K

    MA bets, I call.

    River: 2

    MA bets, I raise, MA calls.

    I take the pot (9BB).

    What did MA have? For that matter, what did I have?

    I’ll post the answer in the comments section in a day or so.

  • Weekly game results: July 15

    Finally up. I’d taken the lead earlier in the evening, but one particularly bad pot and some missed flops resulted in a serious degradation of my stack. CR and ER missed this week, but a couple new players showed up in their stead.


       This week Cumulative
    EM   -$0.80    +$2.55
    JB   +$1.25    -$1.30
    JC   +$3.05    +$7.50
    Me   +$1.10    -$3.95
    JA   -$0.15    -$0.15
    MA   -$4.45    -$4.45

    JC had another good session, coming back from behind to take the lead and keep it. This has got to stop.