Friday was a good poker day, Saturday not so much. Let me start with a memorable hand from Friday.
Friday is a dealers choice game. They pick all sorts of crazy games. One of my favorites came up called Texaha. You get dealt 6 cards, and you separate them into holdem hand and an omaha hand. Half the pot is awarded to the high holdem hand, and half to the high omaha hand.
I got dealt AAT683. I put the aces in my holdem hand, and raised. I got a few callers. The flop came ATT. I bet half the pot and got 1 caller. The turn was a Q. I bet half the pot, and he called. The river was a 6. I bet half the pot, and he called with 2 boats, both smaller than mine. I love hands where all you have to worry about is how much to bet to get the other sucker to call without chasing them away.
Saturday was not so easy. Early in the game with 9J, there is a board is 8765 with 2 hearts. I call an all-in bet and we both have the straight to the 9, but he is freerolling with hearts, and the river brings it.
I rebuy and quickly look down at two red aces. The 2 seat raises to $12, I pop it to $30. A guy after me calls the $30 with Q8 of hearts. He was on tilt and was calling with anything. The initial raiser calls. The flop comes J high, no 8, with 2 hearts. I bet $80 and the guy after me raises to $170 all-in. The other guy folds and I make the call of $90 more into the almost $350 pot. We agree to run it 3 times. The first board comes QQ, I lose. The next board comes heart, blank, I lose. The last board goes runner, runner, to make a straight with his 8. I lose all three boards. SICK!
I go card dead for hours and hours and start to make a few bored calls, but without connecting what-so-ever on the board, I am quickly bored again. I started when the game got going, and finished when the game broke, and never saw any opportunities to make back my money until the last hand of the night.
I was tired and bored and pissed at how bad the dealer was at dealing. I was dealt AK of clubs. I raise and get 2 callers. The flop comes 976 with 2 clubs. A young attractive woman bets, and the other player calls. I flat hoping to see a club on the turn. A non-club 5 is now on the board. The woman checks, and the guy bets big. I know he has the 8 for the straight. I have to call a big bet into a big pot with someone still to act after me. Both players have more chips than me. Calling this bet will cost me over 1/3 of my remaining stack. I go into the tank trying to convince myself to call even though I thought I was not getting the proper odds. I was also worried about getting repopped by the woman. I folded, she called, and a club hits the river. They check and she showed pocket 9s and he shows his straight. I am SICK! I leave and go home stuck a lot, but do not feel too bad. I thought I would feel worse, but I am happy I do not. I am still not sure if it was correct to call that bet, but will discuss it with some poker nuts and get some opinions.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Yesterday I played in my weekly low buy-in NLH tournament. I started off with a few bad beats and say my stack drop from my initial $300 down to $120. I scratched and clawed my way back, and made it into the money where the final 3 of us decided to chop. I am now in the green for my tournament results for the year. Tonight is my favorite NLH game, and the quad pot is up to $1300. It would be so awesome to win that tonight. Check here tomorrow to see if I won it.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
I played in a $1-2 NLH game I had never been to before on Tuesday. The players were very good. I usually like at least 1 or 2 bad players at the table, but none at this game. A very aggressive guy was to my left which made things a little more difficult. I managed to build up my $200 buyin up to about $350 mostly from this hand:
I have TJ with a flop of QKx. I check, the aggressive guy to my left bets. I call. Turn blank, check bet call. River 9. I bet big hoping it looks like a possible bluff. He thinks for a long time, then calls and annouces that I have TJ. I was impressed with his read of my hand (not his play) and said nice call, meaning nice call of my hand. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I realized that it could be taken as a nice call of my bet, so I quickly showed my cards and explained what I meant by nice call. He was not happy and muttered some words I could not hear. I felt bad about what I said, but knew I did not intentionally mean it to be misinterpreted.
Later I ran into this hand.
The guy to my left straddled for $5, 3 limpers, then a raise to $15. I look down at AK of clubs. I make it $35, hoping I get 1 or 2 callers to see the flop with me. The straddler folds, one of the limpers call, and the raiser calls. Three way with a pot of about $120. The flop comes 247 with 2 clubs. I cbet $70 figuring no one hit this flop. The first player raises all-in for about another $150, the other guy folds. I have to call $150 to win a pot of about $340. I call with my nut flush draw, and she turns over 67 of clubs. I have 2 overs and a better flush draw. Noting comes, and I am down. I leave the game shortly afterwards down $120, my first losing session in quite a while.
Last night I go back to my Wednesday game. I only had 2 significant hands all night. Here is the first.
I am dealt KK in late position. Seat 7 raises to $8. I am in the 10 seat and make it $17, hoping the raiser will call or reraise. The 1 seat calls as well as the 7 seat. The flop comes ATx all hearts. I have the K of hearts. I cbet $25 to see where I am at. Seat 1 calls, 7 folds. The turn brings another A. Now I do not think seat 7 has an A, but maybe a T or maybe jacks. They check and I bet $40 mostly as a blocker bet, hoping another Ace, King, or heart comes. The river blanks and seat 7 bet $50. I get the sense that I am beat, and he is trying to price me in to call. He looks very confident. I was very hard, but I laid down my kings. He showed pocket tens for a boat. I feel lucky I got way with not losing too much.
The other hand that was memorable was when I was dealt 55. Seat 6 raises to $6, seat 7 calls, and I call. With a pot of $18, we see a flop of Q95 rainbow. Seat 6 bets $16, seat 7 folds, I raise to $35, seat 6 calls. He tells me that he is very strong and says it in a very nice way. Then he shows me a Q. I think he has pocket queens, but then I remember a hand from a week ago against this same player, who acted all friendly and told he that he had a good kicker with an A high flop. I also had an Ace and believed him and folded, when he showed me A4. Remembering this hand quickly changed my mind. I put him on a Q only. Probably AQ. The turn was a blank, and seat 6 says he will bet $80 into the $88 pot and I move $80 into the pot before he does. I did this to get a read off of his river action. If he bets again, he probably does have a big hand and was hoping I would remember last weeks hand. If he doesn't then I know I have him. The river brings a blank, and he takes his foot off of the pedal and checks. I bet $80, pricing him in to call with top pair. He folded and I scooped a nice pot. It pays to know your opponent.
I ended up cashing out for $530 after buying in for $300. $230 profit for about 4 hours of playing, so almost $60 an hour. This is a little less than I have been making in this game, but it only brings my rate down to just over $65/hour. I am still very happy with that profit rate.
If I get my profit up enough, I may put half of it toward a WSOP event. I am taking the day off from poker to catch up on some sleep, but will be playing the following 3 days. Wish me luck.
I have TJ with a flop of QKx. I check, the aggressive guy to my left bets. I call. Turn blank, check bet call. River 9. I bet big hoping it looks like a possible bluff. He thinks for a long time, then calls and annouces that I have TJ. I was impressed with his read of my hand (not his play) and said nice call, meaning nice call of my hand. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I realized that it could be taken as a nice call of my bet, so I quickly showed my cards and explained what I meant by nice call. He was not happy and muttered some words I could not hear. I felt bad about what I said, but knew I did not intentionally mean it to be misinterpreted.
Later I ran into this hand.
The guy to my left straddled for $5, 3 limpers, then a raise to $15. I look down at AK of clubs. I make it $35, hoping I get 1 or 2 callers to see the flop with me. The straddler folds, one of the limpers call, and the raiser calls. Three way with a pot of about $120. The flop comes 247 with 2 clubs. I cbet $70 figuring no one hit this flop. The first player raises all-in for about another $150, the other guy folds. I have to call $150 to win a pot of about $340. I call with my nut flush draw, and she turns over 67 of clubs. I have 2 overs and a better flush draw. Noting comes, and I am down. I leave the game shortly afterwards down $120, my first losing session in quite a while.
Last night I go back to my Wednesday game. I only had 2 significant hands all night. Here is the first.
I am dealt KK in late position. Seat 7 raises to $8. I am in the 10 seat and make it $17, hoping the raiser will call or reraise. The 1 seat calls as well as the 7 seat. The flop comes ATx all hearts. I have the K of hearts. I cbet $25 to see where I am at. Seat 1 calls, 7 folds. The turn brings another A. Now I do not think seat 7 has an A, but maybe a T or maybe jacks. They check and I bet $40 mostly as a blocker bet, hoping another Ace, King, or heart comes. The river blanks and seat 7 bet $50. I get the sense that I am beat, and he is trying to price me in to call. He looks very confident. I was very hard, but I laid down my kings. He showed pocket tens for a boat. I feel lucky I got way with not losing too much.
The other hand that was memorable was when I was dealt 55. Seat 6 raises to $6, seat 7 calls, and I call. With a pot of $18, we see a flop of Q95 rainbow. Seat 6 bets $16, seat 7 folds, I raise to $35, seat 6 calls. He tells me that he is very strong and says it in a very nice way. Then he shows me a Q. I think he has pocket queens, but then I remember a hand from a week ago against this same player, who acted all friendly and told he that he had a good kicker with an A high flop. I also had an Ace and believed him and folded, when he showed me A4. Remembering this hand quickly changed my mind. I put him on a Q only. Probably AQ. The turn was a blank, and seat 6 says he will bet $80 into the $88 pot and I move $80 into the pot before he does. I did this to get a read off of his river action. If he bets again, he probably does have a big hand and was hoping I would remember last weeks hand. If he doesn't then I know I have him. The river brings a blank, and he takes his foot off of the pedal and checks. I bet $80, pricing him in to call with top pair. He folded and I scooped a nice pot. It pays to know your opponent.
I ended up cashing out for $530 after buying in for $300. $230 profit for about 4 hours of playing, so almost $60 an hour. This is a little less than I have been making in this game, but it only brings my rate down to just over $65/hour. I am still very happy with that profit rate.
If I get my profit up enough, I may put half of it toward a WSOP event. I am taking the day off from poker to catch up on some sleep, but will be playing the following 3 days. Wish me luck.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Yesterday, I played in a nice $1-2 NLH game. In the first orbit, I got dealt 56 of spades. With a flop of 7s4s7d, I make a bet to build the pot and to gage where everyone is at. The guy after me raises, and another guy calls. I call. The turn brings the Tc. I check, next guy goes all-in for about half the pot. The last guy calls, and I call. The river was a blank, the last guy checks, and I check. The all-in guy shows QT of spades, and the last guys shows 7T. I played the hand bad. I probably should have gotten away from the hand on the turn, because after noth players called on the flop, I probably did not have as many outs as I had originally thought, as the case turned out. I was down about $250 early on and had some work to do.
Another hand fairly early on in the night, I was dealt QK and raised with 1 caller. The flop brought TJx. The other player checked, and I bet about 3/4 of the pot. He called. A king came on the turn. He checked again, I bet about 3/4 of the pot again, and he called. The river was a blank, he checked and I bet 1/2 the pot. He called and shows Q9. Another $200 down.
I grind myself back to even for the night when this hand happened. I was dealt JQ of diamonds. Chad raised to 7 and I called in position. The flop came AQ8 with 2 diamonds. Chad cbet $16. I called. The turn was a 3 of diamonds. Chad checked, I checked. The river was another Q, Chad checked again, and I bet $30. Chad folded and showed A3. This hand does not sound very exciting, but I was surprised at Chad's fold. On the flop, I had assumed he would put me on a single Ace or a flush draw. After checking the turn, I assumed he would not put me on a flush draw and just a single Ace, probably with a bigger kicker. When the river came, I would think he would put us both on 2 pair, but I guess he thought my kicker was a 9,T, or J. I probably bet too much on the river, but was still impressed my his lay-down. I will have to watch out for this guy in the future.
After about 5 hours of play, I am up almost $600 and playing very smart, taking advantage of every player's mistakes. I decide I am only playing 1 more hour, and when it gets down to the last hand I am going to play for the night, I get dealt AA. A talkative guy to my right raises, I reraise, he reraises, I raise again, he calls. I know he has either aces, kings, or queens, or ace-king. He is not a great player, and is very aggressive often. The flop comes King high and he checks. I bet, he calls. I smell kings. The turn does not bring an ace, and we both check. The river does not bring an ace, and he bets small. I am fairly confident he has a set, but the bet was very small for a $500+ pot, so I called and he shows his kings. I did get a 1 ounce silver coin fromt he house for having my aces cracked, but that does not pay for the big loss in the hand.
I cash out for a profit of almost $300 but the sting of that last hand does not make me happy while counting my profits. Today, I am happy with my play overall, and am ok with losing a big pot with aces vs kings, since, in the long run, I will win most of those and am not upset with my play in that hand.
There are 2 games today, and Omaha hi-lo game that I love, and a $1-2 NLH game. I have been crushing the NLH game, but I enjoy playing Omaha8 much more, so I have a decision to make. Find out tomorrow what I played and how I did.
Another hand fairly early on in the night, I was dealt QK and raised with 1 caller. The flop brought TJx. The other player checked, and I bet about 3/4 of the pot. He called. A king came on the turn. He checked again, I bet about 3/4 of the pot again, and he called. The river was a blank, he checked and I bet 1/2 the pot. He called and shows Q9. Another $200 down.
I grind myself back to even for the night when this hand happened. I was dealt JQ of diamonds. Chad raised to 7 and I called in position. The flop came AQ8 with 2 diamonds. Chad cbet $16. I called. The turn was a 3 of diamonds. Chad checked, I checked. The river was another Q, Chad checked again, and I bet $30. Chad folded and showed A3. This hand does not sound very exciting, but I was surprised at Chad's fold. On the flop, I had assumed he would put me on a single Ace or a flush draw. After checking the turn, I assumed he would not put me on a flush draw and just a single Ace, probably with a bigger kicker. When the river came, I would think he would put us both on 2 pair, but I guess he thought my kicker was a 9,T, or J. I probably bet too much on the river, but was still impressed my his lay-down. I will have to watch out for this guy in the future.
After about 5 hours of play, I am up almost $600 and playing very smart, taking advantage of every player's mistakes. I decide I am only playing 1 more hour, and when it gets down to the last hand I am going to play for the night, I get dealt AA. A talkative guy to my right raises, I reraise, he reraises, I raise again, he calls. I know he has either aces, kings, or queens, or ace-king. He is not a great player, and is very aggressive often. The flop comes King high and he checks. I bet, he calls. I smell kings. The turn does not bring an ace, and we both check. The river does not bring an ace, and he bets small. I am fairly confident he has a set, but the bet was very small for a $500+ pot, so I called and he shows his kings. I did get a 1 ounce silver coin fromt he house for having my aces cracked, but that does not pay for the big loss in the hand.
I cash out for a profit of almost $300 but the sting of that last hand does not make me happy while counting my profits. Today, I am happy with my play overall, and am ok with losing a big pot with aces vs kings, since, in the long run, I will win most of those and am not upset with my play in that hand.
There are 2 games today, and Omaha hi-lo game that I love, and a $1-2 NLH game. I have been crushing the NLH game, but I enjoy playing Omaha8 much more, so I have a decision to make. Find out tomorrow what I played and how I did.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
I have been playing a lot of poker lately, but not much blogging. I will try to change that.
Last night I played at a local $1-2 NLH cash game. This was my first time at the game, and it was very nice. They had a full bar, lots of food, in a beautiful house. The poker tables were very nice with automatic builtin shufflers, and built-in cup holders for each player. The dealers were freindly as well as the players. There was probably about $5000 on the table with lots more in the wallets. A few players were tight, but most were loose. Few were aggressive, most were passive. The game has a badbeat jackpot (Aces full of tens beat), quads jackpot, aces cracked jackpot, and a WSOP freeroll that you can qualify by playing in this regular cash game.
I had to wait about an hour to get a seat, and I bought in for $300. My first hand I was a little too eager to play, and had to made a big bluff to win the pot. I often find myself doing this early, and it usually doesn't work but it lets everyone know that I bluff and it often pays off later in the game.
My first 5 out of 6 hands are AQ, 88, AK, 38, 88, AQs. It was a nice start. After about 2 orbits and up a good amount of chips, I walk into the following hand.
Pre-flop
I am in seat 2 on the button with QK of spades. The guy in seat 5 (UTG) limps for $2, the 10 seat makes it $10. I call, blinds fold,and the limper calls. Pot is $33.
Post-Flop
the flop comes 89T with 2 diamonds and no spades. I am not thrilled with this flop. Seat 5 makes a $10 bet. This gets me thinking. Why such a small bet? Is this a probe bet, a blocker bet, or a pot building bet? I put him on a flush draw with maybe a pair. Maybe K9 of diamonds, possibly A9 or A8 of diamonds. I am ready for the ten seat to raise. The ten seat just flats. Now the pot is $53. I think about raising, but these players seem to call almost anything, especially with draws and 2 pair and sets. I decide to just call.
Turn
The turn brings an offsuit jack. Sweet. I have the buts, but if I am right, seat 5 is on a draw. I am not worried about seat 10. Seat 5 bets $35 into the $63 pot. Now I am thinking maybe he has QT of diamonds. The flop would be scary for him and his $10 bet was probably a probing bet as well as a pot builder if his flush hits. Now he has the straight along wit his flush draw. At least that is what I was thinking. I feel like he will put more money in the pot, so I raise to $85, not wanting to scare him away, but enough that he will fairly easily make the call. Seat 5 thinks for a few seconds, and then raises to $185. I start drooling and hope no one notices (just kidding). I think for a bit about if I should just call or raise. I quickly decide I am going to raise, but do not want to seem too strong and confident, so I think for about 15 seconds about how much to raise. He has well over $1000 behind and I have almost $600 behind. I make it $385. He thinks for about 10 seconds. He has to call $200 into a pot over $600. He makes the call.
River
The river brings a blank, he checks, and after a few seconds, I go all-in for my last $208. He spends a good minute thinking of what to do. He asks me if I will show if he folds. I say nothing. I start touching my face, a tell of distress for those that read poker tell books. I hope this guy reads those books. $208 into a $800 pot I thought would have been an easy decision, but this guy was very uncomfortable. He ended up folding his cards face up, K7 of diamonds. Wow. Much worse than I thought. Too bad he did not have a Q. I would have made an extra $208 most likely.
I took a big chunk of change out of this guys stack. Fortunately for him, later on he got all-in with a straight flush against a guy with the nut flush and doubled up, making back his loss to me.
Play in the $15k guaranteed tournaments at Americas Cardroom.
Last night I played at a local $1-2 NLH cash game. This was my first time at the game, and it was very nice. They had a full bar, lots of food, in a beautiful house. The poker tables were very nice with automatic builtin shufflers, and built-in cup holders for each player. The dealers were freindly as well as the players. There was probably about $5000 on the table with lots more in the wallets. A few players were tight, but most were loose. Few were aggressive, most were passive. The game has a badbeat jackpot (Aces full of tens beat), quads jackpot, aces cracked jackpot, and a WSOP freeroll that you can qualify by playing in this regular cash game.
I had to wait about an hour to get a seat, and I bought in for $300. My first hand I was a little too eager to play, and had to made a big bluff to win the pot. I often find myself doing this early, and it usually doesn't work but it lets everyone know that I bluff and it often pays off later in the game.
My first 5 out of 6 hands are AQ, 88, AK, 38, 88, AQs. It was a nice start. After about 2 orbits and up a good amount of chips, I walk into the following hand.
Pre-flop
I am in seat 2 on the button with QK of spades. The guy in seat 5 (UTG) limps for $2, the 10 seat makes it $10. I call, blinds fold,and the limper calls. Pot is $33.
Post-Flop
the flop comes 89T with 2 diamonds and no spades. I am not thrilled with this flop. Seat 5 makes a $10 bet. This gets me thinking. Why such a small bet? Is this a probe bet, a blocker bet, or a pot building bet? I put him on a flush draw with maybe a pair. Maybe K9 of diamonds, possibly A9 or A8 of diamonds. I am ready for the ten seat to raise. The ten seat just flats. Now the pot is $53. I think about raising, but these players seem to call almost anything, especially with draws and 2 pair and sets. I decide to just call.
Turn
The turn brings an offsuit jack. Sweet. I have the buts, but if I am right, seat 5 is on a draw. I am not worried about seat 10. Seat 5 bets $35 into the $63 pot. Now I am thinking maybe he has QT of diamonds. The flop would be scary for him and his $10 bet was probably a probing bet as well as a pot builder if his flush hits. Now he has the straight along wit his flush draw. At least that is what I was thinking. I feel like he will put more money in the pot, so I raise to $85, not wanting to scare him away, but enough that he will fairly easily make the call. Seat 5 thinks for a few seconds, and then raises to $185. I start drooling and hope no one notices (just kidding). I think for a bit about if I should just call or raise. I quickly decide I am going to raise, but do not want to seem too strong and confident, so I think for about 15 seconds about how much to raise. He has well over $1000 behind and I have almost $600 behind. I make it $385. He thinks for about 10 seconds. He has to call $200 into a pot over $600. He makes the call.
River
The river brings a blank, he checks, and after a few seconds, I go all-in for my last $208. He spends a good minute thinking of what to do. He asks me if I will show if he folds. I say nothing. I start touching my face, a tell of distress for those that read poker tell books. I hope this guy reads those books. $208 into a $800 pot I thought would have been an easy decision, but this guy was very uncomfortable. He ended up folding his cards face up, K7 of diamonds. Wow. Much worse than I thought. Too bad he did not have a Q. I would have made an extra $208 most likely.
I took a big chunk of change out of this guys stack. Fortunately for him, later on he got all-in with a straight flush against a guy with the nut flush and doubled up, making back his loss to me.
Play in the $15k guaranteed tournaments at Americas Cardroom.
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