In a .01/.02 cash game on pokerstars. Someone said, “Are any of you playing in the World Series of Poker?”
Because it seems pretty likely that if someone was, they would be honing their skills in a .01/.02 cash game, right? I mean really, same level of play and everything, right? Whoever said “There are no stupid questions” obviously never interacted with humans.
I told myself I was going to just post the screenshot, not write anything at all, but I just can’t do it.
Whenever you get dealt Kings, it has to be in the back of your mind that someone else at the table could have aces. All you can do is put in a fairly large bet to try to chase out anyone playing with the two gappers that will bite you in the ass on the river. If no one reraises you preflop, and there aren’t any face cards on the flop, you just have to assume that you are way ahead. When he flips over the aces to send you home, all you can do is curse the poker gods and wish that you had heeded the warning signs. The warning signs in this case: I had Kings, of course someone else has aces. It doesn’t even qualify as a bad beat since I was never actually ahead, I just thought I was. In fact, it wouldn’t even be mentioned here if not for the way that it shook down:
The guy with aces really can’t call it a bad beat either, ’cause the chips went in on the flop. The guy with aces bet 5x preflop, and I doubled it. The big blind had to call 500 (1/3 of his stack) to see the flop. How in the hell did he make that call?
Ah well, you just have to laugh. ‘Cause the only other option involves an assault rifle, a bell tower, a laser sight, and lots of innocent people.
After my recent (relative) success in the FTP 17k, I figured I would try to get into it again on Friday. The tokens are easy to come by, so it is really no big investment, and it is pretty good MTT practice. This time, I decided to do a bit of preparation before the event. I used another of the tokens to buy into a 6,000 guaranteed double stack tournament. I figured it would get into bigger stacks a lot faster that way so I could try to get used to having to actively make/call bets in excess of 1000 chips when my cards were far from premium. Of course the stack size relative to the blinds in the double stack is way different, but the betting doesn’t quite go like it would in a normal MTT either. I came out of it just out of the money, but I was hanging around with a 20,000 stack for a while, and was getting used to making calls of 2,500 when I had no better than second pair and a decent kicker, but often the hands would improve, which is why I need to be able to make such calls.
I started out the 20K in the big blind, which I absolutely love. My cards were absolute crap (2-3o) so I got out of it, and folded the small blind as well. For some reason if I start out on the button, by the time the blinds get around to me, I am feeling a sense of urgency that I really shouldn’t be so early in the tournament. Why the same doesn’t happen to me when I start out in the blinds, I gots no idea, I guess I am just weird like that.
I got aces about 15 hands into the event, but only raised 2x since there was only 1 guy and the blinds ahead of me and Aces don’t do you much good if no one calls them. The flop was a Jack high rainbow that I got someone to call a bet of 250 with, but when the turn gave me the set, I couldn’t get him to call even a measly 120 chips. I then went on to fold every single hand for the next half hour at least. I was just that card dead. I had only been in one hand in the whole tournament, so I didn’t think I had much of an image to try to be bluffing with, I just needed to wait for my spots.
I managed to pick up a couple of sets of blinds before the break, but not much more. I guess if you are going to be card dead in one of these things it is better for it to happen in the beginning, as long as you are able to fight through it. Again, I had to feel pretty good about my position, considering what I had been working with so far. I was going to have to start making some moves to give myself a chance to get to the money, but there is a fine line between “making moves” and outright donkish play -alas, I don’t know where that line is drawn- . I charged out after the break and stole a couple more pots, managed to make a good lay down (which feels a lot better to me than winning with the nuts – at least the lay down was something I had personal control over, so when I make the right decision, it does feel good), which hurt me for chips, but kept me alive.
Here I was able to teach an elephant why you should never bet pre-flop and check on the turn. I like to see free cards when I have an underpair, had he bet on the flop it would have been a tough decision for me to call this one, since he had raised preflop, I was putting him on high cards: A-K or A-Q. I took the check on the flop to mean that either he made his set or it missed him completely. Not to mention that I was a bit worried about the possible flush. All of which was moot when he gifted me the boat by not putting in a continuation bet:
Here I am trying to sucker strongbadd. He has raised on almost every hand for the last couple of orbits and no one has called him. I got some decent cards here, limped in, and was hoping he would try that crap again:
Alas, it was not to be. He folded preflop this time, so the blinds got to see the flop for cheap. I hate it when such carefully orchestrated baiting doesn’t work out. Oh well. The big blind checked on the flop, next guy bet 200, and I raised 500. It’s a pretty big pot when the turn gives me top and third pair, the straight is a possibility, but I don’t think this guy calls off that much of his small stack on a straight draw. I am pretty sure he has a King, but figure if he had an ace kicker he would have pushed on the flop. Time to put my read to the test:
Just as an aside, the reason I only bet 1,000 instead of pulling him all in is because of my perception when I am on the reverse side of this hand. If I am in his shoes and see the other guy put in a big bet that is just less than either my stack or his own, I think it looks like a bluff bet to scare me out of it. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t, but either way, I like to feel like the decision to put my tournament life on the line was mine, not the big bully’s. So with the bet of 1,000, he can tell his friends that he called me all in, and it would be technically accurate, since he did push his last 24 chips and I had to call them. Just one of my things. It eventually looked like this:
I am not quite sure how he could have made that call when I pushed big when the Ace hit the board. Did he really think I was going to fold when he raised his last 24 chips? Did he really think that he was ahead since I only limped into the pot preflop? I don’t know, but I was sure happy to see that my read was right. I didn’t really expect to see the jack, and on Pokerstars he would have surely sucked it out, but at least I was right about his high card and weak kicker.
A while later, I found myself in a fight that I really didn’t want to be in with an A-Qo. The preflop betting got out of hand, and the pot was huge. The button pushes, I have TPTK, but I am really afraid that I am behind to either a flopped set or two pair. 4,500 in the pot, I have 6,000 in chips, and it will cost me 1,100 to see if TPTK is good, and it is:
And I actually got my chips in ahead and managed to hold on to the lead to pull down quite the stack:
Not in bad position going into the second break, but certainly a long way to go. I had been chatting with Guin for about the last half hour, and had been pretty much keeping pace with him in chips, until he added to his stack, while I subtracted from mine just before the break. I opined to him that I was in a pretty good position to go out of this one on the bubble, since the top 117 places would pay. God I hoped I didn’t, I would rather lose early than bubble. Anyway, I went to see who was still in it, and found that Surflexus was still in it, and in really good position. WillyWonka was still in it too, although I never found the time to visit his table before he busted. Not that I was destined to last much longer either.
I called a fairly large bet from one of the shorter stacks preflop, and just couldn’t lay it down when he pushed his last 1,500 or whatever to the center on the flop. You would think that since I was on a two outer I would be golden, but no such luck:
Sadly, I could feel what little air was left in my bubble starting to seep…It wanted out. I still had 7k in chips, and should have been able to do something with them, but the cards just weren’t falling in my favor. I got pocket 8s a short while after and did a standard 3x raise, got two callers. When the flop came up A-K-Q, I knew that one or the other of the guys that just called 1,500 to see the flop absolutely had to have one of them. I folded that, and got to watch as the guy that had the ace lost to the guy who had the king when he got the set on the river. Ouch.
I told myself that I wasn’t going to bitch about the hand that took me out, but some circumstances came up that made it absolutely necessary. I told Guin after I busted that it was on a two-outer, but when I think back on it, it was actually a five-outer, so I guess I shouldn’t really be bitching. Anyway, there were 124 left in the tourney, top 117 pay. I had contented myself to fold my way into the money and then go out on a hammer or something. Unfortunately, I found myself in the big blind and no one raised it. I checked it with a 3-6o, fully expecting to immediately fold. But the flop came 3-Q-6. So I had to ask myself, what would Mungo do? Come on, I flopped two pair, this one was mine, right? All-in. He flips up Q-x (don’t remember the other card, but it certainly wasn’t a 3 or a 6), so I just need to miss five cards to take this thing down. Rivered a fucking Queen and IGH.
Now, the same guy gets moved over to Guin’s table, and after some time (since Guin was doing way better than me) he ended up in a situation with him. Guin pushes with 5’s into a flop of 4-4-x, dude calls it with A-K. And the river is? I forget if it was the ace or the king, but it was one of them. This guy was just having some sick luck tonight. Hell, if I could hit those 5 or 6 outers on the river every damn time, I might make it a lot further in these things myself.
I stayed on to watch and root for Surflexus, as he fought his way through the obligatory card death to bust out in 11th. I even played another token game with Guin, but for the way I played, I would have been better off to just transfer a few bucks to that lucky son of a bitch who busted out Guin and Myself.
It seems hard to rationalize this, but I played way better in this tournament than I did in the last one. While I finished 54th, and well into the money, in the last one, I played my hands way better in this one, and wasn’t afraid to make the calls that I needed to (well most of them). I hate to use the bad luck excuse, but when there is one guy that busts me out when I am way ahead (a 75% favorite on the flop) then goes on to bust out Guin when he is way ahead (also over 70% favorite on the flop), I do start to believe a bit in that particular superstition. I hope I don’t have to get tired of saying that I am going to make that call as a 75% favorite every damn time (I honestly thought I was a bigger favorite, I thought the other guy likely just had two high cards). One of these damn times, I am going to hold up the 75% part of it when it actually matters -provided the 25% doesn’t suck me out of my bankroll first.
I played in three tournaments yesterday. First, there was an FTP 18 player sit and go for a $26 token, I managed to score a token in that one only because Smokkee was in the same game -completely unbeknownst to me until it was down to 9 and I saw him directly to my left. Myself and two other guys had been fighting for the bubble for a good ten minutes when Smokkee apparently got tired of the pusstastic play and made a move. He ended up getting the $14 prize, which was damn decent of him, since I probably had no shot of getting through the other two short stacks without that (actually, the blinds would have forced both of them all in on the next orbit, but they would have forced me all in too. The blinds would have gotten to me last, but if either of the other guys won his hand, or if I lost…). Meh. In the end, it was a cheap sit and go for a token, and I ended up with a token about 5 minutes before the ftp 17k started.
I then signed up for both the FTP 17k and The Mookie. The Mookie was not being kind to me early on, well it was my fault really but if I can’t play the blame game, I would have to admit that I was making mistakes, that is just not me. I layed down a couple of hands that I really could have been winning, one of them was on flopped trips when I had pocket sixes, problem was I either couldn’t or didn’t bet the other guy out of it, and there ended up being 4 hearts on the board. I couldn’t get myself to call his push on the river, knowing that even a fucking 2 of hearts there sends me home. Another call that I just couldn’t make was when I flopped second pair with a queen, paired my kicker on the turn, but still couldn’t call for my stack when I had second and last pair. I was playing scared, but then I really only have two play modes: scared and suicidal.
While I was absolutely sucking it up in the Mookie, I was slowly making some moves in the FTP 17k. This was my third such event, and this one started out with me getting pocket Aces. While I was not able to bust anyone out on the first hand, I was able to keep three other guys in the hand after I flopped trips, and had tripled my stack by the time the first orbit was complete. Far and away my best start in the 17k. Smart, tight play had left me in pretty good position as we were down to less than half the field and went on the first break.
I am the type of person that lives in the now, and while I did begin to entertain thoughts that I could possibly make it to the money in the 17k, I didn’t really start thinking about the possibility of making the final table or any such nonsense. I continued to play some smart, tight poker, and chipped myself up when the opportunities presented themselves. It became pretty clear that I needed to get myself out of the Mookie though, I am not sure how familiar you all are with the different interfaces of Pokerstars and FTP, but the pokerstars one requires that you click the window once to bring it to the front and once to use any of the buttons on it, I found out, rather the hard way, that FTP takes your mouse click extremely seriously. It simultaneously became my turn on the Mookie and the 17k and the pokerstars window was in front, I folded my hand there, then tried to click the window of the 17k tournament (which was partially behind the pokerstars one) and managed to hit the raise button instead of just bringing it to the front. Someone reraised, and with a 3-5 offsuit I wasn’t really in position to call it. Thankfully, I only threw away a couple hundred chips; it could have been much worse.
I really don’t know anyone that plays in any of the tournaments very well, so I didn’t really tell anyone why I was going to donk right the fuck out of the Mookie. I called on the next hand and lost with something god awful. Then went in on the next hand with whatever I was dealt to finish myself off. A couple of the people said “good game”, and I replied “not really, but thanks anyway”, which I now realize could have come across as horribly rude, but at the time my mind was far away from there. I was trying to concentrate on the 17k now.
I made absolutely my best read of the night just before the second break. I was in third in chips with fourth sitting two seats to my left. I had K-Q spades and raised 3x. He doubled the bet, and I called. Flop came up Ace high with two spades and also paired my queen, I bet the pot and he pushed. I had actually been at the table with this guy for over an hour, almost for the entire tournament, he bet the same way every damn hand: double the bet preflop, 2x the pot on the flop, 3k on the turn, all in on the river. Every. Damn. Time. Something about him pushing there told me that he was weak on this one and just thought I didn’t have the grapes to call a 15k bet, and he was damn near right. But I couldn’t lay this one down. The only way he could be ahead of me is if he has an ace, and even then he isn’t all that far ahead. Plus, needing only one card for the nut flush, with two left to come, well, I had way too many outs. Still, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t scared as hell when I called it. What did he flip over? Jacks. I did have him beat. Not that it really mattered, since the turn was the 4 spades to give me the nut flush.
So, going into the second break, I have to feel pretty good about my position. Not only am I in first, but second place is almost 10,000 behind me at this point. Barring some ridiculous mental meltdown, I was going to be finishing this one in the money. Now I just needed to come up with a plan for how to play my way as far into the money as I could. The best I could figure, it was going to take about 150,000 in chips to make the final table, so I couldn’t just sit back and wait, but at the same time I didn’t want to bust on a coinflip.
I managed to hang on pretty well until we reached the money. I was still in first when the bubble broke, but sure had a long way to go. I had been card dead since the last break, and was hoping for anything to play. The blinds were going up, and between them and the antes, I was in and out of the lead a bunch of times. Just after the bubble broke, I had a short stack to my right who was in the big blind. I got an A-2 suited and raised whatever his chip count was to try to get just him in it, of course I hoped I would bust him, but if I didn’t it wasn’t much of a loss anyway. Unfortunately, all but one of the people at the table called the bet. I ended up folding on the flop when it came up Q-J-10 hearts, and two other guys pushed for over 10,000 chips. The short stack wound up winning the main pot with a flush, while one of the other guys won the side pot with a broken straight (K-8). Why were they pushing with that crap? What the fuck was going on?
The next few hands were more of the same. Everyone was just insanely push happy, the likes of which I haven’t seen since the first round of a freeroll on Pokerstars. 5-7 offsuit? Push! 2-3 suited? Definitely push. A face card? You better believe it, baby! I didn’t have a hand to play, which is probably good, because it would really have sucked to get my Aces cracked to a 3-6o on a runner-runner-runner straight. For unknown reasons, my heart started pounding like it hasn’t done since the time I got caught shoplifting when I was a kid. I needed advice. I tried to ask a couple of people who were online, that I know have been in this situation if they could give me some advice, but I got no takers. I would have to learn myself.
The next time I looked at my position, I was in 31st of 70 remaining. It wasn’t because I had lost a single chip, it was because of the pushfest that started once we reached the money. It’s like two separate tournaments: One tournament is to get to the money, after that the tournament rerolls and everyone is willing to risk everything to double up. That is so not one of my strengths. The next time I looked at my position, I was in 40somethingth of a 60 remaining. They were dropping like flies, and I was fast becoming a they.
We were nearing the third break, when I got A-K suited UTG. Push time! Two callers, but they both had me outchipped so I didn’t get to see their cards yet. Flop came up garbage, there was a 5 in it, I only remember that because the other two guys pushed the rest of their stacks in, and one of them had pocket fives. I paired my King on the turn, but would need another one on the river to take the hand. This wasn’t my day, the river? Case 5, sending me home, far more defeated than the numbers would show, in 54th:
I went into it hoping only that I could make it to the money. That was the only goal I made for myself, and I accomplished that. So, I am happy. The additional goals that I began to set for myself, particularly being in first when we reached the money, were a bunch of unrealistic dreams. It has taken me as long as I have been playing so far to learn how to play with stacks in the 15,000 range, my first foray into stacks much larger than that could only have ended in disaster. I can’t (hell anyone can’t) play my best game when my heart is beating a million miles a minute. But why was I so scared? I was already in the money, anything else was just gravy, instead of fear I should have been feeling elation. With a bit of luck, the next time (assuming there is one) that I am in that situation I will be a lot more calm and rational. Although I am not sure if I will ever be in first when the bubble breaks again. I think I managed to scare myself out of a golden opportunity, but I honestly could not play it any better -anyone else could have been in my seat at that point and played it a hell of a lot better, I, however, just couldn’t do it.
Well, I am off to win a Free streaming porn download (blatant Hoy ripoff) token to see if I can take another crack at the 17k tonight. If I manage to make it to the money again, I hope I will be able to play a bit less scared.
There are all sorts of “odds calculators” and the such available on the internet. Hand odds, pot odds, odds of spilling your beer on your keyboard when you get a royal flush (I think I made the last one up, but who knows), etc. I am here to tell you that they are all a bunch of bullshit. I will give you an example: What are the odds that the guy at the table had a pair of kings when I had a pair of jacks? 100% I know because I played the hand, any “odds calculators” are talking out their ass. Is there a flaw in my thought process here?
I have been following what I assume to be the natural progression of the on-line poker player for the last couple of months. I have gotten to the point where I can finish in the money in a single table sit and go just by outlasting a few donks and outplaying a couple veterans. Of course the money in a single table sit and go isn’t that great unless you are able to finish in first with regularity, which I can’t. I can finish in the money probably half the time, and average second place. That means that I am actually making money, just not very much; I am making about a buy-in per ten games played. Certainly not a money making strategy, but it is good practice. I have been using that small profit to enter some of the larger tournaments with the hopes of improving on them as well.
Yesterday, I played in a 20 table sit and go for the third time. This was of the $4 buy-in variety, which is about as much as I am willing to risk in such a large field, at least until my ability improves in that format. I was able to chip up fairly early on when my Jacks turned into trips on the flop and quads on the river. Doubling up on the first level in such a large tournament is huge. This time, instead of passively waiting for premium hands to take down huge pots, I took advantage of the large stack by bullying the table. I still only saw about half of the flops, but I was playing extremely aggressively. I was doing things that I have really never done, like raising pre-flop with a J-9 and putting in a continuation bet on the flop when it came up A-J-x. The aggressiveness was paying off though, and through my first 15 showdowns, I had won 12 of them.
I actually took the lead in the tournament about 45 minutes in and held onto it for at least a half an hour. There were a couple of times where I let the aggressive image override common sense, something that can certainly kill your game; Sure, if you call the short stack’s all-in on the river it shows that you mean business, it does not, however, change the fact that you just called an all-in on the river with a queen high. Thankfully, I was able to keep such idiotic calls to a minimum and was in pretty good shape as we were down to less than thirty players:
Since 18 places paid, the play tightened up considerably at this point. No one wanted to go home so close to the money, and I took advantage of that fact by bullying the table. There was one point where I raised every bet for at least two orbits and was only called once or twice (which I eventually folded since my cards were utter crap). The bubble at 19 players lasted a long ass time since the short stack was at over 4,000 chips and no one wanted to play anything that wasn’t Aces. Once it was down to 18 players, three more busted out within minutes (I am guessing they just wanted to play something after the fold-fest that had been the last twenty minutes). I was still in good position, but almost went out around 12th when I had to make the hardest decision of my on-line poker career.
I was roughly tied with the guy on my left for the big stack at the table with 22,900 chips apiece. We were in the blinds. It got folded around to me, with As 7d. I put in a 3x the BB raise figuring that I probably had the better hand. He called it, but that didn’t mean much since we were both the large stacks. The flop was 4s Ah 2s. I bet 4,000 at it, roughly the pot size, hoping to just end it right there, but he thought about it for a while and then called it -which I am thinking means flush draw-. The turn brought up the 3s, which gives him the flush if he is on the draw I think he is, but it also leaves me with a straight flush draw. I bet another 4,000 at it, and he thought for a bit and eventually called -which I took to mean that he still needed a card for the flush, or thought that he did make a flush, but he was on low cards and worried that I would win with the higher flush. The river was my dream and my nightmare all in one: 5s. I can’t dismiss the possibility that this guy is in the hand with an A-6, that would explain why it took him so long to call; the 6 is hardly a kicker. This is where I will admit that I got scared. I only bet 2,000 at it this time, and he was all-in before my mouse button let up. I got up and went to get a soda, this would be a good time to use my previously untouched time bank.
The soda was a Diet Coke. I put some ice cubes in an old thirstbuster cup and filled it up. Of course it fizzed like nobody’s business, so I had to wait for five seconds or so to let the fizz die down so that I could finish filling it up. I came back to the computer to see that the time bank had only just activated (my refrigerator is only fifteen feet or so from my computer due to an odd house layout). I went out to check on my fish, who are in the aquarium just outside the office door, then came back and sat down. I stared as the timer ticked down, not willing to call his all-in, yet not capable of pushing the fold button when I was looking at a straight flush. I timed out and folded, and with that I lost more than half of my sizable stack without a showdown.
Mercifully, the guy flipped over his cards: 6s 10s. He did have the higher straight flush. I typed in chat “I had the Ace”. He typed back “OMG how could you lay that down?” I typed back “I couldn’t hit the button”. He typed “LOL”. I really wanted to injure him. But do you think I could have got him out of that hand earlier? Within reason of course, I mean I am sure if I pushed pre-flop he would have laid it down, but for all I knew pre-flop, he could have been holding a pair of kings. I am just wondering if I had bet bigger when I hit top pair on the flop if I could have got him to lay down his flush draw. I hadn’t been at the table with this guy for more than a couple of minutes so I don’t really know anything about his play style, but I am guessing I would have had to put in a pretty huge bet on the flop to get him to fold there -and god knows there is no way he is folding on the turn with a made flush and gutshot straight flush draw.
Bleh.
I managed to get to the final table in 7th position, but ended up busting in 9th. About three hands in, again from the small blind, I hit top and bottom pair on the flop, so I pushed only to see the other guy flip over top and middle pair. So, I go home:
It was a hard fought three hours, and I was able to do a lot of things that I have never been able to before -most notably, fold a straight flush. I hope the experience will translate into more final tables in large MTTs, but only time will tell.
As the name would imply, I made the final table at the WWDN last night. It was an uphill battle for sure, since my starting table had Smokkee, Hoyazo, Iakaris, and a couple of other people (whose names I can’t look up because I just now realized that I was playing with the beta version of pokerstars and it is set by default to not log history. A value that I had neglected to change). At any rate, Smokkee is the one I was really scared of. For some reason Hoyazo doesn’t scare me as much as he should -it probably has something to do with that cute little smiling avatar, so harmless…
I almost went out of the tournament extremely early. If you read my site, you may remember that S.t.B. once said that they way I played a good hand almost got me in trouble. Such was the case last night, only I didn’t really have a good hand. I was in one of the blinds with a Q-6, and had to call some kind of a raise to see the flop. The flop was Q-6-4 (I think, might have been Q-6-7) Giving me two pair, which really should put me ahead at this point, barring someone else having a pair of Queens. I checked it, then called whatever the bet was to see the turn -what I should have done was pushed right there. I don’t remember exactly what the turn card was, I think it might have paired the low card, at any rate, I was still ahead and should have pushed, instead I called the bet to let everyone see the river relatively cheap. The river left two one-card straight possibilities on the board, which, of course, someone had. The someone who made the straight would have likely folded if I would have pushed earlier, and the other guy would probably have called with his pair of kings and I would have won with two pair. Ahh, hindsight. Instead, I was left with a pretty short stack.
I was able to keep from doing anything horribly stupid for a good while after that (at least I think it was, it is probably open to debate though). Sometime later in the tournament, as we were nearing the bubble, I was to the point where I was just hoping that if I was going to bust it was at least going to be on a good hand. I was tied with Kat for the short stack at the table when I found myself with A-J in early position. I raised it 5x the BB (thus proving that I am trying to teach myself to bet pre-flop so that I can try to limit my horrible beatdowns later in the hand), which was folded around to Shane in the Big Blind. He didn’t even seem to think about, just pushed. While I have played with most of the other people in the tournament before, I really haven’t ever played with Shane. I don’t think that he actually knows how tight I play, and as such I thought that he saw my huge raise as a steal attempt. I thought about this one for a long time before I eventually called it. A-J is really not an ideal hand to be putting your tournament life on the line with. This late in the game it is fair to assume that if the reraise was not just to stop me from stealing the pot, it must be either a pocket pair or two faces. In this case, it happened to be a pair of 8’s. The flop missed us both, but the turn paired my Jack. Then the river gave me a set. I will take luck any day.
I managed to bust out Smokkee when we were down to 6 players when my A-10 outran his K-J. (I bring that up only because I am sure it will never happen again). But either my luck, my logic, or more likely both failed me a short time later. With a suited A-3, I decided I wanted to see a flop bad enough to call a 2,500 bet (I had about 16,000 at that point). The flop was a rainbow, but I did hit bottom pair. My boy Mungo (I should say Guin, but Mungo makes me think of a St. Bernard for some reason, and so does his avatar, which is actually a penguin. Did I ever mention I smoked a lot of weed in the 80’s…and 90’s) Hoyed me. The board was showing 3-10-J at that point, and I really didn’t think any of those had hit him. His big bet pre-flop made me think he had A-K or A-Q, I don’t think he bets that much with anything lower than that, and I think he bets more if he has a pair. Since he is pushing now, I am putting him on K-Q, giving him the OESD. I tell myself that fifth place is still pretty good, and call, pretty sure that I was actually ahead at this point. When the turn brought up a Queen, I knew I was beat. Mungo told me I should fold, but it isn’t as if I am really going to be able to battle my way back from one chip, so I had to call. He did have the K-Q, so the only thing that can help me on the river is an Ace or 3, neither of which hits. See, in order for me to win, I have to get all of my chips in when I am behind. This time I was ahead when the chips went in, so really I never stood a chance.
So, IGH in 5th. Which was at least a $52 payday. And which brings my average finish in this tournament to the high teens. And heck, I was able to repay Mungo for doubling me up so many times the last time I was able to make it to the final table. Of course now I think I owe Shane and Smokkee some chips. Damn, I may never win this thing.
I really need to remind myself that when I am losing at poker I need to just quit playing for a while instead of playing my way back to a win. In my experience, if I am on a losing streak, I will continue to lose. Not only because the cards aren’t falling my way, but also because I make bad decisions in what seem (at the time) like decent positions to try to steal my way back into it. That never works.
Yesterday I played in three tournaments (well four. I also played in the blogger championship and finished 1,024th out of 2,400 entrants, though I was not actually even here to see it. Had I been here, I am sure I would have donked out long before that.), and I performed terribly in the first, which carried over into the second and third. I was playing in all three simultaneously, which I have found to actually improve my play since I am making my decisions based more on my hands and actual odds than trying to pull sneaky moves and the such. Unfortunately, when my full house went down to a higher full house on the first table, I tilted. But since I was playing in three different tournaments, I tilted in all of them. I actually lost the very next hand in one of them (which was not the one I had been administered the bad beat in) when I decided to go all in with a 47 offsuit (I think emotion might have played a small role in that one…). After that, I refused to be patient and wait for a hand to play, and started trying to play hands that were far from premium; sure I would always like to see the flop with a 10-J offsuit, but actually betting 3x the big blind, then calling an all in raise with it isn’t something I would normally do with that hand -especially not when it is the chip leader that pushed. That is the kind of boneheaded crap I do when I am losing; I make myself lose even more, then try to blame it on the cards. Of course when I look back on it it is pretty clear that the cards were just victims in my rage induced play.
Thankfully I realized that I should stop playing then. I could see myself pissing away a lot of money being foolishly aggressive in that situation. That hasn’t happened yet, but I can certainly see myself doing it. Tomorrow is another day. Which is actually today. Because that all happened yesterday.
Today I played in five tournaments. Two 45 person, one 27 person, and two 18 person. I played the 45 and 18 person ones at the same time (during two sittings) and the 27 person one sometime in between. Today I did pretty well. I finished in the money in four out of five of them, and even won one of the 45 person ones. I have been playing pretty much only multi table games for the last week or so, just so that I can continue to buy in with a small amount for a chance to win a large amount. I am getting a lot better at this type of play now that I have gotten used to waiting for good hands, and recognizing when I am in a really good position to bluff or steal.
The thing about these tournaments is that the buy in is low enough that it seems a lot of people really don’t care about the money. In the 45 player ones, there are usually at least two or three people that go out on the first hand. And I am not talking about only the dollar buy in tournaments. It happens on every one of them up to ten dollar buy ins, which is the highest I have yet to play. Some of the people will just risk it all to double up on the first hand and if they don’t get it they just try it again. That seems foolish to me, but then playing for such small stakes probably seems foolish to a lot of people too, and I play exclusively in the small stakes games.
Anyway, my finishes for the day look like this: 4/45, 9/27, 4/18, 1/45, 1/18. I am pretty happy just to have made the final table in each of them, but it takes very little…I have also found that I play like absolute shit when I am trying to take screenshots. I think it has more to do with trying to figure out what I am going to say about why I made a move than with the move itself. But I am quite superstitious, and my wins seem to all come when I am not taking screenshots, so if you want screenshots you will have to go read someone else’s blog. Try Hoyazo’s site. Not only does he take screenshots of damn near every card dealt, he has also won a seat in a World Series of Poker event…Which makes me think that maybe, just maybe, someday I will be able to actually do that myself watch him on television. It would be funny as hell to watch him pull his patented Reverse Hoy on someone on national television.
There were actually two hands that I wanted to talk about when I started writing this, so here goes:
The first hand was in the second tournament that I played in today, which was actually a lot further along than the first tournament since it was a turbo, not that it matters a great deal for the purposes of my discussion. There are 27/45 people left in the game right now, I am second in chips at my table.
Anyway, this was a hand where I had the absolute nuts on the flop, but was able to induce two other players to actually push ahead of me (at least that is the story I am going to go with. The reality is that they may have done so anyway, but that hardly makes me feel any better about myself, so I am going with the “it was all me” theory). I have a pair of tens in the big blind. I really want to make sure and get a raise in to eliminate as many people as possible, ideally to get rid of people who might be limping with Q-8 or the such. 10’s are a dangerous hand since there are four over cards and it is all but guaranteed that if someone has one of the over cards they are going to be playing it. The button actually pushed to 4x the big blind which I called, and it was folded around to someone in middle position who also called. The pot was enormous at this point. The flop came up 10-7-10, I flopped quads for what I am sure will be the only time in my life. Of course every instinct in my body said to push ’em in right there, but I wanted to try to milk some more chips out of them. So I bet 2x the minimum, which I was hoping showed some weakness, both of the others called it. The turn was an ace, which I absolutely loved since I was figuring at least one of these guys had an ace and would be willing to stay in it to at least see the river. I bet the minimum this time, hoping someone would push. It got raised, which I called, but no one pushed. The river was another 7. I bet about half my remaining stack (which put one guy almost all in) and not one but both of the other guys went all in, which I quickly called. I took down a HUGE pot. But what were their hands? One had pokcet 7’s, the other pocket Aces. I almost felt bad about beating the Aces over Tens full house and the quad 7’s, almost. Like I say though, it is entirely possible that they would have both called if I would have pushed all in on the flop. I am pretty sure that the guy with the 7’s would have called it, not so sure about the guy with the aces, but they are awfully tough to lay down, especially so when the board has only an underpair.
The other hand was absolute luck. In an 18 player field I was on the bubble with 1745 in chips in the big blind (blinds 800/400 and going up in two minutes). The blind put me to 945 in chips which probably didn’t actually pot commit me, but it was damn close. It was either this hand or the next one, and this hand I happened to have a J-5 spades. The button doubled the bet, so I pushed my last 145 chips out knowing full well that this was not an ideal hand to live or die by, but at least I had a face card, might not even have that next hand. He had Kc Jd, so I was in fact way behind. Pokerstars gave me a gift on this one, the flop:8s 4s 3s. I wish I could repeat that kind of luck.
I didn’t repeat that kind of luck, but I did continue to have some pretty amazing hands. The next hand was absolute crap, but the hand after it I took down almost 6,000 in chips with pocket Kings and the very next hand I got pocket Jacks for another 4,500. Four hands from the bubble to lead. Once we were heads up, I had 6,000 in chips to his 21,000 just as the blinds went to 3000/1500. I called a hand when I had J-4 offsuit and said “may as well end this”. For unknown reasons, he then called, raised three thousand on the flop, and Folded (why?) when I pushed my remaining 1,400 in chips. That brought us to almost exactly even, when he really should have just called to put me out of it. Even if he lost the hand it was only an additional 1,400, I just don’t understand why he didn’t do it. He was betting into the next hand, which I called and eventually won with a Q-2 offsuit (no pairs, just Queen high). The next hand put him all in and I took it down.
I know I slow play a lot, but do I do it so much that people really get nervous if I just continue to call? It seems like when I actually bet at it now everyone will call it, but when I am just checking for the first couple of cards, they will quit betting and fold if I do actually bet. Not that it is such a bad thing, hell any time I win a hand I am a happy man, if my not betting actually scares them out of the hand that is just a bonus.
Let’s say that you are playing a game of poker, say, Hold ’em for instance. Is it ever right to make a call when you know with absolute certainty that you are behind in the hand?
Say, purely hypothetically, that you have an A-Q suited. Say, equally hypothetically, that it is raised to 3x the BB (which is 100 at this point), and there are a total of 5 callers (myself our hypothetical mark included). It is in a 180 player tournament, there are about 80 people left. Hypothetically, there are about 40 of the people with right around 2,000 in chips and you are one of them.
The flop comes up, say 3-A-7 rainbow. First guy checks, you bet 600 (which is a pretty weak bet since the pot is at 1,500, but that is about 1/3 of your stack), next guy calls, then it folds back around to the first guy, who goes all-in. He has an A-3, I know that with absolute certainty. I have been at the table with the guy for almost an hour, and have seen the A-x hands he plays. He will play an Ace with anything from j-k or anything from 2-5, I have not seen him play an ace with anything 6-10, and that is out of probably a dozen times I have seen him call with an ace. The other guy is new to the table, I have no idea what he might be holding, but I figure he must have the other ace or he wouldn’t have called 600. Do you make the call knowing that you are a huge underdog, but also knowing that if you do hit you more than triple your stack?
I called.
My read was spot on for the guy who pushed, A-3 suited. The other guy called it also, but with a pair of Jacks. What in the fuck was he thinking? I mean sure, I knowingly called when I was behind, but I had more than two outs for christ’s sake, not many more though. Only a Queen or a Seven wins it for me. Well, there was also the possibility of a runner runner flush, but I didn’t let that factor into my decision to call it. So, regardless of outcome, how bad was that call?
I like to play small ball when it comes to poker, as detailed in damn near every post I have made regarding the subject. Well, I finally took down my first MTT. That is if you have a very loose definition for the “M” part of it, oh and the second “T” part of it. Okay, more technically accurate, I took down a two table SnG. Come on, people! Baby steps.
I was greatly aided in my effort when, three hands into it, I had a J-6 in the big blind, and four people were in the hand. The flop was a Q-J-6 with two clubs. I bet 120 at it (the pot at the time), figuring that someone probably had top pair, and I was sure someone was on a flush draw, but I didn’t think it was likely anyone had two pair; the other blind folded pre-flop, so these guys had to actually choose to be in the pot, of course if I wanted to think way too much about it, it was also possible that someone had pocket queens, jacks, or sixes -however unlikely it was. Anyway, the next guy in line called, the next guy raised 120, the guy after him called 240, and I pushed. Two out of three called. What were they holding? One had A-7 of clubs and the other had 9-2 of clubs. Both on a flush draw, and at this point we already know where 7 of the clubs are for sure, since I also have one and there are two on the board. The one guy paired his two on the river, but I made it out of it okay.
Now a question. I can understand the guy with the A-7 flush draw calling that one, but if you are the guy with the 9-2 flush draw, do you really call when two people are already all-in in front of you? I suppose that is a bit rhetorical.
So, just like that I was to over 5,000 in chips. Boy the game is a lot easier when you have such a (comparatively) big stack. But even with the big stack, I still didn’t raise pre-flop. Instead, I knocked out people one by one by calling their all-ins. I didn’t lose a showdown until we got to heads up some time later. I didn’t take any screenshots while I was playing, but I just looked at my stats for the tournament and they were as follows:
You finished in 1st place (eliminated at hand #5262853304).
84 hands played and saw flop:
– 11 times out of 22 while in small blind (50%)
– 11 times out of 23 while in big blind (47%)
– 6 times out of 39 in other positions (15%)
– a total of 28 times out of 84 (33%)Pots won at showdown – 16 out of 19 (84%)
Pots won without showdown – 8
The stats are a bit unrealistic though, since there were 20 hands played during the heads up, and the only losses I had at the showdown were when we just checked it down. Similarly, the pots won without showdown were (I think) exclusively won when he folded from the small blind in the heads up.
In a comment to a previous post, I mentioned that I don’t want to control the game, I just want to win about ten hands, to get to the money. I also said that if I called from a position other than the blind, it was likely a hand that I was willing to go all in with. In this one, I called six times when I was not in the blind, and I in fact did go all in on every one of them (or called someone else’s all in, usually). I won every one of them. Only once was it really even a suckout, when I called the short stack who pushed with A-8 when I was holding K-9. He got an ace and I got a king on the flop, I got another king on the river to suck it out. I didn’t really want to call with the K-9 but I was the last one with a chance or the short stack gets the blinds uncontested. Come to think of, I was in the small blind on that one, so nevermind.
Anyway, I played exactly six hands when I wasn’t in the blind, and they were all huge wins. Each one either eliminated someone or absolutely crippled them. That’s the game that works for me.