Alright well where we last left off our hero was hurriedly eating dinner in an attempt to get back to the super profitable 9/18 game asap. I had just finished folding pretty much every hand for the last few orbits, getting zero playable cards. At this point I was up probably $500 or so, but I was very aware that cushion could quickly vanish. More awful players = higher variance. I could very easily go up or down a couple racks when I returned.
My return to the table was pretty quiet and I remained a non-factor for a couple orbits. The game was still 8-handed with multiple players seeing flops/going to showdown, so mixing it up with junk obv wouldn't be the best idea. Also, the blinds in this game are only 9/3 or 3 chips/1 chip, so the pressure to get involved isn't as high as it is in the 15/30 game.
Alright well the first big pot I played after returning from dinner was a monster pot. It took a few orbits and a couple lost stacks for me to get there, as I was down to only about +$380 after playing blind hands and an AK hand. It gets limped around in something like four places (this had become completely standard for the table), Wilson completes from the SB, and I check my A6 of diamonds in the BB. I know on CP a LHE topic came up about raising Ax-suited hands in the BB in spots like this and then just check/folding some whiffs, but I guess I wasn't thinking about it at the time.
The flop comes Q93 all diamonds...wow...patience does pay off apparently. Wilson checks, I bet out (why slowplay here with four people behind me?), the guy in seat seven raised...*pause* Not sure if I talked about this guy in my last entry, but he was another laggy cocky asian guy, obv ~friends with seat three. It gets called by seat one and three, Sam folds, Wilson only calls, and I decided to call and see if I could trap a ton of money in on the turn. In retrospect, I'm not sure I like it...but whatever.
The turn was a good blank card, something like a black five. Wilson checks, I check, seat seven bets, Latin guy and seat three call, Wilson raises (awesome), I decide it's time to charge the two-pair/set hands if they have it and 3-bet, all fold back to Wilson who only calls. Seat seven was obviously angry that I 3-bet the turn and said "come on man why couldn't you just call?" and I thought to myself, "well I'd be pretty pissed if the board pairs on the river and I didn't charge you the max to suck out." Anyway, the river is a blank and Wilson check/called my river bet. I turned over the nuts and he turned over JT of diamonds for an OESFD that whiffed (phew!)
I think pre-flop could be a raise and I should have probably just jammed up the flop/led the turn, but I guess my head was stuck in fancy-play syndrome and I was going to make an example out of people trying to run me over. After that hand I pretty much took Wilson's desire to continue playing (he had been stuck all night and just running awful). He was actually playing pretty well all night, but was constantly falling victim to suckouts from seats one and three. He left soon after and we found ourselves six-handed.
I can't remember many hands six-handed...most were just LP raises and folding on the flops, but after awhile it was apparent that I was getting to seat three. I was folding a lot of my blind hands because of LP raises from Sam or Seat three, but I was returning the favor in LP on their blinds (mostly when I had solid hands) and was basically taking seat three to value town. I'm not entirely sure what he was looking me up with, as I was able to get three streets of value out of him one hand with middle pair...anyway, here's a two hand run set up by you guys knowing this.
I raised UTG, we're now five handed, with KT of hearts, seat six and seven fold, the latin guy has now left for the night, seat three calls from the SB and Sam defends his BB. The flop comes AT4 with two diamonds. Checks to hero who bets, seat three raises, Sam folds, I 3-bet, Villain calls. I'm thinking he has a diamond draw or complete junk...the turn is a King. He checks, I bet, and he disgustedly folded A8 face up. lol...uh oh, I think I'm getting to someone. It'd be interesting to see if he would have folded had a King not appeared, but I must have convinced him I had AK.
Next orbit I raised A5 of spades UTG, folded around to seat three who calls and Sam who calls. At this point seat seven is trying to needle me, saying stuff like "you can't just raise AK in this game," or something like that, and I just smirk at him and say "alright good to know" and then look down at my chip stack which is well over $1k. Note to those out there, if you're going to needle someone, it might work better if they're not up almost three racks for the night. Anyway, the flop comes K73 rainbow, completely dry board and fire a c-bet when it gets checked to me. I was hoping the table talk from seat seven would encourage the two villains to fold to my c-bet, but seat three called and Sam folded. The turn was an Ace (hehe). Villain checked and I decided to check behind, hoping to either draw out a bluff or get a curiousity call on the river if checked to.
The river was a low card, and again seat three checked. I bet, and he tanked for a second, then called me. I showed Ace-five and seat seven jokingly says, "that's it, next time you raise, I'll three-bet you." I laugh and ask him "Promise?" Ahhh, tilting the table is fun.
Seat six ended up busting out after his massage and we played a couple uninteresting orbits four-handed before breaking for the night. I came up $820 or so and went to 4/8-Kill to donk off $25 over the course of an hour and a half before leaving for the night.
So I think my final count was +$15 for the week, but what an exciting $15 it was lol. Extreme swings sure are freaking stressful, but fun nonetheless. Thanks for reading, hopefully things aren't so insane next week :)
Monday, August 25, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Interesting Week (15/30 and 9/18) Tues/Fri
I rolled into Cap Tuesday night around 9pm or so and just couldn't get anything going. The table was actually very good (in terms of action, not skill level)...aside from Davin and Wilson (who can sometimes slip into donk-mode), the table was very fishy. There were a couple girls playing who were very lpp, 30ish Asian guys that were laggy as shit, and the Mexican floor guy (Oscar I think) who just doesn't play very well. He ended up donating a couple racks to everyone's cause.
It was one of those tables where there would be at least four people to the flop, usually five and sometimes six, so you had to make your hands hold. That's okay, considering I've grinded out 4/8 for the last couple years, shouldn't be a problem. Well, the only problem was holding or hitting a flop for me, as at the end of the night, I was down close to $800 (about $780 or something like that) and took the biggest loss for a session that I've taken in awhile. The one shining moment of the night was a capped pre-flop hand (three-ways) where I flopped quads, aside from that...blech.
Alright well dropping $780 that night and a few hundred the week before really stuck it to my desire to play. I knew big swings of money were inevitable, but mentally preparing for them <> actually living them. I'm really suprised/proud of myself that I decided to play last night.
I showed up at Cap around 10:30pm or so and noticed there wasn't a 15/30 game going...bummer. 9/18 was running as the main game for the first time in a long time, so I put my name on the list and went to watch some Olympics in the lounge. I wasn't on the list for long, and in about 15 minutes or so I had a seat and was surveying the table.
Just like 15/30 the other night, this table was pretty fishy, and it would only get better as time wore on. Some main villains for the evening: Seat one was this 35-year old latin guy, bought in for $180 and cashed out a couple racks ($600). He played liked he belonged at 3/6, but he was sucking out left and right and just couldn't be stopped. Seat 3 was this young, incredibly cocky, laggish Asian kid (probably late 20's/early 30's). When he sat down Davin called him the "9/18 Specialist" so naturally I was somewhat curious to how he played. The first couple of hands he showed down were absolute garbage and nothing changed from that first couple hands I observed of his. He also talked a ton of shit, lucky for him none of his remarks were aimed at me, or else I had a great line saved up for him and his track and field looking jacket. Seat 4 was this older Asian guy that always wears a "The Italian Job" baseball hat (looks like he bought it for $3 on vacaction once). Seat 5 was...you guessed it...Wilson. Seat 6 was yours truly, and seat nine was this guy named Ben who looks a lot like JC Tran's brother, at least that's what Tommy said anyway.
One of the first big hands I won came with a5 of spades in the big blind. Seat four had been getting beat up a lot, so after four limpers, he raised OTB, Wilson folded, I called, everyone else called. I noticed he only had a small stack of chips left, maybe 16 or so, which would be about $48 in $3 chips. The flop came 467 with two spades. Wow, huge flop...and so I did something I almost never do...I donk-bet!
That's right kids, I am a firm believer in not d-betting, but my relative position was perfect. I had four people in between me and the original raiser, and I knew almost for certain that seat four was jamming up this flop no matter what, so I wanted to trap everyone's money in instead of CR'ing the flop and losing people who didn't want to call two bets. The plan started out great as the first two limpers called, the other two folded (seat three gave me some lip asking why I would donk-bet, but eventually folded), seat four raised, I 3-bet, one limper folded, the other one called, seat four capped and only had two chips left...
The turn was a blank, maybe a ten of hearts or something close. I bet, call, seat four called all-in. River was a jack of spades...I bet, the limper folded, and then I showed seat four who was all-in my nut flush. He showed a flopped set of sevens (ouch) and left angrily toward the door. Phew...right away I could tell this night had a shot of being the exact opposite as Tuesday night.
Fast forward a couple hours and I was firmly up a rack and some change. Aside from being sucked out on by seat one (one gutshot, one three-outer two pair hand) and seat three (river three-outered on a QQ7 flop, I had jacks, he had 87, capped pre-flop four ways, river was a 7), I was running pretty well and had no reason to complain. All of my TP hands (see AK, KQ, etc) and overpairs were holding, so I felt good. I took a quick orbit off after talking to Tommy about when he was going to show up so I could grab a lunch break, and after that I went up another rack with a sick three hand run.
John was dealing and I was dealt Aces my 2nd hand back...lost. Skip a couple hands and I was dealt Kings that held in a five-way raised pot pre-flop, lost with Queens to a King-high flop the very next hand, and then won with KQ of diamonds after flopping a Queen and hitting running 2's for a full-house the hand directly after that (obv I was ahead the whole way, but still). After those three hands I was up almost two racks and the table got much fishier as a couple straightforward players left and were replaced by more cocky young asian guys. Sam the floorman eventually came over to the table as well, and so we had an eight-handed 9/18 donkfest on our hands. Unfortunately for me I was card dead for three orbits, went to grab food when Tommy finally showed up, and came back to the table 20 mins later and thankfully nothing had changed.
I'll talk about the rest of the game tomorrow...it eventually got down to five and four-handed and was fun as shit (i.e. I came up close to another rack from short-handed play). Thanks for reading, look for part II of this entry in a couple days.
It was one of those tables where there would be at least four people to the flop, usually five and sometimes six, so you had to make your hands hold. That's okay, considering I've grinded out 4/8 for the last couple years, shouldn't be a problem. Well, the only problem was holding or hitting a flop for me, as at the end of the night, I was down close to $800 (about $780 or something like that) and took the biggest loss for a session that I've taken in awhile. The one shining moment of the night was a capped pre-flop hand (three-ways) where I flopped quads, aside from that...blech.
Alright well dropping $780 that night and a few hundred the week before really stuck it to my desire to play. I knew big swings of money were inevitable, but mentally preparing for them <> actually living them. I'm really suprised/proud of myself that I decided to play last night.
I showed up at Cap around 10:30pm or so and noticed there wasn't a 15/30 game going...bummer. 9/18 was running as the main game for the first time in a long time, so I put my name on the list and went to watch some Olympics in the lounge. I wasn't on the list for long, and in about 15 minutes or so I had a seat and was surveying the table.
Just like 15/30 the other night, this table was pretty fishy, and it would only get better as time wore on. Some main villains for the evening: Seat one was this 35-year old latin guy, bought in for $180 and cashed out a couple racks ($600). He played liked he belonged at 3/6, but he was sucking out left and right and just couldn't be stopped. Seat 3 was this young, incredibly cocky, laggish Asian kid (probably late 20's/early 30's). When he sat down Davin called him the "9/18 Specialist" so naturally I was somewhat curious to how he played. The first couple of hands he showed down were absolute garbage and nothing changed from that first couple hands I observed of his. He also talked a ton of shit, lucky for him none of his remarks were aimed at me, or else I had a great line saved up for him and his track and field looking jacket. Seat 4 was this older Asian guy that always wears a "The Italian Job" baseball hat (looks like he bought it for $3 on vacaction once). Seat 5 was...you guessed it...Wilson. Seat 6 was yours truly, and seat nine was this guy named Ben who looks a lot like JC Tran's brother, at least that's what Tommy said anyway.
One of the first big hands I won came with a5 of spades in the big blind. Seat four had been getting beat up a lot, so after four limpers, he raised OTB, Wilson folded, I called, everyone else called. I noticed he only had a small stack of chips left, maybe 16 or so, which would be about $48 in $3 chips. The flop came 467 with two spades. Wow, huge flop...and so I did something I almost never do...I donk-bet!
That's right kids, I am a firm believer in not d-betting, but my relative position was perfect. I had four people in between me and the original raiser, and I knew almost for certain that seat four was jamming up this flop no matter what, so I wanted to trap everyone's money in instead of CR'ing the flop and losing people who didn't want to call two bets. The plan started out great as the first two limpers called, the other two folded (seat three gave me some lip asking why I would donk-bet, but eventually folded), seat four raised, I 3-bet, one limper folded, the other one called, seat four capped and only had two chips left...
The turn was a blank, maybe a ten of hearts or something close. I bet, call, seat four called all-in. River was a jack of spades...I bet, the limper folded, and then I showed seat four who was all-in my nut flush. He showed a flopped set of sevens (ouch) and left angrily toward the door. Phew...right away I could tell this night had a shot of being the exact opposite as Tuesday night.
Fast forward a couple hours and I was firmly up a rack and some change. Aside from being sucked out on by seat one (one gutshot, one three-outer two pair hand) and seat three (river three-outered on a QQ7 flop, I had jacks, he had 87, capped pre-flop four ways, river was a 7), I was running pretty well and had no reason to complain. All of my TP hands (see AK, KQ, etc) and overpairs were holding, so I felt good. I took a quick orbit off after talking to Tommy about when he was going to show up so I could grab a lunch break, and after that I went up another rack with a sick three hand run.
John was dealing and I was dealt Aces my 2nd hand back...lost. Skip a couple hands and I was dealt Kings that held in a five-way raised pot pre-flop, lost with Queens to a King-high flop the very next hand, and then won with KQ of diamonds after flopping a Queen and hitting running 2's for a full-house the hand directly after that (obv I was ahead the whole way, but still). After those three hands I was up almost two racks and the table got much fishier as a couple straightforward players left and were replaced by more cocky young asian guys. Sam the floorman eventually came over to the table as well, and so we had an eight-handed 9/18 donkfest on our hands. Unfortunately for me I was card dead for three orbits, went to grab food when Tommy finally showed up, and came back to the table 20 mins later and thankfully nothing had changed.
I'll talk about the rest of the game tomorrow...it eventually got down to five and four-handed and was fun as shit (i.e. I came up close to another rack from short-handed play). Thanks for reading, look for part II of this entry in a couple days.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Friday Night 9/18 and 15/30 (8/15)
I ended up catching a 10pm showing of "Tropic Thunder," so obvioiusly I was a tad bit late getting to the cardroom for a session. I sat down at 9/18 pretty quickly, as I was first up on both the 9/18 and 15/30 lists. The 15/30 was in obv gamble-mode and I really wanted a seat, but I would end up being on the list for close to an hour before getting on.
I won a couple small pots at 9/18, mostly LP Blind steals, and then this hand came up. We're 6-handed, the table has died down considerably, and I was begging for a 15/30 seat to open. I raise in the CO with KJ, folds to the SB who 3-bets (uh oh) and everyone else folds, I call. We're HU to a flop of K96 rainbow.
The villain has been pretty tight so far, no real reads, but I'll generally respect a 3-bet out of the SB. He bet and I called. At this point I just wanted to showdown. I'm behind to AA-KK, AK, KQ and ahead of QQ-TT or any hands I want him bluffing with. I figured if I raise him I might lose him or he'll just re-pop me and I'd puke.
The turn paired the six, he bet again, and again I just called. Good card I figured, as it didn't change all that much...I wanted a King on the river or a baby card.
The river was a somewhat ugly Queen, the villain bet again, and at this point I figured I had to be beat, but of course called anyway. He showed pocket Queens and I just kinda smiled and mucked my cards. He said "you had a king didn't ya...sorry man, only way I can win is if I suck out." I kinda laughed it off and told him it was cool, he was ahead pre-flop and couldn't go anywhere. The table ended up breaking about an orbit after that and I was left waiting for the 15/30.
I got a seat for 15/30 about 20 mins and took the five seat (bleh). Wilson was in the six, this Asian dude wearing a hat that I kinda recognized was in the seven, Davin was in the eight, and the rest of the table were fairly donktastic. They were limping with some real junk, and I just remember hoping I could hit a big hand before all this money went away from the table.
I started off really slow, folding from the CO all the way to my blinds, playing those, and then folding some more. I think I lost my first three hands I opened and quickly found myself down a few stacks ($300). I rebought from seat seven who was leaving, and slid over into his seat. Wilson had also left, and the table was threatening to break. I got a couple hands to hold (JT of hearts on an 89T board, 9 on the turn, 3 on the river) and a small pot with AA (one raise pre, folded to a lady named Debra who called my raise all-in)...lame.
The game broke a little after that, and I cashed out down a couple hundred for the night (170 at 15/30, 35 or so at 9/18). I hung around the rail and watched the SD play for a little while and would have been open to playing a 4/8-Kill game, but after 20 mins on the list and still being a few names deep on the list, I decided to just bounce.
Slow night, but it was my fault for screwing around all day/night and showing up much too late. Maybe next week I can get my head out of my ass and actually go play, but to be honest, I'm having fun being on a semi-break from cards. It's August, it's hot out, poker will always be there, maybe at the moment having fun and being somewhat social is more important than the continuous grind that is LHE.
Sorry for the lack of playing/updates, if the motivation is there, I'll try and play/blog some more this weekend or later on next week. Thanks for reading guys.
I won a couple small pots at 9/18, mostly LP Blind steals, and then this hand came up. We're 6-handed, the table has died down considerably, and I was begging for a 15/30 seat to open. I raise in the CO with KJ, folds to the SB who 3-bets (uh oh) and everyone else folds, I call. We're HU to a flop of K96 rainbow.
The villain has been pretty tight so far, no real reads, but I'll generally respect a 3-bet out of the SB. He bet and I called. At this point I just wanted to showdown. I'm behind to AA-KK, AK, KQ and ahead of QQ-TT or any hands I want him bluffing with. I figured if I raise him I might lose him or he'll just re-pop me and I'd puke.
The turn paired the six, he bet again, and again I just called. Good card I figured, as it didn't change all that much...I wanted a King on the river or a baby card.
The river was a somewhat ugly Queen, the villain bet again, and at this point I figured I had to be beat, but of course called anyway. He showed pocket Queens and I just kinda smiled and mucked my cards. He said "you had a king didn't ya...sorry man, only way I can win is if I suck out." I kinda laughed it off and told him it was cool, he was ahead pre-flop and couldn't go anywhere. The table ended up breaking about an orbit after that and I was left waiting for the 15/30.
I got a seat for 15/30 about 20 mins and took the five seat (bleh). Wilson was in the six, this Asian dude wearing a hat that I kinda recognized was in the seven, Davin was in the eight, and the rest of the table were fairly donktastic. They were limping with some real junk, and I just remember hoping I could hit a big hand before all this money went away from the table.
I started off really slow, folding from the CO all the way to my blinds, playing those, and then folding some more. I think I lost my first three hands I opened and quickly found myself down a few stacks ($300). I rebought from seat seven who was leaving, and slid over into his seat. Wilson had also left, and the table was threatening to break. I got a couple hands to hold (JT of hearts on an 89T board, 9 on the turn, 3 on the river) and a small pot with AA (one raise pre, folded to a lady named Debra who called my raise all-in)...lame.
The game broke a little after that, and I cashed out down a couple hundred for the night (170 at 15/30, 35 or so at 9/18). I hung around the rail and watched the SD play for a little while and would have been open to playing a 4/8-Kill game, but after 20 mins on the list and still being a few names deep on the list, I decided to just bounce.
Slow night, but it was my fault for screwing around all day/night and showing up much too late. Maybe next week I can get my head out of my ass and actually go play, but to be honest, I'm having fun being on a semi-break from cards. It's August, it's hot out, poker will always be there, maybe at the moment having fun and being somewhat social is more important than the continuous grind that is LHE.
Sorry for the lack of playing/updates, if the motivation is there, I'll try and play/blog some more this weekend or later on next week. Thanks for reading guys.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Friday Night 15/30 (8/8)
Sorry I'm so late with the blog. Anyway, for a few different reasons (health, work, being lazy, actually going out for once), I didn't play for a couple weeks. Anyway, I rolled in kinda late, maybe 11pm or so, still feeling beat up from allergies or whatever kind of cold I had that kicked my ass for two weeks. Basically my body was fine except for my nose and at times my head. Every time I'd step outside my nose would run and my head would feel like it was in a vice, followed immediately by sneezing and hawkkkkkkking. For two weeks I'd wake up with a completely clogged nose, a sore throat (from breathing through my mouth all night), and a decently sized headache. Fun stuff, I know.
Okay, no more bitching, I rolled up and noticed my table was noticeably stronger than normal, not a good thing I guess. Seat five was Wilson, seat six was Davin, and seat eight was Sing. The rest of the players I semi-recognized as lpp-ish, and one maniac asian guy a couple spots to my left. Not a terribly strong table, but a little tougher than normal.
So as has been the case, I folded for my first couple of orbits with zero playable hands. I'd get the occasional T8s or 97s, but with an EP raise from Sing or another tight player, I couldn't do much with either of those hands.
Finally I get a playable hand in the CO with two limpers (both passive players) in front of me. One is an Lpp-ish Asian guy (seat nine) and an older black man, turned out to be somewhat tight/passive in seat one. They both limp, I raise from seat two, BB defends. Flop comes AJT with two diamonds.
Kinda nasty, but whatever. Check, check, black guy donks, I raise, fold, call, call.
The turn is an ugly ugly card, a black King.
Check, check, I fire to defend against diamonds and rep AQ or something that has a straight now. Both call. Blech.
River pairs the jack, basically making my hand useless now. Check, check, I check behind and seat nine says "missed" and mucks his cards, seat one shows AK and takes down the pot. Wow, no raise pre? Oh well, now I know.
The rest of the session after that wasn't all that interesting. It was kind of frustrating, we were playing seven handed alot, and most of my raising hands were coming in EP. I'd raise 88 or 77, get a nasty flop, and have to bet/fold to a lot of action behind me. Most of the hands went to showdown and hands like QJ and KT were just outflopping me, nothing much I could do.
In the same regard, I'd pick up AA OTB or UTG and I'd raise and everyone would fold. Just awful awful timing. They'd call when I had 77 or they'd fold when I have aces. I didn't see AK, AQ, KK-99 at all...
The game ended up breaking kinda early (230am-ish), so I grabbed some food with the Superdonk, and bounced out as soon as he got a 4/8-Kill seat. I didn't feel much like trying to win back $300 at 4/8 after having a frustrating 15/30 session. I just wanted to go home and sleep.
This week I look to play two good sized sessions at the bare minimum, stay tuned for updates.
Okay, no more bitching, I rolled up and noticed my table was noticeably stronger than normal, not a good thing I guess. Seat five was Wilson, seat six was Davin, and seat eight was Sing. The rest of the players I semi-recognized as lpp-ish, and one maniac asian guy a couple spots to my left. Not a terribly strong table, but a little tougher than normal.
So as has been the case, I folded for my first couple of orbits with zero playable hands. I'd get the occasional T8s or 97s, but with an EP raise from Sing or another tight player, I couldn't do much with either of those hands.
Finally I get a playable hand in the CO with two limpers (both passive players) in front of me. One is an Lpp-ish Asian guy (seat nine) and an older black man, turned out to be somewhat tight/passive in seat one. They both limp, I raise from seat two, BB defends. Flop comes AJT with two diamonds.
Kinda nasty, but whatever. Check, check, black guy donks, I raise, fold, call, call.
The turn is an ugly ugly card, a black King.
Check, check, I fire to defend against diamonds and rep AQ or something that has a straight now. Both call. Blech.
River pairs the jack, basically making my hand useless now. Check, check, I check behind and seat nine says "missed" and mucks his cards, seat one shows AK and takes down the pot. Wow, no raise pre? Oh well, now I know.
The rest of the session after that wasn't all that interesting. It was kind of frustrating, we were playing seven handed alot, and most of my raising hands were coming in EP. I'd raise 88 or 77, get a nasty flop, and have to bet/fold to a lot of action behind me. Most of the hands went to showdown and hands like QJ and KT were just outflopping me, nothing much I could do.
In the same regard, I'd pick up AA OTB or UTG and I'd raise and everyone would fold. Just awful awful timing. They'd call when I had 77 or they'd fold when I have aces. I didn't see AK, AQ, KK-99 at all...
The game ended up breaking kinda early (230am-ish), so I grabbed some food with the Superdonk, and bounced out as soon as he got a 4/8-Kill seat. I didn't feel much like trying to win back $300 at 4/8 after having a frustrating 15/30 session. I just wanted to go home and sleep.
This week I look to play two good sized sessions at the bare minimum, stay tuned for updates.
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