Hi again, here to finish up the 100bb day hopefully. Like I mentioned yesterday, I had a couple maniacs at my table and things were starting to click. After winning a couple killpots I found myself up at least a rack ($200) and some change. The next hour or so I was involved in some spots with both maniacs, usually taking them to showdown with midpairs and sometimes Ace-high, winning most of the showdowns I was involved in with them. Not much else I can ask for.
It really was a whirlwind, as we would go from a full game to SH play and back to full again, I never really had time to jot down notes during this time. I do remember a hand that occurred right as my friend Tony (some of you know him as fender403) arrived on the scene. I had asked him to meet up with me for lunch and play cards earlier that morning; perhaps texting tony to meet up for lunch = boomswitch? I may have to try it again soon.
Anyway, PS (our maniac in seat six) opens the pot for a raise, a couple callers in between, and I see QT of diamonds on the button. Had it been folded in between the maniac and myself I probably would three-bet this, instead I'm actually a tad worried about the callers in between. They were older players, had come off as passive, and they would slowplay decent pairs and big cards (mostly out of fear). I wanted to see a cheap flop against them and the maniac, hopefully crush the flop, then reap the rewards of him going nutso.
I called, the SB called, as did the BB. Step 1: see a cheap flop - Success. The flop came out KJ9 with two clubs. Step 2: Crush the flop - Success. The blinds checked to PS who bet, one fold, one of the more passive players raised, I three bet, Blinds fold, PS calls, passive player caps, I call and PS calls. The passive player capping made me feel like I may be chopping the pot. That is until a non-club three fell of on the turn and it was checked to me. I bet, and both players called. The river was another blank, no pairing the board, no club (I still had the nuts), and both players check/called. Weeeeeeeeeeee. Fender just shook his head, and I could tell what he was thinking. ("Must. Be. Nice.)
Or "ship it, ship it all" could work there too I guess. Tony had a seat waiting for him over at 4/8, and we planned on grabbing lunch after he put some time in. One hand I remember in between then and lunch I picked up 54 of diamonds in the BB. Folded to PS who open limped from the cutoff. Huh? Kinda weird...maybe he was afraid he wouldn't get action. KV obliged by raising the button from the seven seat, folded to me and I defend from the BB, PS LRR to three bets and KV caps. "Ughhh I guess I'm the monkey in the middle" I said.
Flop: 744
Boy does it suck to be me. I check, PS checks, KV checks. Someone slowplaying a big pair?
The turn was a five. Oh cool, a fullhouse huh? I bet, PS raises, KV folds, I three-bet and he only calls. River is a blank, I bet he calls.
Godmode engaged.
After lunch (Patty Melt on rye with mustard) I came back to a couple fun kill pots. I think my stack was +$800ish at this point, when I picked up Queens in a killpot. I open to six chips (call), guy in seat four is newer and raises to 12 chips ($24), PS three bets to $36, folds around back to me and I cap it ($48).
The flop comes out 222. No you didn't misread that, the board came out with three ducks. I checked, seat four checked, PS bet, I checkraised, seat four called, PS 3-bet, I capped, seat four called, PS called. ($48 times three players = weeeee)
288
I'm pretty confident at this point I had the best hand, as a six came off on the turn. This time I opted to lead, seat four called, PS raised again (if he has AA or KK good for him, I'm going to lose the max against someone who has proved to be a maniac for the last few hours), I three bet ($64), seat four finally folds, and PS only calls. The river is another baby card, I bet, he calls while saying "I missed"
I show QQ and am good for a pot close to $500, with over $300 of it being profit. I went on to win a smaller killpot about an orbit or so after this and that put me over +$1200 for the day and over 100 big bets for the session. That was a sick run that I probably won't be able to duplicate for a long, long time.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
100 Big Bets?! (Part 1)
So before I get into my huge Friday (11/26), I should mention I had a fairly awful Tuesday. Today's Saturday and I was trying to finish up the Third part of the 4/8 and 6/12 story (don't think I'm going to bother), get into the downer day at 6/12 where I played for about nine hours and took about a $400 loss (just a shit day vs a good table) and then talk about blacking out and running like God yesterday.
Tuesday I had a really nice table full of LPPs and one spewtard, but alas my big hands couldn't hold, my draws wouldn't hit, and to be honest being down only $400 at the end of the day kind of felt like a gift. Tuesday was the first real hint of adversity I had been faced with since I started playing regularly again around the end of October. Sure there were rough hours of patches here and there, but I always seemed to regroup and get it back. In fact, to this point I had only had one losing session out of the last eight, and it was only for $100. Nine hours of my life and a couple racks later, I left Capitol feeling the sting of some runbad.
Thursday I ate at my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner, drove home, and promptly passed out around 8pm...only to stumble out of bed around 530am. Wow, wtf? I showered, did some exercising, surfed the interwebs, then decided to grab a shower and see if Capitol would have any good daytime action. Most people were off work shopping, but maybe I'd get lucky and catch some good games. I rolled up at about 9:30am and to my surprise there was a ShortHanded (SH) 6/12 game going on.
I recognized a couple players, notably SK in the two seat, a young floorman in the four, and then a couple older gentleman I didn't recognize on the other side of the table. These guys were playing four handed, no jackpot drop. Man, my kind of players! I love shorthanded, but early on I got beat up pretty badly. Sometime in the 2nd orbit my AK lost to a rivered two pair by KT. King high flop, we capped the flop, he check called my turn then led a rivered ten. A couple orbits after that I ran QQ into KK and then whiffed a couple AK/AQ type hands. Not a pretty start whatsoever, and I quickly found my initial $300 buy in cut almost in half.
The game slowly started to fill up during the early morning massacre, and eventually after about an hour of some really fun SH play we had a full table. After the initial drop I picked up some decent hands against SK and it brought me back around even. SK was playing much more aggressively today than I had seen him play before, in fact, he was absolutely maniacal. He played just about every hand during SH play, and it continued once the game was full. A lot of beginner books talk about avoiding maniacs on your direct left, but honestly I have come to enjoy it.
Whenever I opened a pot SK would usually coldcall me, and then post we'd play some poker. It seemed like he was raising the flop with literally any piece you could think of, sometimes he'd have pure air. I was in Shifty calldown mode (you vegas forum trip guys will get that reference), basically what I'm saying is I'm taking SK to showdown a very high percentage of the time. My position was actually a blessing, as I would act, then SK, and then all the pressure would be on the rest of the table. I bet, SK raises, and now it's up to the rest of the table to define their hand. He was building me pots when I usually had the best of it, loosening up the table by the amount of action he was giving, and overall making it much easier for me to play the other opponents.
Later on another super aggressive player came to the table and sat in seat six. So now I have a maniac on my direct left and a maniac across the table. OH BOY! I'll call the seat 6 maniac PS, as he had a sweet Pokerstars beanie on. PS and SK, when heads up, were in some AWESOME hands together. A husband/wife combo waiting for the 1/3 NL game to start looked absolutely stunned in amazement. The wife would gasp "look at them, THEY HAVE NOTHING!" AK vs KQ, no pairs on the board, capped pre, four bets on the flop, two bets on the turn, one bet on the river. And you want to talk about fast. Read this as fast as you can. Raise, three bet, cap. Burn, turn. Bet, raise, re-raise. The chips splashing the felt from one side to another. It was like watching a tennis match, each one trying to raise the other faster and harder than before. IT WAS AWESOME!
So now that you get a feeling about what my table looks like (amazing), I'll post a couple hands then get going to bed. I've been up 30 hours now with a 40 minute power nap squeezed in before work last night. KV, a real pretty asian girl opens for six chips from seat seven in a kill pot (this is a call). Seat nine calls, I look down at two red Kings and raise to 12 chips. SK calls, folds back around to KV and seat nine who both call. Flop is 433 rainbow. Checks to me and I bet, miraculously SK finds a fold, KV folds, seat nine raises. I hadn't played with seat nine before, but I found out later he was also waiting for a NL seat. I three bet and he only calls. The turn is a ten and again seat nine leads. I raise again and this time he folds. Hmmph. Odd.
Next hand I raise the blinds from EP with QJ sooooted, blinds fold, it's now a kill pot, stakes are 12/24. I'm UTG+2 I believe and pick up AQ of clubs. I open for six chips (this is a call, I do this in every kill pot because normally opening to 12 gets everyone to fold and you win three chips; you don't have to post a kill blind in this cardroom). Oh by the way, I'm ready to LRR this hand. Instead SK calls, the NL husband calls from seat four and one of the blinds calls. The flop comes Q84 with two clubs. Cha ching. Now I wish someone had raised pre. I lead, SK calls, everyone else folds. The turn is a nine of clubs. I bet, SK raises, I three bet, he calls. The river blanks out, I bet he calls and I show the winner. Weeeee this turns out to be the start of the run. I'll try and blog the 2nd part when I wake up, thanks for reading.
Tuesday I had a really nice table full of LPPs and one spewtard, but alas my big hands couldn't hold, my draws wouldn't hit, and to be honest being down only $400 at the end of the day kind of felt like a gift. Tuesday was the first real hint of adversity I had been faced with since I started playing regularly again around the end of October. Sure there were rough hours of patches here and there, but I always seemed to regroup and get it back. In fact, to this point I had only had one losing session out of the last eight, and it was only for $100. Nine hours of my life and a couple racks later, I left Capitol feeling the sting of some runbad.
Thursday I ate at my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner, drove home, and promptly passed out around 8pm...only to stumble out of bed around 530am. Wow, wtf? I showered, did some exercising, surfed the interwebs, then decided to grab a shower and see if Capitol would have any good daytime action. Most people were off work shopping, but maybe I'd get lucky and catch some good games. I rolled up at about 9:30am and to my surprise there was a ShortHanded (SH) 6/12 game going on.
I recognized a couple players, notably SK in the two seat, a young floorman in the four, and then a couple older gentleman I didn't recognize on the other side of the table. These guys were playing four handed, no jackpot drop. Man, my kind of players! I love shorthanded, but early on I got beat up pretty badly. Sometime in the 2nd orbit my AK lost to a rivered two pair by KT. King high flop, we capped the flop, he check called my turn then led a rivered ten. A couple orbits after that I ran QQ into KK and then whiffed a couple AK/AQ type hands. Not a pretty start whatsoever, and I quickly found my initial $300 buy in cut almost in half.
The game slowly started to fill up during the early morning massacre, and eventually after about an hour of some really fun SH play we had a full table. After the initial drop I picked up some decent hands against SK and it brought me back around even. SK was playing much more aggressively today than I had seen him play before, in fact, he was absolutely maniacal. He played just about every hand during SH play, and it continued once the game was full. A lot of beginner books talk about avoiding maniacs on your direct left, but honestly I have come to enjoy it.
Whenever I opened a pot SK would usually coldcall me, and then post we'd play some poker. It seemed like he was raising the flop with literally any piece you could think of, sometimes he'd have pure air. I was in Shifty calldown mode (you vegas forum trip guys will get that reference), basically what I'm saying is I'm taking SK to showdown a very high percentage of the time. My position was actually a blessing, as I would act, then SK, and then all the pressure would be on the rest of the table. I bet, SK raises, and now it's up to the rest of the table to define their hand. He was building me pots when I usually had the best of it, loosening up the table by the amount of action he was giving, and overall making it much easier for me to play the other opponents.
Later on another super aggressive player came to the table and sat in seat six. So now I have a maniac on my direct left and a maniac across the table. OH BOY! I'll call the seat 6 maniac PS, as he had a sweet Pokerstars beanie on. PS and SK, when heads up, were in some AWESOME hands together. A husband/wife combo waiting for the 1/3 NL game to start looked absolutely stunned in amazement. The wife would gasp "look at them, THEY HAVE NOTHING!" AK vs KQ, no pairs on the board, capped pre, four bets on the flop, two bets on the turn, one bet on the river. And you want to talk about fast. Read this as fast as you can. Raise, three bet, cap. Burn, turn. Bet, raise, re-raise. The chips splashing the felt from one side to another. It was like watching a tennis match, each one trying to raise the other faster and harder than before. IT WAS AWESOME!
So now that you get a feeling about what my table looks like (amazing), I'll post a couple hands then get going to bed. I've been up 30 hours now with a 40 minute power nap squeezed in before work last night. KV, a real pretty asian girl opens for six chips from seat seven in a kill pot (this is a call). Seat nine calls, I look down at two red Kings and raise to 12 chips. SK calls, folds back around to KV and seat nine who both call. Flop is 433 rainbow. Checks to me and I bet, miraculously SK finds a fold, KV folds, seat nine raises. I hadn't played with seat nine before, but I found out later he was also waiting for a NL seat. I three bet and he only calls. The turn is a ten and again seat nine leads. I raise again and this time he folds. Hmmph. Odd.
Next hand I raise the blinds from EP with QJ sooooted, blinds fold, it's now a kill pot, stakes are 12/24. I'm UTG+2 I believe and pick up AQ of clubs. I open for six chips (this is a call, I do this in every kill pot because normally opening to 12 gets everyone to fold and you win three chips; you don't have to post a kill blind in this cardroom). Oh by the way, I'm ready to LRR this hand. Instead SK calls, the NL husband calls from seat four and one of the blinds calls. The flop comes Q84 with two clubs. Cha ching. Now I wish someone had raised pre. I lead, SK calls, everyone else folds. The turn is a nine of clubs. I bet, SK raises, I three bet, he calls. The river blanks out, I bet he calls and I show the winner. Weeeee this turns out to be the start of the run. I'll try and blog the 2nd part when I wake up, thanks for reading.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
A Slow Day at 6/12, a Monster at 4/8 (Part2)
After booking a small win at 6/12, I decided to go check out the 4/8 tables. I grabbed eight orange $1 chips from my 6/12 stack (the rest were red $2 chips) and saved a spot for myself at the 4/8 table with the biggest stacks on them. I'd say the smallest stack had about $150 in it, not bad at all. Most everyone was hovering around #200-300, not bad at all for 1am on a Monday.
I rack up and see a huge line at the cage, so I decide to just change in my entire 6/12 stack and bring it to the 4/8 game with me. Two racks of orange, a stack of yellow $5 dollar chips and some change accompanied me to my 4/8 seat where I was greeted warmly by a guy named Edgar wearing an all red Cordova warm-up BBall suit (fucking pimp, dude looked COMFORTABLE).
I couldn't help but laugh, explain the situation with the cage, then explain that I feel naked without a shitload of chips in front of me (which by the way is 100% true).
My second or third hand at the table I was dealt T8 of diamonds from MP. I limped behind a couple limpers, people limped behind me, and we saw a flop of Qd9d7d seven handed or so. Aye Caramba. Not only did I flop a T-high flush I also had an open-ended straight flush draw. The Small-blind (SB) bet out, two callers in between, I raise, Cutoff (CO) and Button both call, SB calls, the two callers in between us called.
The turn was a ten of spades making the board even more coordinated and ugly. SB bet out again, called again in two spots, I raised yet again, CO and Button both call (again), SB folds (I'm thinking he had top pair and finally gave up), two callers in between call again.
River is an eight of spades, so now I have the T-high flush AND two pair. Oh and the board is even more ugly. Checked to me, I bet, and it folds around to one of the early position players who calls. I show him the flopped flush and am good for a huge pot. Wow, after a quiet day at 6/12, I scoop in a pot worth maybe $120+ in profit in one of my first hands at the table.
Don't be too happy for me (or jealous) though just yet, as next orbit in the cutoff this time I look down at a couple Kings. I raise a few limpers, get called by the button, both the blinds, and of course the limpers call. Seven way action to the flop of KxQc3c. Weeeeeeeee flopped the nuts seven ways, let's find a way to fuck this up.
Checked to me and I bet, Button raises, SB calls, folds to me, I 3-bet, Button caps, me and SB call.
The turn is a good card, the seven of diamonds. SB checks, I bet, Button pauses for a second, puts his chips out. A stack of four, then cuts to eight...I can tell he's thinking it over. The entire time in my head I'm yelling "RAISE DAMMIT!" If he has a hand he can keep raising on this turn I have to have him absolutely crushed. He either has a low two pair or a set, either way he's drawing super thin. The guy in the SB calling along is who I'm really worried about. He probably has a flush draw, maybe a combo flush/straight draw. If that's the case he's drawing very live.
Back to the Button. Four, Eight, Cuts four more chips to 12 and then to 16. Yes! SB calls again. Ugh, I need to dip duck and dodge this river for sure, but right now it's time to charge max Value. I snap three bet to $24 and button sighs and only calls. SB hurriedly calls eight more chips and we all wait for the river...
The river card is the nine of spades. I didn't even watch the river card come out, I was looking at the SB the entire time, looking for a noticeable jump or sigh or anything. As SB checked I didn't notice anything peculiar, so I looked at the board for myself and saw the nine of spades. "Ahhh the club missed" I remembered thinking to myself as I bet out. I then started looking at what combos of cards actually did get there. "9-7-3...that can't make a straight; K-Q-9, a gutterball got there...wait no, JT got there. JT was open-ended and had eight outs all the way. Uh oh."
The button called my bet, then I saw the SB reach and grab a decent looking stack of chips, definitely enough to raise.
NO.
He cuts a stack of four. Then eight.
DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.
Then 12.
NO!
I think this is actually the part of the hand where I cursed loudly. I believe a loud "fuck" soon followed by mumbling of something like "that was not a good card, and to think you were happy with that card because it wasn't a club, what were you thinking, etc etc etc." I have a tendency to talk to myself at a poker table, mostly as a way to bring humor and entertainment to a situation. I want people to like playing with me. I call and button call and the SB shows JsTc for the flopped open ended straight draw that just had to get there.
I tapped the table, said "nice hand" and pretty much meant it. I've taken much worse beats in bigger pots than that, all you can do is blame the shuffle gnomes inside that damn automatic shuffler and move on.
I didn't plan on making a part three for this session but I have at least a couple more big pots to talk about and this post is super long sooooo alright, look for part three sometime tomorrow. Thanks again for reading!
I rack up and see a huge line at the cage, so I decide to just change in my entire 6/12 stack and bring it to the 4/8 game with me. Two racks of orange, a stack of yellow $5 dollar chips and some change accompanied me to my 4/8 seat where I was greeted warmly by a guy named Edgar wearing an all red Cordova warm-up BBall suit (fucking pimp, dude looked COMFORTABLE).
Yooo whats up man, buy-ins only $40! At first I saw this $8 and was like whatever, but man, you brought a chip army back!
I couldn't help but laugh, explain the situation with the cage, then explain that I feel naked without a shitload of chips in front of me (which by the way is 100% true).
My second or third hand at the table I was dealt T8 of diamonds from MP. I limped behind a couple limpers, people limped behind me, and we saw a flop of Qd9d7d seven handed or so. Aye Caramba. Not only did I flop a T-high flush I also had an open-ended straight flush draw. The Small-blind (SB) bet out, two callers in between, I raise, Cutoff (CO) and Button both call, SB calls, the two callers in between us called.
The turn was a ten of spades making the board even more coordinated and ugly. SB bet out again, called again in two spots, I raised yet again, CO and Button both call (again), SB folds (I'm thinking he had top pair and finally gave up), two callers in between call again.
River is an eight of spades, so now I have the T-high flush AND two pair. Oh and the board is even more ugly. Checked to me, I bet, and it folds around to one of the early position players who calls. I show him the flopped flush and am good for a huge pot. Wow, after a quiet day at 6/12, I scoop in a pot worth maybe $120+ in profit in one of my first hands at the table.
Don't be too happy for me (or jealous) though just yet, as next orbit in the cutoff this time I look down at a couple Kings. I raise a few limpers, get called by the button, both the blinds, and of course the limpers call. Seven way action to the flop of KxQc3c. Weeeeeeeee flopped the nuts seven ways, let's find a way to fuck this up.
Checked to me and I bet, Button raises, SB calls, folds to me, I 3-bet, Button caps, me and SB call.
The turn is a good card, the seven of diamonds. SB checks, I bet, Button pauses for a second, puts his chips out. A stack of four, then cuts to eight...I can tell he's thinking it over. The entire time in my head I'm yelling "RAISE DAMMIT!" If he has a hand he can keep raising on this turn I have to have him absolutely crushed. He either has a low two pair or a set, either way he's drawing super thin. The guy in the SB calling along is who I'm really worried about. He probably has a flush draw, maybe a combo flush/straight draw. If that's the case he's drawing very live.
Back to the Button. Four, Eight, Cuts four more chips to 12 and then to 16. Yes! SB calls again. Ugh, I need to dip duck and dodge this river for sure, but right now it's time to charge max Value. I snap three bet to $24 and button sighs and only calls. SB hurriedly calls eight more chips and we all wait for the river...
The river card is the nine of spades. I didn't even watch the river card come out, I was looking at the SB the entire time, looking for a noticeable jump or sigh or anything. As SB checked I didn't notice anything peculiar, so I looked at the board for myself and saw the nine of spades. "Ahhh the club missed" I remembered thinking to myself as I bet out. I then started looking at what combos of cards actually did get there. "9-7-3...that can't make a straight; K-Q-9, a gutterball got there...wait no, JT got there. JT was open-ended and had eight outs all the way. Uh oh."
The button called my bet, then I saw the SB reach and grab a decent looking stack of chips, definitely enough to raise.
NO.
He cuts a stack of four. Then eight.
DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.
Then 12.
NO!
I think this is actually the part of the hand where I cursed loudly. I believe a loud "fuck" soon followed by mumbling of something like "that was not a good card, and to think you were happy with that card because it wasn't a club, what were you thinking, etc etc etc." I have a tendency to talk to myself at a poker table, mostly as a way to bring humor and entertainment to a situation. I want people to like playing with me. I call and button call and the SB shows JsTc for the flopped open ended straight draw that just had to get there.
I tapped the table, said "nice hand" and pretty much meant it. I've taken much worse beats in bigger pots than that, all you can do is blame the shuffle gnomes inside that damn automatic shuffler and move on.
I didn't plan on making a part three for this session but I have at least a couple more big pots to talk about and this post is super long sooooo alright, look for part three sometime tomorrow. Thanks again for reading!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
A Slow Day at 6/12, a Monster at 4/8 (Part1)
I rolled into Capitol at about 10pm Monday night after a nice pho dinner with a friend.
Does it get any better than that? Throw in some limes, Sriracha, pepper and a diet coke...then some poker after?! What a Monday night. Anyway, like I said, poker. I put my name on the 6/12 and 4/8 lists, waited for 10 minutes and found myself on a 6/12 table with a few regs I've been playing with for the last few weeks.
The table was okay, one of the regs was stuck so she was playing tighter and was much less action than normal. An older guy by the name of Tim was on an absolute heater all night, just crushing the table. He eventually cashed out 5 racks or so, no idea what he bought in for though. He kinda looks like Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and received some needles from Feliz who showed up about 20 mins after me and another player who goes by "D." "GREAT SCOTT" they would yell on scary turns/rivers where he was in a hand. All in all it was a pretty entertaining table.
Unfortunately aside from taking advantage of a drunk guy who crushed his NL table for about 1k, I ran kinda slow. Feliz was getting a good roll of cards and was able to get some three bets in against the drunk NL player, Doc Brown was crushing with anything and everything, and my stack stayed pretty even keel.
Oh one thing I did run good at was a side game dubbed "5 Chip Chop" with D and Feliz. Basically when the hand gets folded to the blinds, SB and BB set aside five $2 chips and play best hand wins (while paying no rake obv). Feliz and D were in the two and three seat playing, D asked me if I wanted to play as well and I snap said of course. Basic rules - high card wins, but a pair > a-high. First time it's folded around D starts cursing and practically throws his chips at me. I squeeze out a seven of hearts and show it to him. He mucks his cards immediately. LOL. We only chopped one other time, my T7 > his 76. So I came up 20 bucks there and the dude bought me a Guiness. I tried to return the favor but he was leaving soon and told me to get him next time.
A couple of hands vs the drunk guy:
AK diamonds in the BB. DG opens from CO after an EP call, I 3-bet, gets capped. Three ways to a JT3 flop with two diamonds. I lead, EP folds, DG raises, I 3-bet, he calls. Turn is a King I bet, he calls. River is a blank I bet he calls, AK good.
I have 55 in EP and open, folds around to DG who defends his blind then tells me "if I get a piece I'm betting." He has less than 20 chips in his hand at this point. Flop comes T5x and he leads. I call. Turn is a 3, he bets I raise enough to put him all in, he calls and shows T3os. River blanks out.
6/12 totals (including 5 chip chop or 5CC) = +40 for about three hours
I'll post more later today or tomorrow about my three hour 4/8-Kill session immediately following this, where I ran much, much better
Does it get any better than that? Throw in some limes, Sriracha, pepper and a diet coke...then some poker after?! What a Monday night. Anyway, like I said, poker. I put my name on the 6/12 and 4/8 lists, waited for 10 minutes and found myself on a 6/12 table with a few regs I've been playing with for the last few weeks.
The table was okay, one of the regs was stuck so she was playing tighter and was much less action than normal. An older guy by the name of Tim was on an absolute heater all night, just crushing the table. He eventually cashed out 5 racks or so, no idea what he bought in for though. He kinda looks like Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and received some needles from Feliz who showed up about 20 mins after me and another player who goes by "D." "GREAT SCOTT" they would yell on scary turns/rivers where he was in a hand. All in all it was a pretty entertaining table.
Unfortunately aside from taking advantage of a drunk guy who crushed his NL table for about 1k, I ran kinda slow. Feliz was getting a good roll of cards and was able to get some three bets in against the drunk NL player, Doc Brown was crushing with anything and everything, and my stack stayed pretty even keel.
Oh one thing I did run good at was a side game dubbed "5 Chip Chop" with D and Feliz. Basically when the hand gets folded to the blinds, SB and BB set aside five $2 chips and play best hand wins (while paying no rake obv). Feliz and D were in the two and three seat playing, D asked me if I wanted to play as well and I snap said of course. Basic rules - high card wins, but a pair > a-high. First time it's folded around D starts cursing and practically throws his chips at me. I squeeze out a seven of hearts and show it to him. He mucks his cards immediately. LOL. We only chopped one other time, my T7 > his 76. So I came up 20 bucks there and the dude bought me a Guiness. I tried to return the favor but he was leaving soon and told me to get him next time.
A couple of hands vs the drunk guy:
AK diamonds in the BB. DG opens from CO after an EP call, I 3-bet, gets capped. Three ways to a JT3 flop with two diamonds. I lead, EP folds, DG raises, I 3-bet, he calls. Turn is a King I bet, he calls. River is a blank I bet he calls, AK good.
I have 55 in EP and open, folds around to DG who defends his blind then tells me "if I get a piece I'm betting." He has less than 20 chips in his hand at this point. Flop comes T5x and he leads. I call. Turn is a 3, he bets I raise enough to put him all in, he calls and shows T3os. River blanks out.
6/12 totals (including 5 chip chop or 5CC) = +40 for about three hours
I'll post more later today or tomorrow about my three hour 4/8-Kill session immediately following this, where I ran much, much better
Monday, November 22, 2010
The Return of the 4/8 Superstar
Hello friends. Not sure how many people will see this or care, but I plan on playing live once or twice a week and posting again. I took a solid chunk of time off from poker and now I feel ready to come back.
Aside from forum trips I haven't played much poker, and didn't really start to miss it until recently. When I was playing regularly it just felt like the games weren't good anymore. Everyone was nitting it up, my games were breaking early, my average table stakes were plumetting from 15/30 to 9/18 down to 6/12. It just felt like no one had any money to lose, so they tried harder to keep it.
On top of that I was busy working a couple different jobs, juggling friendships and relationships, trying new things. Poker just kind of got shuffled to the back. I don't think I missed out on too much. The last few weeks I've been playing more and easing my way back into the mix, and the same names and faces are still there. Part of me thinks that is another reason I stopped going.
Seeing the same people playing cards day in and day out kind of makes me depressed for them. Is this all they do? I remember thinking to myself "man, I'm here at least a couple times a week, usually rotating a few different days and I ALWAYS see this person and that person...do they ever leave?" Some are able to play for a living and that's cool, good for them, those aren't the ones I'm talking about. I know there are some people who are losing players and play everyday, how are they able to continually light money on fire and be able to come back the next day? Rich family? Rich dead uncle? Meh, it's not any of my business really, but there were times I couldn't help but wonder about a certain person's family, friends, and wonder if poker was eating a hole in this person's life.
I'll stop being the negative nancy, debby downer blog now, but I wanted to be honest in my first post back. No biting my tongue, no holding back. If you're going to read this, you're going to get 100% truth; no bullshit, no sugar coating, no fairy tales.
I'll be playing most of my poker at Capitol Cardroom, located in downtown Sac. The most likely stakes will be 4/8-Full Kill, 6/12-Full kill, and maybe some NL sprinkled in if it looks like the games are good. Cap is the most likely option because of location (about a 10 minute drive from my place), great food, fantastic dealers (lightning fast ftw), good action 24/7 (there's almost always a good game to be found) and i'm familiar with a majority of the floor, dealers and some of the players.
Other locations might include Cache Creek and Lucky Derby. Cache is home to my favorite 4/8-kill game of all time, as the players are much more loose/passive than your average Capitol player. I'm assuming that's because you get a lot more pure gamblers wandering to the poker room from the nearby casino slots and pit; at Capitol most people are there to play cards.
Derby has a decent 5/10 full kill Omaha 8 or better game I liked to play back in the day, but the game was pretty slow and you'd get a lot of regs playing at times. Back when I went card dead in that game, it felt like eternal damnation. Though a few times the games were REALLY GOOD, like crazy goooot, so it might be worth a look if I'm ever in the area.
My short term goal for this new build is to play solid, fundamental poker. I want to make as many good decisions as I possibly can then let the results figure themselves out from there. I've played and studied LHE for a little over seven years now, so all the correct decisions should be somewhere in my brain, now it's just up to me to execute them.
Look for a few new updates this week, as I'll go back the last couple of weeks and talk about some sessions I've had and some big pots I've been involved in. That's all for now, thanks for reading, and it feels good to be back and excited about poker again.
Aside from forum trips I haven't played much poker, and didn't really start to miss it until recently. When I was playing regularly it just felt like the games weren't good anymore. Everyone was nitting it up, my games were breaking early, my average table stakes were plumetting from 15/30 to 9/18 down to 6/12. It just felt like no one had any money to lose, so they tried harder to keep it.
On top of that I was busy working a couple different jobs, juggling friendships and relationships, trying new things. Poker just kind of got shuffled to the back. I don't think I missed out on too much. The last few weeks I've been playing more and easing my way back into the mix, and the same names and faces are still there. Part of me thinks that is another reason I stopped going.
Seeing the same people playing cards day in and day out kind of makes me depressed for them. Is this all they do? I remember thinking to myself "man, I'm here at least a couple times a week, usually rotating a few different days and I ALWAYS see this person and that person...do they ever leave?" Some are able to play for a living and that's cool, good for them, those aren't the ones I'm talking about. I know there are some people who are losing players and play everyday, how are they able to continually light money on fire and be able to come back the next day? Rich family? Rich dead uncle? Meh, it's not any of my business really, but there were times I couldn't help but wonder about a certain person's family, friends, and wonder if poker was eating a hole in this person's life.
I'll stop being the negative nancy, debby downer blog now, but I wanted to be honest in my first post back. No biting my tongue, no holding back. If you're going to read this, you're going to get 100% truth; no bullshit, no sugar coating, no fairy tales.
I'll be playing most of my poker at Capitol Cardroom, located in downtown Sac. The most likely stakes will be 4/8-Full Kill, 6/12-Full kill, and maybe some NL sprinkled in if it looks like the games are good. Cap is the most likely option because of location (about a 10 minute drive from my place), great food, fantastic dealers (lightning fast ftw), good action 24/7 (there's almost always a good game to be found) and i'm familiar with a majority of the floor, dealers and some of the players.
Other locations might include Cache Creek and Lucky Derby. Cache is home to my favorite 4/8-kill game of all time, as the players are much more loose/passive than your average Capitol player. I'm assuming that's because you get a lot more pure gamblers wandering to the poker room from the nearby casino slots and pit; at Capitol most people are there to play cards.
Derby has a decent 5/10 full kill Omaha 8 or better game I liked to play back in the day, but the game was pretty slow and you'd get a lot of regs playing at times. Back when I went card dead in that game, it felt like eternal damnation. Though a few times the games were REALLY GOOD, like crazy goooot, so it might be worth a look if I'm ever in the area.
My short term goal for this new build is to play solid, fundamental poker. I want to make as many good decisions as I possibly can then let the results figure themselves out from there. I've played and studied LHE for a little over seven years now, so all the correct decisions should be somewhere in my brain, now it's just up to me to execute them.
Look for a few new updates this week, as I'll go back the last couple of weeks and talk about some sessions I've had and some big pots I've been involved in. That's all for now, thanks for reading, and it feels good to be back and excited about poker again.
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