Saturday, December 30, 2006
Revenge of the 3s
Two nights earlier, I was beaten senseless with 3s. Tonight, I’ll get my revenge with those damn 3s.
On this Friday night, I’m hosting the poker game. I really enjoy the shit out of hosting. I don’t have to drive anywhere. I don’t have to worry about playing too late, etc.. The Pistons are on the TV. I can enjoy a beer or two. Plus, it’s a nice set-up for a home game,….if I must say so myself.
Anyway, we started playing 11 handed Pot Limit Hold’Em/Omaha round by round with $1/$1 blinds with $100 max buy-in. I won a few small hands. Then, I won a pretty big hand ($160) when I flopped top set (Queens) in Omaha, a big bet the turn, and checked the river when the board showed a broadway straight possibility. I was up about $100 in the first hour.
Then, as more players arrived, we split into 2 tables. One table continued with the PL Hold’Em/Omaha round x round. The other table spread H.O.R.S.E. – which is a limit game where the game cycles between 5 popular poker games on every rotation of the deal (Hold’Em, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, and Stud 8).
So I played $2/$4 H.O.R.S.E. 6 handed game. It was really fun. All 6 of the players were solid. This would be no cake-walk. Play was pretty aggressive (many pots were raised preflop, check-raising, etc…), but it was not maniacal. Most people would use pretty good judgment. I think the biggest mistake people made (including myself) was to chase draws a little too far.
I think I played pretty good, but nothing exceptional. I must have had some good cards or something because before I knew it, I was up another $200 playing this low limit game.
Then, as players busted, we combined to one table again and played $1/$1 blinds NL Hold’Em and $1/$1 PL Omaha round x round. I got some sort of “special exception” to bring my approx $400 into this $100 max buy-in game. This gave me a bit of an advantage, but I think players viewed this as more of an opportunity for them as opposed to an advantage for me.
Before I get to the “revenge of the 3’s” hand, I have to say I ran pretty hot here too. I was catching some cards. But, this was one of the only times like I felt that I was getting some control of the table. I felt for a while like I was able to manipulate some players into making mistakes. I felt for a while like I was controlling how big/small the pot was going to be. It was kind of cool. I guess that just goes to show how catching cards can improve your skill as a player. Ha!
Anyway, on this one hand of NLHE, 3 players limp. I find a 2h 3h in middle position, so I call. Behind me, a somewhat short-stacked player who had been playing pretty tight raises to $7 and much to my disappointment it’s folded back to me. This player has about $75 behind. I make a pretty bad call on the flop. I really want to play this hand, even for a raise, but only if it has the potential to really score when it connects. What I mean by really score, is win a $150 pot.Anyway, the flop comes with X-3x-4x. I check. Moneymaker makes a decent bet ($10?) into this $15 pot. Now, I start thinking about Karma and shit like that. So I call with my bottom pair of 3’s. I have 5 outs to potentially win all of Moneymaker’s stack if he is holding a big pair.
The turn card comes another 3. Perfect! Talk about friggen’ karma. I thought about leading out here, but I thought this might give just too much info. If I had to do it all over again, I’d lead out here and build a bigger pot. Anyway, I check and Moneymaker checks behind. Damn!
The pot now has around $35 I think. The river is a blank. The board reads X-3x-4x-3-X with no card higher than a 10. I decided to make a pretty decent bet and hope he goes all in. I bet $40. He deliberates for a short time and calls. I show my 2-3 suited and am somewhat embarrassed to have busted Moneymakers pocket Aces with this trashy little hand.
So in the end, I get a little back by playing with the 3s. As it turns out this is really a good lesson NL play. Preflop hand values are really not all that important in NL. Hand values are really determined by how much money they can win post flop. A pair of 4s has more potential to win a monster pot than a pair of Kings. Kings will frequently and routinely win a nice small pot. A pair of 4’s will infrequently but occasionally win a monster. I just want to win 2 of those monster pots each session. In this case, a 2-3 suited is completely live cards, suited, and can bust the shit out of a player if the long shot comes through, but all the conditions need to be favorable.
My mistake was thinking that I could get all of Moneymaker’s stack. He’s just too good of a player to make that mistake, so my evaluation of implied odds was faulty. Plus, he didn’t have that much behind. So this time, I played it oh so wrong, but it turned out oh so right.
So I end up $450 for the night. That’ll take the sting off of the debacle from 2 nights ago.
