JJ's Blog

Not the best Mother’s Day experience this year.

On Friday, I got the call that the new “family truckster” that I had ordered had arrived and that I could make arrangements to go pick it up. We ordered a new Saturn Relay. I know, I know – it’s a minivan. But, it’s new! We get to turn in the old one. That should be some cause for happiness, right? Anyway, right after the salesman called me to tell me it was ready, my wife called me in a bit of a panic. Apparently, as she was driving down the road, someone hurled a rock toward our old van and it blew out the passenger side window. So I get to pay $250 to have the window replaced just days before I turned in the vehicle on a lease exchange. Bad beat!

On Friday night – poker debacle of major proportions. More to come on this.

On Saturday, went bowling. Got beat by my 14 year old son. Bad beat! (although I did strike out, XXX, in the last frame of the first game to salvage a 136 score).

On Sunday, the flowers that I ordered for my wife (that arrived on Saturday), started dieing. I order from Pro-flowers because Mike Greenberg (of Mike & Mike in the morning fame) recommended them on his morning radio show. The strongest appeal was the “direct from the growers” and these were the “longest lasting flowers” available. They weren’t! The drooping roses were symbolic of the entire weekend. (Complaint letter to Pro Flowers)

On Sunday afternoon, I thought I would do a nice thing and get lunch for the fam. No making the wife cook on Mother’s day! The wife selected Boston Market carry out. It was a really bad experience. (Complaint letter to Boston Market)

Piston’s loose!

Now, onto the poker from Friday night.

I had my 2^nd worst session performance on record. I lost $400. That’s not the bad part. The bad part is that this comes from a playing a 6 hour session of $3/$6 limit poker. To state the obvious, this is a loss of 67 big bets in 6 hours. Given that I should have been making around 4 or 5 big bets/hr, this was a major debacle. This was a meltdown session of epic proportions – a complete sham, a travesty, a mockery. It was a traves-sham-ockery.

Actually, I had a good time, but I just kept loosing and loosing. We were playing 8 handed 7 card stud. The table featured 1 or 2 good players, 2 or 3 average players, and 2 or 3 slightly below average players. I should have been able to make a little money.

After the first few hours of loosing, I’d just re-comitt mentally to playing good. But, after the last few hours of loosing, I was transformed into a calling station on 3^rd street, then trying to outplay people more from 4^th street onward. But I also played a little passive (i.e., checking my big draws instead of betting them).

Anyway, the only way to loose this much money at these limits is to combine playing like a donkey and being card dead. I was in championship form on both of these fronts.

One observation I had about this particular game was the amount of betting on the river. Most 7 card stud games I’ve been involved with, there is little betting on the river unless someone has a hammer lock. My experience is that there is very little bluffing on river and very little value betting with marginal hands (i.e, 1 pair or a smallish 2 pair – 10’s up. ). I think this due impart to the size of the pot on the river. With an extra betting round and the antes - compared to hold'em, the river bluff bet doesn't seem to be as effective because the pots are a little larger. In this particular game though, almost every river was bet. I think this was because people didn’t really know how to properly value their hand. Almost every pot was 3 handed or more, and the overcalling was rampant.

The Donk Bet

I’ve heard a few of my collegues refer to a “donk” bet. I haven’t really asked for the definition, but from experience, a “donk” bet seems like a bet on the river where the bettor doesn’t really know if they are making a value bet or a bluff. There's no real purpose to the donk bet. Its more of a curiosity bet (i.e., I wonder what will happen if I bet here?). The bettor just sort of fires a bet out there and hopes something good comes out of it. This is the “donk” bet.

On this one particular hand of stud, I held a (8x-10x) – 9x. As I looked around at door cards, I saw 3 of my “first order” cards were dead (two 7’s and a J). I also found 2 of my “2^nd order” cards were dead (one Queen and one 6). Ordinarily, I don’t want to play a middle straight draw unless my cards are live or there are few/no overcards on the board. In this particular hand, there were both overcards (3 of them) and my 3 of my cards were dead. This should be an easy fold. But, it’s limped around to me in 4 spots and I'm playing like a donkey, so I peel a card off for $1 (bring in amount). After a Kh-4h checks, a lady in seat 8 opens with a Jx-10x. I caught a 10 so my board reads (8x-10x) - 9x-10x. I decide to call one small bet here. I’m getting about 7:1, but I’m afraid I’m sharing cards with the lady that bet out. The guy with the Kh-4h calls and we are headed to 5^th street 3 handed.

The guy catches what looks like a brick (6x). His board reads Kh-4h-6x. The lady catches a somewhat scarey card (8x). Her board reads Jx-10x-8x. I catch an 8. My board now reads (8x-10x) - 9x-10x-8x. I’ve got a pretty good hand. I’m open ended (but only 5 outs), plus I have 2 outs for a full house.

I don’t really know how to figure odds in stud, but with 7 outs, I figured that I’m about 25% to catch a good card with 2 to come. The dilemma was that I could catch a good card (to make a straight) and loose to 2 better hands (the lady with the higher straight and the guy with the flush).

Anyway, the guy with the K high checks. The lady bets. I continue my donkish play and call. He calls and we’re off to 6^th street. There is about 8 big bets in the pot. The guy catches another brick Kh-4h-6x-Qx. The lady catches a brick Jx-10x-8x-2x. I catch a brick (8x-10x) - 9x-10x-Xx. It’s checked all around.

The river is dealt. I catch another brick. I have 2 pair 10s up (8x-10x) - 9x-10x-Xx (Xx).

The King high is still in the lead and checks. The lady looks uncomfortable about her decision. So I offer a suggestion, “don’t donk here”. She bets anyway and I say something like “Oh no, she donked it”.

In retrospect, this was a sort of social faux paux. I’ve never played with her before and I’m guessing that most of the players I was playing with had not heard of/used the term “donk bet”. So they must have interrupted my comments as something like, “she’s a donkey”. Clearly, these are two different messages. I apologized later for the insulting comment, but I wasn’t getting any love and the bad karma insued.

Anyway, I fold. The pot is laying me about 10:1 here, but clearly I’m beat here. Right? The guy with the King calls – which makes me feel better. Amazingly, he called with 2 pair 6s and 4s and takes the pot after the lady showed a single pair of jacks.

Now, I’m a little steamed. I start chanting a lesson of limit poker in my head, “there is no bigger mistake than to fold a winning hand for a single bet into a large pot on the river”, “there is no bigger mistake than to fold a winning hand for a single bet into a large pot on the river”, “there is no bigger mistake than to fold a winning hand for a single bet into a large pot on the river”

Ok. I’ve learned my lesson. This was a $50 mistake. I will not make this mistake twice.

About 30 minutes later I got involved in a hand that played out very similarly. I was last to act on the river in a 3 handed pot. It is check around to me (first by the lady from the hand above followed by a solid player to my right). I have Kings up and would generally check it down here and expect to win a nice pot. From the way the hand played out, I’m fairly certain my hand is good. But I start to remember another lesson of limit poker, “success in limit poker is achieved by winning an extra bet here/there and not paying off an extra bet here/there.”

So, I thought I’d try a value bet here. I might get called by someone who smelled this last bet as a desperation move to bluff at the pot. So, I bet.

What do you know? I’m check raised by the lady who checked the river from the first position. I want to puke! This lady is so straight forward. There is almost no way in hell that she pulls this move as a bluff. I’m 100% certain this is no bluff. Then, I start to recall my earlier mistake above of folding a winning hand into a large pot for a single bet. So I make the agonizing call and muck my cards when she shows down three 9s. This turned out to be a $12 mistake as compared to the $50 mistake from above.

I proceeded to play equally bad for the rest of the evening.

Finally, we played shorted handed round-by-round. I thought I might have a small advantage as we played games like Razz and Omaha hi/lo with some players asking questions like, “what is the best possible hand here?" So I stuck around a little longer.

I lost the rest of my money before sulking and heading home for the night.

What a debacle.

Oh, well. I guess I can always play some golf to lift my spirits.

# posted by Jon J : 8:47 AM