JJ's Blog

Can you believe it? A guy with a gambling problem, Tim Donaghy – Former NBA Official, tried to get an edge in sports betting by providing insider information to his sports betting colleagues. It’s alleged that he may have even bet on games that he was officiating and, worse part, may have attempted to change the outcome of the game with his whistle.

The most amazing part of this story is that intelligent people are surprised by this. It’s pretty sad. But, surprising? No!

This is like being surprised that a cashier at the local department store is caught skimming money from the till, or that the treasurer of the local PTA is caught skimming a few bucks out of the bake sale proceeds. Opportunity + desperation = criminal. Not real surprising!

Now here’s a surprise. I’m coming off back-to-back winning poker sessions. This is very refreshing and, as of late, rare. I forgot what it felt like to win two times in a row.

First session – cash game. $1/$2 H.O.R.S.E. with a kill (plays $2/$4 about 50% of the time). No key hands to recap, but I do have on key observation. I think a player can be successful at HORSE if they are just a decent player at all of the games and avoid playing like a donkey at any of them. I’ve really started to noticed that when we play the Hold’Em round, the whole table shifts from passive, straight forward, check calling players to creative, aggressive, check-raising, 3-betting players. It makes the Hold’Em round a pretty tough round. Then, when we switch to Stud or Razz, I see so many of these same players revert back to check/calling all the way chasing long shot draws. So, maybe the key to winning at HORSE is to make solid call/raise decisions on every single street of every single round. It doesn’t matter if you’re the 3rd best player at the table on every single round, just as long as you’re not the donkey on any of the rounds.

Second session - $80 NLHE tournament (14 players). 8800 in starting chips. After the tournament was over, I was driving home thinking to myself, “Man, I really had to work hard tonight”. It was a real grind. I had the worst run of cards ever. It wasn’t that I was dealt a cold deck. Instead, I was just dealt trash hands for most of the night (especially the final table). I wish I would have recorded my starting hands – trust me, it was unusually bad. In 5 hours of play I was dealt 2 pocket pairs (KK and 44) each time I raised and won the blinds. Whooopee! I was also dealt A-K twice. I won a small pot with one and I forget what happened with the other. So I was dealt 3 premium hands in 5 hours. Pitiful!

On one key hand in the first level, it was folded to me in the SB. I had A-2s and limped. The BB decided to raise his $100 blind to $300. I called. Flop was magic 2-2-8. This guy had recently bluffed off about 30% of his chips in the first blind level, so I was thinking I could stack him if held an overpair or A-K and was trying to “catch up”. I check the flop. He bets $400 into a $600 pot. I call. Turn is a blank. The board reads 2-2-8-10. I check. Setting the trap. He bets $600 into a $1400 pot. I make a little bit of large check raise and make it $2400 (4x) mainly based on the fact that I know this guy doesn’t like to be bluffed. He calls. The pot now has $6200. The river is a blank. The board reads 2-2-8-10-6. I bet $3000. He calls. I show. He mucks. I think I really extracted max value from this hand. Kudos to me for playing a hand good for once.

Later, on the 2nd level, I was dealt a little mini-run of aces (A-8s, A-10, A-Q, A-K, A-K). Each time, I raised preflop and cleared the blinds and limpers. One of these hands, the player to my right made a 3x raise before I made a 3x re-raise with AK. He folded.

This little run combined with my big pot won off of Scott Smith and a few successful steal attempts has me headed to the final table with the chip lead (~27K).

At the final table, I did the right thing and started folding all of my trash hands. I folded and folded. Occasionally, I’d try steal in middle/late position with one of my trash hands and get snapped off with a re-raise. My timing at the final table was horrible. One time Cobra limped with the medium/short stack with AA. I tried to steal by betting about 10% of my stack with a 3x raise and he forced me to fold preflop with a re-reraise. I’m glad he didn’t smooth call and let me catch a little something. I think I’d have gone broke.

On another key hand, I was in the SB with Q-9 (I think). I completed my small blind to $800 after 1 limper. The BB checks. It’s 3 handed to the flop. The flop comes 8-10-K. It’s 3 handed and checked around. The turn is a J. Board reads 8-10-K-J. I made my gut shot and am only loosing to only A-Q. I check. BB Checks. The original limper and solid player (Rock) with a medium stack, bets around $1500 into a pot of $2400. I call. BB folds. The river is a blank. The board reads 8-10-K-J-x. I thought the best way to make value here would be to make this look like a bluff. So, what is the best way to make this look like a bluff? One way, would be to push all in and shout, “I’m all in bitch – you can’t call!” Another way would be to make a larger than normal bet that smelled like a “I really don’t want a call here” bet. I bet $4000 into a pot of $5400. Rock makes a bad read and announces that “I’m probably making a bad call here” as he pushes about 2/3rds of his stack into the pot for a call. I declared my hand and he mucked. He didn’t show, but I’m sure he mucked a King.

I’m healthy again, but the blinds are creeping up, plus I have a very aggressive player (Jay) to my left who is stealing with some increasingly irritating regularity. A few hands later, I finish off Rock with my one suck-out of the night. He is really short and pushes all in for about 4x the big blind. I’m in the blind with Ac-8c and call. He shows pocket 10s – a surprisingly good hand. An ace hits the turn and I’m getting a little healthier via my moderate suck out.

We’re 3 handed. I’m on the short stack with 30k and facing an aggressive, good player to my left with 40k and more of a straight-forward, tight player to my right with about 50k. Papa Rock finishes off Jay when he raises all in and is called. Papa Rock has a gigantic draw - which he hits. So, I’m heads up with a 3:1 chip leader . I was really impressed by his all in push with a big draw after he had just been playing made hands most of the night.

I chop with Papa Rock for 2nd place money plus 25% of the difference which was a straight chip percentage difference.

Good times.