Friday, June 27, 2008
Buick Open
No poker for last weekend - or this weekend either (most likely).
I am going to the Buick open in Grand Blanc on Saturday. Should be fun. My son is getting into golf a little, so maybe this will pique his interests.
I am going to the Buick open in Grand Blanc on Saturday. Should be fun. My son is getting into golf a little, so maybe this will pique his interests.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
I feel so dirty
So make it 11 winning sessions is a row.
+$140 at the casino playing $5/$10 limit Omaha/Hold'em round-by-round and then +$30 at a home game playing $1/$2 limit mixed games on Friday night.
I played really bad in both sessions. As an example. At the casino, we were playing the Omaha round. Two big spenders from California just settled in and started straddling and raising....you know, really juicing up the game.
On this one particular hand I was in middle position. It was folded to me. One big spender was on the button, the other big spender was in the small blind , so I had my targets "locked in". I raised with 8x-8x-Jh-Ah. One late position player calls as does the big spender on the button.
The flop comes 3x-6x-7h. I check. LP player checks. The button bets. I make a gigantic donkish call reasoning that I had an overpair and a backdoor flush draw. Plus, I held 2 of the straight cards in my hand. Plus, I really figured the big spender to be putting me on a hand like AA or KK and he may be trying to run a bluff since he has position.
The late position player folds.
The turn brings the 10h making the board 3x-6x-7h-10h. I picked up the nut flush draw, so I check/call. If this guy is bluffing, he's not giving up. Maybe he has a hand after all. There are about 100 straights on the board right now. I guess he might have hit that flop.
The river is a thing of beauty, 2h for a board of 3x-6x-7h-10h-2h. I figured (correctly) that the big spender from California would not be one to miss a bet - and could not put me on running hearts to make a flush, so I check raised him on the river and score a nice pot.
He was incensed and started calling me names. I had to agree with him.
My opening raise was OK. The call on the flop was horrendous. The turn call was OK with the nut flush draw. The check on the river was horrible as well - luckily it worked for an extra bet.
I carried my bad play onto the home game, where I ended the night completing the straddle cap on several hands of Omaha 8OB. This is such a bad play. Think about it. When 3 players straddle, re-straddle, and cap-straddle, anyone with an average hand can call and take a flop.
This is exactly what happened. We'd end up taking the flops 6/7 handed with 24 to 28 small bets in the pot. Then, on the flop someone would bet, and everyone else was getting like 30:1 to make a call. I'm not sure there is a hand-to-board pairing that is a 30:1 underdog. So, everyone calls. Now on the turn, everyone is getting like 15:1 on a call (so even if you have like 3 outs to scoop, you are getting about the right price). It was mayhem.
Another cool hand was when we were playing 5 handed Omaha 8. I pickup AA28. I raise and am called. The flop comes 2-4-10. The other player bets out. I figure my AA might be good for high, and I had a bad emergency low draw. So I call. I'm not as scared to play bad lows when HU in Omaha8 (this may be a leak).
The turn comes 3 for a board of 2-4-10-3. Joel bets. I raise and tell him that I've already made a wheel. He says 'thanks' and mucks his hand face up. He held AA2X. I showed him my bluff. He is a little stunned that I would lie like that to steal the pot. When I start raking the pot, he is looking at me like I should chop it up and split it with him. So, I ask, "are you thinking I should chop this pot with you?". He says, "well yea, after all, you lied." (or something like that).
I didn't split the pot with him, but I felt a little guilty. That is until I started to think about it. Isn't lying and gamesmanship part of the fun?
+$140 at the casino playing $5/$10 limit Omaha/Hold'em round-by-round and then +$30 at a home game playing $1/$2 limit mixed games on Friday night.
I played really bad in both sessions. As an example. At the casino, we were playing the Omaha round. Two big spenders from California just settled in and started straddling and raising....you know, really juicing up the game.
On this one particular hand I was in middle position. It was folded to me. One big spender was on the button, the other big spender was in the small blind , so I had my targets "locked in". I raised with 8x-8x-Jh-Ah. One late position player calls as does the big spender on the button.
The flop comes 3x-6x-7h. I check. LP player checks. The button bets. I make a gigantic donkish call reasoning that I had an overpair and a backdoor flush draw. Plus, I held 2 of the straight cards in my hand. Plus, I really figured the big spender to be putting me on a hand like AA or KK and he may be trying to run a bluff since he has position.
The late position player folds.
The turn brings the 10h making the board 3x-6x-7h-10h. I picked up the nut flush draw, so I check/call. If this guy is bluffing, he's not giving up. Maybe he has a hand after all. There are about 100 straights on the board right now. I guess he might have hit that flop.
The river is a thing of beauty, 2h for a board of 3x-6x-7h-10h-2h. I figured (correctly) that the big spender from California would not be one to miss a bet - and could not put me on running hearts to make a flush, so I check raised him on the river and score a nice pot.
He was incensed and started calling me names. I had to agree with him.
My opening raise was OK. The call on the flop was horrendous. The turn call was OK with the nut flush draw. The check on the river was horrible as well - luckily it worked for an extra bet.
I carried my bad play onto the home game, where I ended the night completing the straddle cap on several hands of Omaha 8OB. This is such a bad play. Think about it. When 3 players straddle, re-straddle, and cap-straddle, anyone with an average hand can call and take a flop.
This is exactly what happened. We'd end up taking the flops 6/7 handed with 24 to 28 small bets in the pot. Then, on the flop someone would bet, and everyone else was getting like 30:1 to make a call. I'm not sure there is a hand-to-board pairing that is a 30:1 underdog. So, everyone calls. Now on the turn, everyone is getting like 15:1 on a call (so even if you have like 3 outs to scoop, you are getting about the right price). It was mayhem.
Another cool hand was when we were playing 5 handed Omaha 8. I pickup AA28. I raise and am called. The flop comes 2-4-10. The other player bets out. I figure my AA might be good for high, and I had a bad emergency low draw. So I call. I'm not as scared to play bad lows when HU in Omaha8 (this may be a leak).
The turn comes 3 for a board of 2-4-10-3. Joel bets. I raise and tell him that I've already made a wheel. He says 'thanks' and mucks his hand face up. He held AA2X. I showed him my bluff. He is a little stunned that I would lie like that to steal the pot. When I start raking the pot, he is looking at me like I should chop it up and split it with him. So, I ask, "are you thinking I should chop this pot with you?". He says, "well yea, after all, you lied." (or something like that).
I didn't split the pot with him, but I felt a little guilty. That is until I started to think about it. Isn't lying and gamesmanship part of the fun?
Friday, June 13, 2008
Good Run
So I’ve been on kind of a good run lately. If you let me have a pass on one session where I lost $2 at Greektown a few weeks back, I’ve had 9 winning sessions in a row. I gotta be honest, it feels pretty good. I think I may be starting to develop a misguided perception of my own abilities - kind a like the crank addict who thinks he’s indestructible….that is, until he tries to wrestle the 280 pound county sheriffs deputy in the parking lot at the corner Quickie Mart and gets cracked in the forehead with a steel police baton.
So now I’m sort of waiting around for my own poker version of getting cracked in the forehead.
Anyway…
This last weekend, I was a bachelor, sort of – the wife and kid went to Indy for a wedding. With all of this freedom, I decided to head to Greektown. After struggling for like an hour and a half to get there (the freeway was closed), I was finally able to get on a table. I won one big kill pot with top set in the first hour. Then, they kicked us off of the table to make room for the heartland poker tournament. So, I spent an hour and a half getting to the casino and an hour getting home. My payoff – 1 hour of play and up $62. Yipeee! Now I know why people play online poker.
Then, later that evening, I headed out to VanKeno’s for a home game. I haven’t played in a home tourney for a loooooong time. We played a $60 NLHE Heads up tourney. Since I got a first round bye for being such a skillful poker player, we played a cash game (NLHE $1 blinds) to start. I won a big pot off of Finkle when I woke up with A-A in the big blind. A late position player raised. I called as did Finkle. Ya da, ya da, ya da. We both spike sets and I win a stack. Then, I won a stack off of Boone when my AJ turns a boat vs. boons AQ (top trips with a Q kicker).
In the heads up tourney, I pull a the worst possible draw – a former champ, the black widow of poker. She disposes of me with little effort and in quick fashion. I dunno. I read a book on head’s up poker that said when you flop top pair, it’s the same as flopping a set in full ring. So when I flopped top pair against the black widow, she kept check-raising me and winning huge pots when I was out kicked.
Anyway in the cash game afterwards, I started off pretty hot. I played loose and wild and won some big pots. I was up to like $500 before I tightened way up (when the table started getting loose/wild). Then, I slid back to like $300 before calling it a night at 4a.
Here’s the JJ chart for your viewing pleasure.
So now I’m sort of waiting around for my own poker version of getting cracked in the forehead.
Anyway…
This last weekend, I was a bachelor, sort of – the wife and kid went to Indy for a wedding. With all of this freedom, I decided to head to Greektown. After struggling for like an hour and a half to get there (the freeway was closed), I was finally able to get on a table. I won one big kill pot with top set in the first hour. Then, they kicked us off of the table to make room for the heartland poker tournament. So, I spent an hour and a half getting to the casino and an hour getting home. My payoff – 1 hour of play and up $62. Yipeee! Now I know why people play online poker.
Then, later that evening, I headed out to VanKeno’s for a home game. I haven’t played in a home tourney for a loooooong time. We played a $60 NLHE Heads up tourney. Since I got a first round bye for being such a skillful poker player, we played a cash game (NLHE $1 blinds) to start. I won a big pot off of Finkle when I woke up with A-A in the big blind. A late position player raised. I called as did Finkle. Ya da, ya da, ya da. We both spike sets and I win a stack. Then, I won a stack off of Boone when my AJ turns a boat vs. boons AQ (top trips with a Q kicker).
In the heads up tourney, I pull a the worst possible draw – a former champ, the black widow of poker. She disposes of me with little effort and in quick fashion. I dunno. I read a book on head’s up poker that said when you flop top pair, it’s the same as flopping a set in full ring. So when I flopped top pair against the black widow, she kept check-raising me and winning huge pots when I was out kicked.
Anyway in the cash game afterwards, I started off pretty hot. I played loose and wild and won some big pots. I was up to like $500 before I tightened way up (when the table started getting loose/wild). Then, I slid back to like $300 before calling it a night at 4a.
Here’s the JJ chart for your viewing pleasure.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Now that's Exciting Poker
So I headed down to Greektown this past weekend. Started playing NL. Moved to 3/6 when a seat opened up. I won $140. Whoooo Hoooo!
Only problem, is that I made a 50/50 deal with a friend that I went with. He lost $300, so not such a good night after all.
My table was really really juiced up when this drunk, greek chick sat down and started really donking it up. She won 6 hands in a row. When you win 2 in a row at this game, the stakes double. $3/$6 becomes $6/$12. It's really important to win the hands you play at the higher stakes if you want to have a productive session. She accumlated about $400 in profit within the first 20 minutes.
On one hand, we were 6 handed. It is a kill pot. I raise from the button with Q-9 suited. I have 4 callers. The flop comes 7-8-9. It's checked to me. I bet. Just the drunk chick calls. The turn is a 4. Check-bet-call. The river is a 2. Bet-call. She shows 4-2 for a running 2 pair. Wow!
I get my revenge though as I personally remove about 2/3rds of her stack.
But I got to tell ya, the most exciting poker action happened this Wed night when I sweated my poker buddy, Russ Harriman, from Clarkston over the internet as he played at the final table of the $1500 pot limit holdem World Series bracelet event in Las Vegas.
http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/updates.asp?tid=4897&grid=411
Exciting chit! Go Russ!
Only problem, is that I made a 50/50 deal with a friend that I went with. He lost $300, so not such a good night after all.
My table was really really juiced up when this drunk, greek chick sat down and started really donking it up. She won 6 hands in a row. When you win 2 in a row at this game, the stakes double. $3/$6 becomes $6/$12. It's really important to win the hands you play at the higher stakes if you want to have a productive session. She accumlated about $400 in profit within the first 20 minutes.
On one hand, we were 6 handed. It is a kill pot. I raise from the button with Q-9 suited. I have 4 callers. The flop comes 7-8-9. It's checked to me. I bet. Just the drunk chick calls. The turn is a 4. Check-bet-call. The river is a 2. Bet-call. She shows 4-2 for a running 2 pair. Wow!
I get my revenge though as I personally remove about 2/3rds of her stack.
But I got to tell ya, the most exciting poker action happened this Wed night when I sweated my poker buddy, Russ Harriman, from Clarkston over the internet as he played at the final table of the $1500 pot limit holdem World Series bracelet event in Las Vegas.
http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/updates.asp?tid=4897&grid=411
Exciting chit! Go Russ!
