Thursday, October 09, 2008
Smack Down in O-Town
So I put the smackdown, as predicted, on the Canadians at the Great Blue Heron Casino (just north of Oshawa Ontario).
The game was 5/10 limit holdem. I bought in for $100 and double up on my first hand when I was dealt pocket Aces in the SB. I found my self going to the flop 7 handed with 14 small bets in the pot. I kept betting and betting until I finally had to showdown my hand. Pretty cool.
Next Hand I get dealt 10-10. Same routine. This time, I turn trips after a flop of 9-7-3, but loose to a guy 8-10.
Other than that, I just played really tight and really agressive and things broke my way for once.
I won $594 Canadian which is like $635 in real money. Whoooo Hoooooo!
One interesting hand I lost went like this.
I'm dealt Qd-10d in middle position. After it's folded to me, I raise. A guy on the button calls as do the blinds. The flop comes Ax-Qx-9x. The blinds check, I bet, the button calls, one blind calls. The turn is a 5 making the board Ax-Qx-9x-5x. I have 2nd pair. It goes check around. The river is a 6 making the board Ax-Qx-9x-5x-6x. It goes check around. Everyone tables their hands.
I look but don't see an Ace anywhere. Ok, cool! I look but don't see a Queen anywhere. Ok. Cool! I start to lick my chops expecting the dealer to push the pot my way. I even get my one white chip toke loaded up. But alas, the guy on the button held 5s-6s for 2 pair an wins the pot.
It takes me a second, and I kind of had to think out loud, but...."WHAT?" I ask him, "when you called the bet on the flop, what where you hoping to hit?" He had no pair, no draw, and 2 under cards.
They play a very intersting style of poker in Canada.
The game was 5/10 limit holdem. I bought in for $100 and double up on my first hand when I was dealt pocket Aces in the SB. I found my self going to the flop 7 handed with 14 small bets in the pot. I kept betting and betting until I finally had to showdown my hand. Pretty cool.
Next Hand I get dealt 10-10. Same routine. This time, I turn trips after a flop of 9-7-3, but loose to a guy 8-10.
Other than that, I just played really tight and really agressive and things broke my way for once.
I won $594 Canadian which is like $635 in real money. Whoooo Hoooooo!
One interesting hand I lost went like this.
I'm dealt Qd-10d in middle position. After it's folded to me, I raise. A guy on the button calls as do the blinds. The flop comes Ax-Qx-9x. The blinds check, I bet, the button calls, one blind calls. The turn is a 5 making the board Ax-Qx-9x-5x. I have 2nd pair. It goes check around. The river is a 6 making the board Ax-Qx-9x-5x-6x. It goes check around. Everyone tables their hands.
I look but don't see an Ace anywhere. Ok, cool! I look but don't see a Queen anywhere. Ok. Cool! I start to lick my chops expecting the dealer to push the pot my way. I even get my one white chip toke loaded up. But alas, the guy on the button held 5s-6s for 2 pair an wins the pot.
It takes me a second, and I kind of had to think out loud, but...."WHAT?" I ask him, "when you called the bet on the flop, what where you hoping to hit?" He had no pair, no draw, and 2 under cards.
They play a very intersting style of poker in Canada.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Savage Beat Down
So I went to Greektown and took savage beat after beat. I kept my cool, kept plucking away and steadily slid backwards to the tune of $300 playing 3/6 kill Omaha/Holdem Round by Round.
It really sucked. I thought I had the mental make up to readily accept other player's "curious" plays that cost me huge pots. And by "curious", I mean donkish.
However, it really got to me during this session. First, the dealers at GT are ungodly bad. I know it's probably not fair to generalize this broadly; however, there are enough of the bad ones to over-compensate for the few that are mediocre. The dealer's put me on tilt.
Then, there was this one really bad player that went on such a sick run of cards that I started to belive that it was my personal challenge in life to outplay him. When we started playing 5 handed, I was dealt so many naked Aces in position against him in hold'em that I thought the deck must be defective. I lost every hand. He outflopped me hand, after hand, after hand. He single handedly moved about $100 from my stack. Then, I moved tables and lost with a set of Aces vs. a guy who caught a gutter ball despite my uber-agression. Then, I lost my last buyin with AK on a K-10-3 board against a guy holding 8-9.
I'm sick.
But, I'm coming back tonight. I'm a gonna put the smack-down on the Canadians in Oshawa.
It really sucked. I thought I had the mental make up to readily accept other player's "curious" plays that cost me huge pots. And by "curious", I mean donkish.
However, it really got to me during this session. First, the dealers at GT are ungodly bad. I know it's probably not fair to generalize this broadly; however, there are enough of the bad ones to over-compensate for the few that are mediocre. The dealer's put me on tilt.
Then, there was this one really bad player that went on such a sick run of cards that I started to belive that it was my personal challenge in life to outplay him. When we started playing 5 handed, I was dealt so many naked Aces in position against him in hold'em that I thought the deck must be defective. I lost every hand. He outflopped me hand, after hand, after hand. He single handedly moved about $100 from my stack. Then, I moved tables and lost with a set of Aces vs. a guy who caught a gutter ball despite my uber-agression. Then, I lost my last buyin with AK on a K-10-3 board against a guy holding 8-9.
I'm sick.
But, I'm coming back tonight. I'm a gonna put the smack-down on the Canadians in Oshawa.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Poker Room Review - Argosy
So I made a pact with myself that I would'nt blog again until the Huskers had some sort of big win or until I had a winning session at poker.
So I went to Cincinatti a couple weeks back and decided to try out the local gambling scene. They have some casinos about 25 minutes away in some back-water towns in nearby Indiana.
I went to a Riverboat casino call "Argosy". The poker room was surpisingly nice. It had about 17 tables. They were spreading NL 1-3 blinds 300 max through 5-10blinds no max. They also spread some limit games and a 5/10 Omaha8 game. Actually, the whole casino was pretty nice. It's kind of impressive what they can do on a riverboat.
I got on the list for the Omaha 8 game. I was about 6th in line.
While I waited, I played 3/6 limit. I played that game for 5 hours and a seat never came open on the O8 game - I guess it was kind of popular.
Good news. I won $115 at the limit holdem game. I hate to say it, but I think I'm really starting to figure out some pretty good strategies for this low stakes, no-foldem game.
In reality, there is no-foldem preflop, but people fold alot after the flop.
Some keys for me.
1) don't play suited-connectors (i.e., 9h-10h) and little pocket pairs in early position. These hands are garbage. There are just no implied odds when playing limit poker.
2) try to open raise most (~75%) of the pots you play.
3) Go ahead and make really thin value bets on the river - you get called a lot with worse hands
4) Identify the "bluffables" vs. "non-bluffables" and stick with your reads.
5) The sick drawouts are the price you have to pay to play with people who will call mutiple bets chasing a backdoor flush draws or calling with one overcard hoping to hit.
So I went to Cincinatti a couple weeks back and decided to try out the local gambling scene. They have some casinos about 25 minutes away in some back-water towns in nearby Indiana.
I went to a Riverboat casino call "Argosy". The poker room was surpisingly nice. It had about 17 tables. They were spreading NL 1-3 blinds 300 max through 5-10blinds no max. They also spread some limit games and a 5/10 Omaha8 game. Actually, the whole casino was pretty nice. It's kind of impressive what they can do on a riverboat.
I got on the list for the Omaha 8 game. I was about 6th in line.
While I waited, I played 3/6 limit. I played that game for 5 hours and a seat never came open on the O8 game - I guess it was kind of popular.
Good news. I won $115 at the limit holdem game. I hate to say it, but I think I'm really starting to figure out some pretty good strategies for this low stakes, no-foldem game.
In reality, there is no-foldem preflop, but people fold alot after the flop.
Some keys for me.
1) don't play suited-connectors (i.e., 9h-10h) and little pocket pairs in early position. These hands are garbage. There are just no implied odds when playing limit poker.
2) try to open raise most (~75%) of the pots you play.
3) Go ahead and make really thin value bets on the river - you get called a lot with worse hands
4) Identify the "bluffables" vs. "non-bluffables" and stick with your reads.
5) The sick drawouts are the price you have to pay to play with people who will call mutiple bets chasing a backdoor flush draws or calling with one overcard hoping to hit.
