I mentioned on BSR Friday night that I hadn’t played at Mirage in awhile, and it put it in my head, so I made a return. I also made a return to ABC poker, and grinded out a small win. I limped/check-raised the field once with KK and got it all-in with a marginal holding once, but I knew I was ahead. I’ve been playing online today, grinding the micro sngs. Tomorrow, I’ve got a Monday meeting I’m excited about, and then back to the live tables.
I did BSR and then stayed at home last night, so I’ll give you a hand from Thursday night. I had a bad night and got my soul crushed. In the middle of the night, however, I compounded it by giving away money.
I’m in the bb and have 23o. MP dumby raises to 7. A few callers, I call. Flop 445. I check, Austin checks, dumby bets 20, folds to me. He may have an overpair or overcards, but he doesn’t have a 4, 5, or AA, and obviously chances of 66 are slim. I call, Austin folds, and it’s HU to the turn of a Q. I check, dumby actually checks, and now I know this pot is mine. River is the 7c, putting three clubs on the board. I start to count out my bet when dumby shows me the Tc and asks if I have a higher flush. After a few seconds, I check, thinking he has the flush and is calling. Fucking dumb. My hand has zero showdown value. If he has the flush, he’s calling, but if he doesn’t, he’s not. I just gave away about 80 bucks. Call it a penalty for stupidity.
Bryan “The Icon” Micon stopped by our meeting this afternoon. Really nice guy and good poker thoughts.
I then proceeded to the V, and then Harrah’s. Thought I’d share a hand.
I’ve been playing for almost an hour. About 20 minutes ago, a guy came into the game and proceeded to betbetbet. He lost money. He then went to another game. On the first hand after he left, I’m utg with Ac5c. I think the table is going to be happy to be done with his aggro and will let me limp. The only other candidate to raise with less than a premium holding is the sb, so either I’ll be done for 2 or have position if I put in more. I limp. foldfoldfold to regular player (a geriatric, but clean, wino) who limps, the big glasses chicano limps, and then the blinds limp. Yay. Flop Td8s7d. checkcheck to me, I over bet 15 (blinds don’t have a hand, old guy is ubertight, and Eduardo Hardy is playing scared short stack). Old man folds, LA Stylez insta-calls, the blinds fold. Turn As. hmmmm. I check. Bigsunglasses bets 35, leaving 21 back. Wheeeee. Ok, time to think. The first thought is that he must have something like AT, but more likely A8. I had him on diamonds however, so this doesn’t really make sense. I decide that he has exactly two diamond paints, so that he now has 12 outs. I’m not folding, so I put in the 56. He calls. Turn blank, I flip my A5, he acts disgusted, overly disgusted, and mucks, before leaving. Fistpump in my head. I’m the man.
Ok, since I put a hand out there I’m proud of, I’ll also type up a mistake. I’m in the sb with QJdd. I limp. There’s 6 of us. K84, 2 clubs, checks around. I’m asking for an offsuit ten. Boom. Offsuit ten. I now chicken out of leading, with the big bad plan of check/raising. Checks around. Ok, offsuit Ace, please. Boom. Offsuit Ace. Ok, now here’s my worst of multiple mistakes. I bet 10. Lady in mid-position is the only one to give me action, calling. I win. But, with this kind of hand in a 1/2 game, I need to bet more. Pot size doesn’t matter in this game. I should have at least bet 20, and probably 30. Making an extra 10 and saving an extra 10 here and there add up to a good hourly rate. Note to self: overbet nuts on river.
I’ll end with a hand I like. Bumpkin in a poker shirt (whose bumpkin friend is styling in a sleeveless shirt) raises to 7 pre. I’m in late position, two callers to me, I have 5h4h, I call. Blinds call. 6 to the flop of Qh8h4d. Wheeeeeee. checkcheck to bumpkin who bets 10, foldfold to me, I raise to 45. foldfold to him. He shows his bumpkin friend his hand. This is key to me, because it means he has JJ (maybe TT) and is going to fold. He calls. Turn 8c. He checks, I shove for 113, he folds.
I got a little tired early tonight, so that’s it. I’ll be back to the grind tomorrow. Not sure if I’m going to watch the hockey game 7s and the bball game 6s first or what, but I’ll post again when I get home tomorrow night.
I played for awhile at Venetian tonight. I have been avoiding it, but it really is my favorite room.
Then, I went down to get a couple hours at Harrah’s. Soon after sitting down, the Crazy Asian moves from the 1 to the 4 (I’m in the 5). He goes on and on with the 3 seat about a hand they played where they both had AA. Whatever. I donk off some chips, put another 100 on the table (started with 2, now in for 3 with about 240 in front of me). I limp with 64, then call a raise to 10 from the blinds since I will be last to act. On the flop of Q58, it checks to Crazy Asian who bets 20. I call with the plan to float and get away if someone else check/raises. Sure enough, it gets HU and he checks after the 9 hits the turn. btw, I don’t float much, but he had been firing a lot, so his bet doesn’t = strength. I like and don’t like his check. Specifically, I’m a little worried about JT or him getting stubborn with a Q. I bet 30. He calls. River pairs the 9. He checks. I bet the c-note that I had put on the table. He sighs and folds. I have no idea if he even had a pair, but I feel better now. A few hands later, almost the same situation comes up. I again have 46, this time clubs, and limp, call a raise from the blinds because I have position. Flop Ts7c3c. It checks to Crazy Asian, who bets 40. I raise to 120. I’m happy taking it down now, but also ok getting it in. It folds to him, and he sighs and folds again. Sweet. About 30 seconds later, I turn to him and start to let him know that I’m not attacking him, just getting cards. I can’t finish my sentence before he starts shaking and saying he didn’t talk to me, why am I…? I hold up my hand and say whoa. He then raises his voice about not even talking to me, and while trembling picks up/scatters his chips. Wow. He leaves. Wow. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen anyone that mad.
Well, the Mavs lost. One of my drivers is out of the race. I’m recording the CHI/VAN game. I’m onlined out. Time to go play some live poker.
Send me lucky vibes. Thanks in advance.
Dave got tickets last minute to DMB at MGM, so no poker tonight (although I have been doing ok in the super turbos on ftp).
I do, however, have a hand I didn’t share last night. It was part of the blur when I posted, but it’s been running through my head today.
I start the hand with about 180, and all three villains have me covered. I’m in the BB. utg dumb Marine guy raises to 6. utg +1 young, but not overly aggressive asian calls (he’s the only player on the table that knows what he’s doing). utg+2 bandaged face guy calls, middle aged asian guy who’s up about 500 as he’s taught us all repeatedly that you should never fold top pair calls, and I call with J5dd.
Flop 8d5h4d. sb checks. I want to get all-in on the flop, unless it becomes clear that someone has exactly 67. I might be able to check raise, but I don’t want it to check around. I bet 15. utg initial raiser drops, but the other three all just call. Fuck. Turn Kc. Fuck. sb checks. I check. asian kid checks. bandaged face guy bets 25. This could mean a lot of things, as he’s been playing about as weird as you would expect a guy with multiple face bandages to play. But, he’s not an idiot. sb calls. I’m not scared of him. If he had a K, or even an 8, I would know it by now. I’m worried about the asian kid and the bandageman. So, I just call. I think I have to check raise there, probably all-in. It’s going to be hard for anyone with even two pair to call. I don’t see a set folding, but a set seems weird. At the time, I gave too much weight to a possible flopped joint, not to mention I was scared of a higher flush draw. asian kid folds. 2s hits the river and it checks around. weird dude wins with Q8o. Awesome. I think my analysis may be off because I now know how weak they were, but I definitely played the hand poorly.
In my first hour, I was dealt QQ three times and KK once. I flopped sets and two pair. I turned and rivered a flush and a couple other two pairs. I hit more cards in an hour than I can remember. And, I lost over $200. That was followed by being card dead, having second best, missing draws, etc. I “think” I lost a lot less tonight than most people would, but it’s hard to be objective when you get cockpunched like I did. Hopefully, I’ll be back with a better report tomorrow.
I’m back from Dallas. My class is now over. I’m out of the workout bet. I have no responsibilities, so I will be playing more often. At least until I run out of money. So, I should also be posting regularly again.
I parked at Bally’s last night, walked through and then all the way down to Harrah’s. Harrah’s games didn’t look good, so all the way back to Bally’s I go. I ended up playing for almost 8 hours. This was the first time in a long time that I went in at night and came out with the sun up. But, when the morning shift of old, clean men started to arrive, I figured it was time to go.
I love poker (although as I write this I just took a dumb beat where I somehow got my money in as a 4 to 1 favorite in PLO).
I thought I’d tell you about a hand (and, fortunately for you, not the one where I took a beat as a huge favorite for a $300 pot).
I’m in the sb. I often don’t bother looking at my cards in the sb, but in this instance, an early position player decided to put 15 white chips into the pot. So, I look. JJ. The drunk Englishman and the hard-partying local called the 15 in late position, and then the slowrolling Asian on the button did, too. I had stacked off to the Frenchy earlier, so I’m now in for 600. Fortunately, through my genius play, I’m back up to over 400. Ok, so there’s 60 of dead money in the pot. Chinaman has me covered. The two drinkers have about 150 and about 300. I am a little worried that the initial raiser could have a better hand, but he’s the only one. And, he’s been raising almost any Ace, so I’m well ahead of his range. So, I decide not to smooth call and see this flop 5 ways. If I raise enough to put the raiser all-in (he’s got less than 100 left), I open myself up to playing a huge pot OOP with a vulnerable hand where I’m committed. I decide to isolate, and go all-in. I’m allowing the other decent stacks to play correctly, but I’m ok with that. My plan works, as raiser calls and the other three fold. I say “well, that was my intention, now I just have to get lucky” and flip my jacks. Raisercallerman groans and mucks when the cards are run out. I win. Thoughts?