OK, I just put in back-to-back 8-hour sessions of no-limit hold'em at Lucky Chances. Gross. Long story short, Saturday night was an uneventful session, and I ended up losing my initial $200 buyin. Not a huge deal, but it felt like a long waste of time.
Sunday night, things went well. I bought in for $100 and ended up with $600. Lots of crazy poker played at that table. Insane bluffs. Wild moves. And strange hands. But it was a blast.
At one point I had my stack up to $600, and as I was gettin' ready to pack up for the night, I flop top 2 pair. Anyway, I end up putting two opponents all in and it turns out one of them flopped a set of 3s. Bam, suddenly, my stack is back to $200. But with a couple of aggressive plays at huge pots against an insane tournament player, I was back up to $600 within 45 minutes or so. I decided I'd been on the rollercoaster long enough, and called it a night.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Another Little Win - Colma
Starting to get back into the habit of actually winning every once in awhile. After our little agency casino ferry outing today, I jumped in the car and headed off to Lucky Chances. Figured I had a good 4 hours to kill before pickin' up the girl. Anyway, I only stayed for 3 hours, but they were good ones.
Got to the 6-12 table and immediately sniffed out the fish (thank god it wasn't me this time). It was obvious to everyone that this guy was just not a card player. Big, beer-buzzed dude who played like a crazy person. I got a coupla chances to isolate him one-on-one, and took three decent-sized pots off him. He would constantly jam the pot with hands like 2nd pair, small kicker. And when he held a solid hand, he tended to get timid. Weird.
Anyway, throughout the night I was able to pick up nice little pots with my solid hands, and a coupla HUGE multi-way pots with sneaky suited connectors. A good coupla hours turned $200 into $620. Winning is fun. I hope to do more.
Got to the 6-12 table and immediately sniffed out the fish (thank god it wasn't me this time). It was obvious to everyone that this guy was just not a card player. Big, beer-buzzed dude who played like a crazy person. I got a coupla chances to isolate him one-on-one, and took three decent-sized pots off him. He would constantly jam the pot with hands like 2nd pair, small kicker. And when he held a solid hand, he tended to get timid. Weird.
Anyway, throughout the night I was able to pick up nice little pots with my solid hands, and a coupla HUGE multi-way pots with sneaky suited connectors. A good coupla hours turned $200 into $620. Winning is fun. I hope to do more.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Lose Some, Win Some
Played a li'l poker on Sunday. Just got over a small cold, and wanted to get back into the swing of things, so I decided to hit the $125 + 100RB at the Oaks. That's a $125 buy-in with an optional $100 rebuy within the first three rounds of play. I played mediocre poker and came in 63rd out of 120. Then I played the 6-12 cash game and won $300. But there's one tournament hand I want to discuss here.
My first playable hand was a beauty. After 20 minutes of mucking ugly cards, I look down at AK unsuited. Now I - like many hold 'em players - have a love-hate relationship with this hand. Typically, it can win you a tiny pot or lose you a big one. This is how it went down:
With my AK, I raise in late position. The blinds are at 25-50 and there is one caller so far. I bump it to $250, a very aggressive raise, considering there's only $125 in the pot. Anyway, the small blind folds, the big blind calls, and the limper calls as well. My plan at this point is to bet the farm if an Ace or King falls on the flop and hope I get one caller with a weaker kicker.
Of course, the flop comes K-10-5 rainbow. No flush possibilities, no serious straight threats yet, and I'm sittin' pretty, holding Kings with an Ace kicker. This is gonna be good.
But then the Big Blind bets $300 and the limper calls! Lordy. Seems I could be in trouble, but the $300 bet into a $775 pot in early position seems fishy to me. If he's got pocket Aces with this flop, you'd think he'd let me lead the betting. As for the limper, I'm not worried about him yet. I just don't want to give him a free card. Anyway, I raise to $700, sending a clear message to anyone listening that I am not letting this pot go without a fight.
Then the unthinkable happens - Big Blind goes all-in.
At this point, I go into the tank. Deep. OK, I must be beat, right? You know I'm beat. The dealer knows I'm beat. The girl bringing my Red Bull and water knows I'm beat. And I'm sitting there wondering how I can fold this hand. Before the flop, I put Big Blind on one of five hands - AA, KK, AK, KQ suited and AQ suited. At this point I can rule out AQ. I'm also ruling out KK (he definitely wouldn't lead out holding top set). I figure KQ isn't a strong possibility at this point, as it wouldn't hold up to a raise. So that leaves us with AA and AK.
Here's where math comes in: First, there's AA - everything about this hand would suggest, maybe even scream, Aces. Trouble is, I'm holding an Ace, leaving him with only 3 possible combinations of AA. Situationally probable, but mathematically improbable. Then there's AK. Even though I'm holding an Ace and a King, that still leaves 9 possible combinations of AK left in the deck. I'm hoping this is what our guy is holding. As far as I'm concerned, he's 3 times more likely to hold AK than AA.
The math, on top of the fact that I can always rebuy, leads me to call. Believe me, I went into the tank for a while before calling. He flips over AA of course, and I lose the hand. Oh well, there's only one thing left to say after something like that: "Rebuy!"
My first playable hand was a beauty. After 20 minutes of mucking ugly cards, I look down at AK unsuited. Now I - like many hold 'em players - have a love-hate relationship with this hand. Typically, it can win you a tiny pot or lose you a big one. This is how it went down:
With my AK, I raise in late position. The blinds are at 25-50 and there is one caller so far. I bump it to $250, a very aggressive raise, considering there's only $125 in the pot. Anyway, the small blind folds, the big blind calls, and the limper calls as well. My plan at this point is to bet the farm if an Ace or King falls on the flop and hope I get one caller with a weaker kicker.
Of course, the flop comes K-10-5 rainbow. No flush possibilities, no serious straight threats yet, and I'm sittin' pretty, holding Kings with an Ace kicker. This is gonna be good.
But then the Big Blind bets $300 and the limper calls! Lordy. Seems I could be in trouble, but the $300 bet into a $775 pot in early position seems fishy to me. If he's got pocket Aces with this flop, you'd think he'd let me lead the betting. As for the limper, I'm not worried about him yet. I just don't want to give him a free card. Anyway, I raise to $700, sending a clear message to anyone listening that I am not letting this pot go without a fight.
Then the unthinkable happens - Big Blind goes all-in.
At this point, I go into the tank. Deep. OK, I must be beat, right? You know I'm beat. The dealer knows I'm beat. The girl bringing my Red Bull and water knows I'm beat. And I'm sitting there wondering how I can fold this hand. Before the flop, I put Big Blind on one of five hands - AA, KK, AK, KQ suited and AQ suited. At this point I can rule out AQ. I'm also ruling out KK (he definitely wouldn't lead out holding top set). I figure KQ isn't a strong possibility at this point, as it wouldn't hold up to a raise. So that leaves us with AA and AK.
Here's where math comes in: First, there's AA - everything about this hand would suggest, maybe even scream, Aces. Trouble is, I'm holding an Ace, leaving him with only 3 possible combinations of AA. Situationally probable, but mathematically improbable. Then there's AK. Even though I'm holding an Ace and a King, that still leaves 9 possible combinations of AK left in the deck. I'm hoping this is what our guy is holding. As far as I'm concerned, he's 3 times more likely to hold AK than AA.
The math, on top of the fact that I can always rebuy, leads me to call. Believe me, I went into the tank for a while before calling. He flips over AA of course, and I lose the hand. Oh well, there's only one thing left to say after something like that: "Rebuy!"
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