SO out of shape

Played the Riverchaser's tournament tonight. Oh BOY am I out of shape tournament-wise. I forgot simple things like stealing. And restealing.

I made it as far as I did, honestly, due to one supremely lucky hand.

I got home a lot later than I had anticipated, and was still cooking dinner when we started; I missed about 5 minutes or so. 48th hand I was logged in for, I have JJ in MP. One limper before me, I pot-raise, button (who's been playing over 60% of the hands) calls, and the limper calls. Flop is T33. Limper checks, I bet 3/4 pot, button min-raises, limper pushes. I know I'm behind, and decide "wtf" because, quite honestly, I was tired and hungry and if I'm done I eat in peace and start on my paper. I called. Button called.

Limper: AA
Button:Q3 (trip 3's)
Me: in 3rd place.

There's always the turn, though:


I love a good suckout after a hard day's work. That vaulted me to 1st in chips (I had been 3rd or 4th from the bottom before this hand).

Not much excitement. I have one hand that I apparantly confused my opponent: I raised from MP, got called by CO. Flop is JJ2 rainbow; I check-call a 1/2 pot bet. Turn is a 9, and I lead out with 1/2 pot. CO takes their time, types "?" and ends up folding. I'm curious what they had.

I blinded out for a while without getting a heckuva lot of playable anything, and as I mentioned at the start - stealing has left my vocabulary a bit. I need to warm myself back up to tournament play, as I felt totally paralyzed.


And the Screw of the Night™ in the cash game: I flop trip 6's and get it all in by the river:


Awesome.

Thanks to riggstad for the shoutout on BDR; and I won the 2nd Riverchaser's TOC, millerd33 won the first. Oh, he doesn't have a blog yet....nvm...

Interesting stats:

Poker Tracker stats for just over 21,000 hands, of all combinations of starting hands I've played:

- I've won more with 54o than all other hands except 7
- I've won more with JTs than AKs
- I've won more with 75o than AQs
- I've won more with 7's, 8's, and 3's (each, not combined) than 10's


...perhaps this is either just fluke stats, or an indication that I'm overplaying big unpaired cards?

I think maybe I'm not that good

I lost a bunch online this weekend. A couple years back I had made a pledge to never play on Sundays - for whatever reason, I took more horrible beats on Sundays than any other days. I played super-early Sunday morning (5am) and did great, but between 4 & 8pm over a couple sessions I dropped about 5 buy ins.

Unfortunately, only 2 of those were gross beats; the other 3 I pretty much paid off way too many winners. I shoulda stopped playing way before I did. Discipline is lacking; I see myself playing poorly and think I can change it and get better. I haven't been able to much lately. Tilt, I think this is referred to as. :)

Roll isn't near as healthy as I'd like, so I'm in rebuild mode. Not in danger of busting, but if I run like that too much I will be. For a little while I won't be ashamed of small hit and runs. I'm also focusing on fundamentals: will likely drop the 2nd table, and play more conservatively.

This hand was a dream, though - AA in the BB, 2 limpers called my raise. Then... ah, hell, see for yourself:


Flop gets checked around. Turn, "Lost with AK" shoves. Guess he wanted to chase out flush draws (too late!). I think of coming over the top, but I'm hoping button has a flush so I just call, as does the button. I shove the river, and get called. Awesome.

That was a $25 pot. I took the $17 profit (I bought in for $8), and left. I'm roll building, and until I can move back up to dime/quarter, I'm going by the Ferguson Challenge rule that if the money in front of me is 10% or more of my roll, I have to leave when the blinds come around. And, unfortunately, $25 is more than 10% of my roll, so I folded a few crap hands and left when the bb came back.

Heater

UTG+1 standard raise to $0.35. I re-raise to $1 with QQ. SB calls. Original raiser re-pops to $4.

I don't like my position here. I hate to lay down QQ, but I take my time, and fold. We've both got very deep stacks for this game, and if a flop without an A or a K comes, it's going to look safe and I'll get stacked if he's got AA or KK. If he doesn't, then so be it and I lost a buck: there will be better opportunities to get my money in.

I guess that can be an easy fold, but it didn't feel like one. I wonder what I would have done if we each started with $8: would I shove here, or fold?

Definitely glad I folded though:



Was on a bit of a heater tonight, as I left this table with $29, left my 2nd table with $8.55, and later on sat down at a table and had this happen on my 2nd hand:



I re-raised preflop, he called/called my flop bet and I got it all in on the turn.

Left that table at $24.

Tulalip in 12 hours!

Strength = Weakness & trusting your read

Both of these hands are from a Saturday $1/$2 (max $100 buy in) session at the Tulalip Casino. Same table, different villains.

Hand 1
Villain: CO, not there for too long (a couple hours tops), not involved in many pots - 2nd tightest player at the table, so I'd have to give him credit for a hand whenever he fires at a pot. $65 or so.

Hero: BB, likely seen as very loose, rather aggressive, makes many steal attempts (read: bluffs a lot), especially on ragged flops from the blinds, and from any position on the turn if the flop checks around. About $175

Bunch of limpers, Villain limps, SB completes, Hero (8h 10d) checks. Pot ~$14

FLOP: 8 6 10 rainbow

Hero: Bets $15
Folds to Villain: All-in for $65

While top 2 is typically an insta-call, when someone playing as tight as this guy has goes all in, I have to give some consideration to the possibility of being beat (I've only folded top 2 pair once in recent weeks, and was correct - my opponent showed his flopped bottom set when I folded top 2 face-up). I doubt 79 is in his range (too tight); 88, 66, and 10-10 are all in his range, 66 being the most likely (due to my hand).

I ask him if he flopped a set - he stares at the table.

I turn my hand over, Villain looks down at it, blinks, and then looks up and stares right at me without flinching. He looks strong. He's acting strong.

...which is exactly where he gave it away. He "acted" too strong. Most folks with a lock on a hand are going to be acting much, much more casually, relaxed, and care free. He was "displaying" strength to appear threatening and, thus, get me to NOT call.

After 5 seconds of him staring unflinchingly at me, I call. He tables AA, and my 2 pair hold up.

----------------------------------------------------


Hand 2:
Villain (BB): I've played with him 4 times over the past 4 weeks, felting him once. He's a decent player who thinks he is a lot better than he is. Tends to overplay hands like TPTK and flushes on paired boards. He's observant enough to know I stab at a lot of pots with air. He's a nice guy, and a typical, standard tight-passive player.

Hero (Button): Seen as very loose, rather aggressive. Villain has called me down with bottom pair and 2nd pair when I've fired 3 bullets from the button (he was right once, wrong once). I've only shown big hands (sets / boats / straights / quads); I've shown very few of my many bluffs (if caught on the river I just say "good call" and muck after they show) but have recently told the table they need to start calling me more after stealing yet another pot. Villain knows I bluff often and semi-bluff regularly.

Hero: Raises to $8 with 4s 6s
SB: Calls
Villain: says "Yea, I know your button play, I'll give you some action."

FLOP:4c 6h 8s

SB: Check
Villain: Check
Hero: Bets $15
(SB: Folds)
Villain Raises to $30 (min raises are surprisingly standard at Tulalip).

I ask him how much he has left ($59). I decide to call (I'm mildly worried about a set and decide to re-evaluate on the turn).

Turn:[4c 6h 8s] 5c

Villain: All in
Hero: I ask if he has "one of my crazy hands like 79"; he doesn't say a word, he sits back and stares at the board (I don't think he's capable of semi-bluff-raising with the OESD here anyway).

I turn my hand over to show the two pair. He leans forward to look at my cards, then looks up and stares directly in my eyes, not moving.

This villain, again, gives it away right there, the same way the previous villain did. He was staring directly into my eyes as if to say "I'm stronger than you and if I look strong enough and confident enough I know you won't call."

I count out my chips, give him one more look (still staring at me, threateningly), and push my chips in.

He turns over KK and says, "I didn't put you on raising with crap like that." River is a 7, so the straight on the board chops the pot. But only 8 cards could've given him a win (and 4 gave him a tie), so when I made the decision I had him on the ropes.

Moral of the story:
1) Trust your read. If someone looks "too strong," then it's probably an act. With monster hands, players will typically act either relaxed or excited (shaking hands, trembling voice, etc); when a player looks strong they often are attempting to get you to fold
2) One-gappers are awesomely deceptive hands!

Funny

http://xkcd.com/386/

Weekends @ Tulalip

For the last 3 weekends, I've spent some time at the Tulalip: 6 hours the first Friday evening, 12 hours a week later from Sat-Sun, then this past weekend another 12 hours from Sat-Sun. I'm hoping to do this for the next 2-3 weeks as well, trying to cram in as much as I can before I start classes in April (Saturdays will be for homework, so this will cut into massive poker playing, though I do hope to still go up maybe once every other week or so - try to pay for my classes through poker). Incidentally, I've played nary a hand online since getting back into playing live. I'm much more fond of live play (though BBT3 will likely see me come back into online tournament action).

Basic stats:
Week 1, 6 hours: +$250
Week 2, 12 hours: + $500
Week 3, 12 hours: - $46

Not a bad start, though this past weekend I started off very very shakey.

First hand I sit down to JJ and raise. SB is short-stacked at ~$35 and re-raises about 1/2 his stack. I know him from last week, and he's quite aggressive, often re-raises light, and didn't appreciate re-pops. I should have thought a little closer, thogh, as if he puts in $18 pre he's not folding, but I hoped he was on AK/AQ and we'd race so I put him all-in. Of course, he has AA.

Being that the max buy-in at $1/$2 is $100, I already feel short at $65.

2 hands later, I run my QQ into a set of 3's and am crippled down to $20 and reload. Within the next 20 minutes my turned 2-pair runs into a rivered straight.

Within the first 2 hours, I've bought in for $300. Not a big deal, and nothing I'm not prepared for (mentally and cash-wise), just a little disheartening that I kept on getting 2nd-best hands. The only hand I feel I really misplayed was JJ. I could have easily folded to the re-raise and given up $6 instead of $35, but I also wanted the table to know I wasn't going to be bullied, and I'm willing to gambool a bit.

So I'm in for $300, and my stack has gone from a high of $150 to about $30 by 11pm (I started around 4). Over the next hour I double-up twice; then the fish sit down. Awesome. Over 3 hours I go from $30 to $360. No joke. Guys calling down with pocket 4's on a 3-heart AK-high board board; guys pushing all-in with bottom set on a 345 flop (thank you 67 :) ), and one big stack who didn't think I ever slow played (flopped broadway tyvm).

I ended down after I raised to $8 in position with As10s; bb called. BB check-called my $12 c-bet on the KQx flop. Ace on the turn gets check-called ($30). 8 on the river, BB checks and I'm not sure what he's check/calling with, so I check behind and say "I have an ace." He turns over Q8o for a rivered 2-pair. Yea, the guy calls with 2nd pair on the flop (not horrible, but not great), calls with 3rd pair on the turn (when is 3rd pair good here?!), and checks his 2 pair. Awesome.

This game is so damn soft. If I hadn't been run down at this point I'd have ended right around even., which after being down $270 is a good feeling.