Sunday, July 16, 2006
Well my "poker break" officially lasted 3 days; Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Wednesday rolled around and I didn't know what to do with myself, so I found myself back at my old familiar live tourney. What an adventure that turned out to be...
The first hand of the tourney that I was involved in went like this. I get K♣ T♣ in the CO and raise to 70 (Blinds were 10/20), a bit of a maniacal player calls me on the button and everyone else bows out. The flop comes King, rag, rag and I check expecting my opponent to bet. He checks behind and in my head I start saying "no ace, no ace, no ace" so of course the turn brings an Ace and I have to bet. I make it 150 to go and get an insta-call. At this, point, I'm pretty sure my opponent has hit the ace, so I'm ready to dum it on the river when lo and behold a Ten comes and I pair my kicker. I bet 200 and get called by my opponent with A9. I then proceeded to berate my own play out loud to the table. "Way to go Bill, check when you're ahead and bet when you're behind, a real pro!"
In thinking about it, the check on the flop was horrible. Even if my opponent could be induced into bluffing, KT suited is just not strong enough to be trapping someone with. If my opponent had any better King, my goose would be cooked with that line. I check, he bets, I put him on a bluff as expected, and raise. He comes over the top and now I have commited way to many chips on a marginal hand. Conversely, if I bet the flop like I'm supposed to and get resistance I can then play the hand cautiously and minimize any potential losses. I was definitely a victim of FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) on that one. But the poker gods smiled upon me anyway and allowed me to squeak out a win.
Other than that hand I played very well and built up a good stack. Then my friend Adam moved in on the short stack for about 20% of my chips. It was folded around to me and I called him with AQ. He had 88 and I never improved. But I was still in ok shape with the chips I had.
A few hands later, a tight player made an unusual bet from UTG+1. The blinds were 70/140 and his standard raise was 400. Suddenly he makes it 500 in early position. As soon as he did this I knew he was protected a medium pair (66-JJ). I said to myself if it's folded around to me and I have two overs I might call from the BB to see a flop and take it away from him with a check-raise if any scare cards come (whether I hit or not). Unexpectedly though, my buddy Adam flat called the original raiser and when it got to me I looked down to see AK. Now, I generally don't re-raise with AK. But in this spot, I felt I could pick up the pot right there with an all-in move. Both my opponents were capable of folding strong hands to me in this scenario, and I was pretty confident, that Adam was calling the EP player with the same read I had, and therefore would release his two overs automatically. Well, the EP player folded and then Adam went into the tank. That got me pretty worried as he had a lot of chips now and could cripple me if he manages to win a race. He finally called and it wasn't much of a race as he had pocket Kings and I was left with 3 measley outs. His flat call with the Kings made him a lot of money, because I would have actually thrown away AK if Adam had re-raised the original raiser, knowing that he had to have at least QQ to re-raise there.
That AK hand left me with only 500 chips and then the poker gods smiled upon me once more by sending a frustrated hyper-aggressive player directly to my right. He kept moving all-in and I kept beating him into the pot with my chips and hands like 66, A7, KQ, etc... I doubled up about 5 times and quickly found myself with 8800 in chips. That's one of the greatest tournament come-backs I've made in a while.
My 8800 got grinded down to about 7200 when I looked down at the smiling "eyes of Texas" (i.e. Pocket Aces) in the Big Blind. There was a raise in front of me from a slightly steamy player and for whatever reason felt I could get him to move all-in if I re-raised and made a bit of a "show' about it. I re-popped to 3000 and sure enough he moved all his chips in the middle. I insta-called and he turned over AQ. Honestly I thought he had an under-pair and was surprised that he had moved in with AQ. I guess he was steamier than I thought. Of course, this is when the poker gods decided to bail on me and I was faced with a queen on the flop and other on the turn, leaving me crippled. I buisted a few hands later when I lost a race and that was the end of that.
So, since I was still technically on my "poker break" I did the only logical thing and sat down in the cash game. I played a tight solid game and made a small profit after covering my tourney entry. The one hand that sticks out from the cash game went like this:
Once again I find myself with Aces, only this time I am in the cut-off and there is no raise in front of me so, I make it 12 to go. The big blind calls and 3 other limpers come along for the ride. Right away I am worried about having to play the hand in a 5-way pot. I was still stinging from the earlier Ace crack and I was ready to play these very cautiously. The flop came 8-9-4 with 2 diamonds and the BB lead out for 30$. This is not unusual the BB here was the same hyper-aggressive player who so kindly doubled me up in the tournament a few times and I expected him to bet if he hit the board. Then to my surprise a middle position player re-popped it to 100$. Now the player who made the re-raise here is a solid player who tends to be extremely cautious. Earlier in this session he flat called trip Aces fearing his low kicker and he checked down on over pair on the river on a pretty innocuous board. So the re-raise by this player with the original raiser still to act behind him and 2 diamonds on board told me that my AA was probably no good and I folded. The BB went all-in for 30$ more and the MP player called. To my utter shock and dissapointment, the BB turned over JJ and the other player showed K9! The turn came an Ace and I puked all over the table. I later asked the K9 player why he had re-raised with me still to act behind him and he said that he believed I had checked. He said if he knew I was still to act he would not have made such a strong raise. So, my read was decent, but you can't account for another player's confusion.
I ended up playing poker on Thursday, and Friday also and now I'm on my way to another home tourney. The good news is I haven't played a single hand of online poker for about a week. The bad news is I have lost a fortune playing live. But more on that later. Wish me luck!
The first hand of the tourney that I was involved in went like this. I get K♣ T♣ in the CO and raise to 70 (Blinds were 10/20), a bit of a maniacal player calls me on the button and everyone else bows out. The flop comes King, rag, rag and I check expecting my opponent to bet. He checks behind and in my head I start saying "no ace, no ace, no ace" so of course the turn brings an Ace and I have to bet. I make it 150 to go and get an insta-call. At this, point, I'm pretty sure my opponent has hit the ace, so I'm ready to dum it on the river when lo and behold a Ten comes and I pair my kicker. I bet 200 and get called by my opponent with A9. I then proceeded to berate my own play out loud to the table. "Way to go Bill, check when you're ahead and bet when you're behind, a real pro!"
In thinking about it, the check on the flop was horrible. Even if my opponent could be induced into bluffing, KT suited is just not strong enough to be trapping someone with. If my opponent had any better King, my goose would be cooked with that line. I check, he bets, I put him on a bluff as expected, and raise. He comes over the top and now I have commited way to many chips on a marginal hand. Conversely, if I bet the flop like I'm supposed to and get resistance I can then play the hand cautiously and minimize any potential losses. I was definitely a victim of FPS (Fancy Play Syndrome) on that one. But the poker gods smiled upon me anyway and allowed me to squeak out a win.
Other than that hand I played very well and built up a good stack. Then my friend Adam moved in on the short stack for about 20% of my chips. It was folded around to me and I called him with AQ. He had 88 and I never improved. But I was still in ok shape with the chips I had.
A few hands later, a tight player made an unusual bet from UTG+1. The blinds were 70/140 and his standard raise was 400. Suddenly he makes it 500 in early position. As soon as he did this I knew he was protected a medium pair (66-JJ). I said to myself if it's folded around to me and I have two overs I might call from the BB to see a flop and take it away from him with a check-raise if any scare cards come (whether I hit or not). Unexpectedly though, my buddy Adam flat called the original raiser and when it got to me I looked down to see AK. Now, I generally don't re-raise with AK. But in this spot, I felt I could pick up the pot right there with an all-in move. Both my opponents were capable of folding strong hands to me in this scenario, and I was pretty confident, that Adam was calling the EP player with the same read I had, and therefore would release his two overs automatically. Well, the EP player folded and then Adam went into the tank. That got me pretty worried as he had a lot of chips now and could cripple me if he manages to win a race. He finally called and it wasn't much of a race as he had pocket Kings and I was left with 3 measley outs. His flat call with the Kings made him a lot of money, because I would have actually thrown away AK if Adam had re-raised the original raiser, knowing that he had to have at least QQ to re-raise there.
That AK hand left me with only 500 chips and then the poker gods smiled upon me once more by sending a frustrated hyper-aggressive player directly to my right. He kept moving all-in and I kept beating him into the pot with my chips and hands like 66, A7, KQ, etc... I doubled up about 5 times and quickly found myself with 8800 in chips. That's one of the greatest tournament come-backs I've made in a while.
My 8800 got grinded down to about 7200 when I looked down at the smiling "eyes of Texas" (i.e. Pocket Aces) in the Big Blind. There was a raise in front of me from a slightly steamy player and for whatever reason felt I could get him to move all-in if I re-raised and made a bit of a "show' about it. I re-popped to 3000 and sure enough he moved all his chips in the middle. I insta-called and he turned over AQ. Honestly I thought he had an under-pair and was surprised that he had moved in with AQ. I guess he was steamier than I thought. Of course, this is when the poker gods decided to bail on me and I was faced with a queen on the flop and other on the turn, leaving me crippled. I buisted a few hands later when I lost a race and that was the end of that.
So, since I was still technically on my "poker break" I did the only logical thing and sat down in the cash game. I played a tight solid game and made a small profit after covering my tourney entry. The one hand that sticks out from the cash game went like this:
Once again I find myself with Aces, only this time I am in the cut-off and there is no raise in front of me so, I make it 12 to go. The big blind calls and 3 other limpers come along for the ride. Right away I am worried about having to play the hand in a 5-way pot. I was still stinging from the earlier Ace crack and I was ready to play these very cautiously. The flop came 8-9-4 with 2 diamonds and the BB lead out for 30$. This is not unusual the BB here was the same hyper-aggressive player who so kindly doubled me up in the tournament a few times and I expected him to bet if he hit the board. Then to my surprise a middle position player re-popped it to 100$. Now the player who made the re-raise here is a solid player who tends to be extremely cautious. Earlier in this session he flat called trip Aces fearing his low kicker and he checked down on over pair on the river on a pretty innocuous board. So the re-raise by this player with the original raiser still to act behind him and 2 diamonds on board told me that my AA was probably no good and I folded. The BB went all-in for 30$ more and the MP player called. To my utter shock and dissapointment, the BB turned over JJ and the other player showed K9! The turn came an Ace and I puked all over the table. I later asked the K9 player why he had re-raised with me still to act behind him and he said that he believed I had checked. He said if he knew I was still to act he would not have made such a strong raise. So, my read was decent, but you can't account for another player's confusion.
I ended up playing poker on Thursday, and Friday also and now I'm on my way to another home tourney. The good news is I haven't played a single hand of online poker for about a week. The bad news is I have lost a fortune playing live. But more on that later. Wish me luck!
Labels: Hand Histories, Live Poker
posted by Bill Sparks at 5:16 PM
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