Ugh...Pocket Ks have been really gross for me lately... I played in the 9am Saturday satellite at the Rivers Casino. It was a satellite for the 225 weekend deepstack. The weekend deepstack grows throughout the month from 225 to 330, 440, 550 and if there's a 5th weekend 770.
I've played in a few satellites in the past year, 4 I believe and I've made it into the 550 once, "Almost Making It" so I'm confident in how to play them. This time I probably missed a few minutes of play before I sat down. I felt like it was a little bit of luck as I was at seat 3, table 3, '3' is a lucky number of mine as it's my birthday. I sit down and the dealer asks me if I want to buy the add-on. I'm thinking sure, but I ask how much for what and when he told me $5 for 500 I was like, wait a minute...usually you're getting almost the same price per chip as the tournament cost or even a better deal with the add-on... I've paid $25 for 5000 chips, so $5 per 1000. If I pay $5 for 500 more chips, I've effectively paid double and that would probably tilt me at the start of the tournament... So after processing...I said "ummm...no thanks, I'm good". I felt a little bad, I think they use the add-on to pay dealers or something...but I'm playing poker, not being nice...
Anyway, first hand I'm under the gun I look down at Cowboys. KsKh. blinds are 50-100 and I make it 350. 3 players call. Flop is A-4-4 with 2 clubs. I didn't feel like check folding, at least not yet so I bet out 500, keeping my range uncapped and hoping I might get some folders, keep options open for later streets. 2 folds, 1 caller. turn was a harmless 3d and we both checked. In hindsight I wonder if a bet here might win me the pot. River is a 7c. I check and villain bets 1200. This seemed really large and it appeared it was a good spot to steal, as why not check if he's got any showdown value unless he hit the flush, hoped I had an Ace I had to call with, etc... so I folded. I think it's a good fold, just sucked to have Ks first hand and lose, though... So ther I am, sitting on 4200, and I actually got myself down to 3500, blinds 100-200 before I shoved 7s, no callers. A few hands later I shoved A-9, no callers. I probably shoved a couple more hands to get myself back up to about 7K and the break, blinds caught up to us at 400-800 and I'm pretty good at sitting between 10-20 blinds 3-bet shoving and picking spots. It was entirely possible today would go this way. One hand I'd probably like to have back was A-9suited I folded UTG with about 9 BB. I know it's gotta be a shove, but based on a guy looking at his cards before I acted I could tell he had a really good hand. I folded and 2 guys went at it All in preflop with Aces vs Kings...Worst part is that I'm supposed to shove there prior to their all-ins and the flop brought 5-7-8, 6 on the turn and I'd have tripled up with the straight, K on the river just KO'd the guy with Aces. I wasn't bummed about the hand, I still felt like it was a good thing to get a read prior to making a play, but it did suck that if I hadn't I'd have been better off...
A few more spot-shoves I made it to break, with almost exactly starting stack, 5200. After the break, rebuys are over, 400-800, 75 ante and 5200 in chips, 7 handed I look down at A-Qsuited, UTG+2 and I shove. All folds and I showed since I would have to keep my tighter image to continue 3-bet/4-bet shoves until more comfortable. Next hand I'm UTG and sitting on about 6800 I look down at pocket 10s, nice. I shove again, this time guy to my left calls, all else fold. I'm thinking I'm racing or screwed until he flips over Ad-9d. I've favored about 70-30, except the poker gods didn't care putting out an Ace in the door card. I wasn't able to improve and I was out probably about 23rd, 3 tables, 2 with 7, 1 with 9, I think with rebuys there were probably 30-40 entries. So another satellite I think I played well, just no luck this time...or at least not when I needed it anyway...
Rivers Casino is hosting another Three Rivers Poker Challenge June 23-29th. These tournaments are cheaper than the last series so I'll get to play in 3 or 4 this time, see if I can't get some points/cash this time...get myself into the main for 900+100...wish me luck!
Play Where the Pros Play!!
Monday, June 9, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Don't Blink or you'll miss The Pittsburgh Poker Open Event #28!!
Well, I "should" be able to pick up my availability to play more tournaments as spring/summer rolls around. I did find some time to play in the PPO Spring Series Event #28. I got to the casino with 10 minutes to spare the start time of 7pm. This was interesting...there were 3 players signed up... I was going to decide to not play due to the lack of interest, possibly due to the Borgata events at the same time and the whole Easter weekend thing(This was Monday, though...) They were apparently going to play the game out no matter if 3 was the total and give out a trophy, and have rebuys till 9:30pm(though I'm not sure what would happen if there could end up 1 player left prior to 9:30 would the game be over or would they just sit there and take tons of blinds...?) I was curious to see what could happen and why not try to win a trophy(I'd take ANY trophy at this point). So I was #4 and we sat 2 players at a table for about 5-6 minutes when a few more stragglers came over and by the end of the first level we had 2 full tables(near full) about 16 players. 2 players were quickly KO'd at the other table. My table was pretty straightforward with pretty tight play happening, nobody getting crazy and nobody taking over. I was down a little and up a little when 5 minutes in....The 3rd level, a girl who'd played apparently pretty tight up to this point(55 minutes isn't a good indicator, but it's all I got...) raised 100-200 to 600 in early position(70BB effective stacks, 14K). I look down at pocket Ks and make it 1500. The fact that she raised 600 wasn't necessarily a red flag, 3x wasn't un-standard at this table at this time. I was pretty much making 2.3x raises and my 3bet 1500 isn't all that large. I basically figured she'd call with A-Q and below Js, possibly raise higher than that and maybe the 1500 smallish looking raise could make a few A-Q and below to possibly 4-bet me but not necessarily look committed. All folds around to her and she makes it 4K. I'm pretty pumped about this, however, I also instantly feel gross in my stomach, like there's a possibility that her entire 4bet range is only AA....
I hope if her possible range is still (on the tight side) Qs and up+ AK I don't think I can ever think of folding.(right...?) I don't like Calling, it allows me to get outplayed by an Ace on the flop if she's going to shove a lot of post-flop hands after putting in so much and it's near 1/3 of my stack. However, at the same time, I don't know if she'll also ever call a shove with anything but Aces...Oh well, I shoved and she called, just as I feared Pocket Aces, dryest, most boring board you could ever lay your eyes on and I couldn't even vie for a 14 players left tournament trophy...couldn't even make the final table...gross...
It's been a while since I've had a legitimate cooler and so early...so I guess I was due pretty hard...
Can't wait for next time...hopefully sooner than last time...
I hope if her possible range is still (on the tight side) Qs and up+ AK I don't think I can ever think of folding.(right...?) I don't like Calling, it allows me to get outplayed by an Ace on the flop if she's going to shove a lot of post-flop hands after putting in so much and it's near 1/3 of my stack. However, at the same time, I don't know if she'll also ever call a shove with anything but Aces...Oh well, I shoved and she called, just as I feared Pocket Aces, dryest, most boring board you could ever lay your eyes on and I couldn't even vie for a 14 players left tournament trophy...couldn't even make the final table...gross...
It's been a while since I've had a legitimate cooler and so early...so I guess I was due pretty hard...
Can't wait for next time...hopefully sooner than last time...
Monday, April 7, 2014
Where did I go?!? Am I back!?
I've been really busy the last couple months. Lots of personal things going on and work has been pretty time consuming... All of which has been taking away from my Poker playing, unfortunately. Some things just can't be helped and I'm lower on my bankroll than I'd like to be. At the start of the new year I planned(resoluted?) on playing at least at first every Sunday game until I could afford more expensive games. I had a good start, played in 3 tournaments, 2 rebuys and 2 cashes. Taking my alotted $150 and making it just under $600. Since then I've played in a few Poker League games with my friends and I think since my January tournaments, I'm not playing as much as I'd hoped I could, therefore, I'm not playing as well as I know I can... I noticed this at the finale for said Poker League when I pretty much bled chips when I shouldn't have and my 10s didn't hold up against AK when I could've turned things around. I shouldn't need to let things get to that point, at least not in the way I did... Oh well, I think I'll be able to turn a new leaf with the Pittsburgh Poker Open Spring Series and onward. I would've liked to have had at least 2K to play in a few more tournaments I felt were the best deals(guarantee's, etc..), however, I'm going to be held to playing 3 tournaments, 2 of which are satellites and one 100+25. I think that's the smartest thing to do with my bankroll for now, that would put about half in danger if I only put out 1 rebuy per satellite and hope to go with 1 buy in of the 100+25. The 100+25 isn't even a guarantee, which most of the others are, except they are almost double the buy-in so it's just not really do-able for me yet...even playing in these 3 are stretching my roll into uncomfortable territory, but as soon as May I should see an increase in my bankroll-repositories with which to refresh from on a monthly basis.
My plan is to play
1. Saturday April 12th 9am re-entry satellite into Event #6(It's speculative but probable I miss this.)
2. Monday April 14th 7pm 100+25, 20 minute blinds, 15K to start
3. Saturday April 19th 9am re-entry satellite into the Main Event
(There are 4 days scheduled for the Main Event, Friday Day 1a, Saturday Day 1b, Sunday Day 2, Monday Day 3)
These plans would change in the event I cash at one or more of these, causing me the ability to play another event. There's an interesting Pot Limit Omaha for 100+25 on Wednesday April 16th 7pm. I'm not really good at Omaha, though I'm expecting most other players can't be that much better and I would suspect that most other players might even be much worse than myself. At the very least if I had a larger roll it would be fun to play in this event...
My original plans from last summer were to play in either the WSOP this year or at least the next Pittsburgh Poker Open Summer Main Event, so it's still possible one of these could still happen this year...keeping the dream alive!
Poker League Season 10 Regular Season results
Shae, Craig and Jake really made a nice run in the final 2 games to up their scores. Shae ended up with the most KOs in the regular season, based almost solely on the fact that she KOed 12 players the last 2 games. I got a little unlucky to be first out Week 6, there were 8 or 9 all-ins survived prior to my all-in that was unsuccessful. That game, at least from the early few KOs could've gone a lot of different ways. I missed Week 7, however, Shae kept up her demolishing ways and I heard the game was over around 11pm, easily the earliest a game has finished up in a few years at least...
The finale was this past weekend and in the interest of "not so long blog posts"(Too late!) I'll write up a seperate entry for the finale.
My plan is to play
1. Saturday April 12th 9am re-entry satellite into Event #6(It's speculative but probable I miss this.)
2. Monday April 14th 7pm 100+25, 20 minute blinds, 15K to start
3. Saturday April 19th 9am re-entry satellite into the Main Event
(There are 4 days scheduled for the Main Event, Friday Day 1a, Saturday Day 1b, Sunday Day 2, Monday Day 3)
These plans would change in the event I cash at one or more of these, causing me the ability to play another event. There's an interesting Pot Limit Omaha for 100+25 on Wednesday April 16th 7pm. I'm not really good at Omaha, though I'm expecting most other players can't be that much better and I would suspect that most other players might even be much worse than myself. At the very least if I had a larger roll it would be fun to play in this event...
My original plans from last summer were to play in either the WSOP this year or at least the next Pittsburgh Poker Open Summer Main Event, so it's still possible one of these could still happen this year...keeping the dream alive!
Poker League Season 10 Regular Season results
| Player | Week 6 | Week 7 | Total Points | Dropped Total |
| Heck | 0 | 5 | 52 | 52 |
| Jake | 9 | 12 | 52 | 52 |
| Terri | 7 | 7 | 49 | 47 |
| Chris | 5 | 4 | 49 | 46 |
| Fred | 2 | 0 | 46 | 46 |
| Shae | 12 | 10 | 39 | 39 |
| Jaime | 8 | 3 | 42 | 39 |
| Jon | 6 | 2 | 36 | 36 |
| Craig | 10 | 8 | 34 | 34 |
| Chivers | 3 | 9 | 34 | 31 |
| Sean | 4 | 6 | 30 | 30 |
Shae, Craig and Jake really made a nice run in the final 2 games to up their scores. Shae ended up with the most KOs in the regular season, based almost solely on the fact that she KOed 12 players the last 2 games. I got a little unlucky to be first out Week 6, there were 8 or 9 all-ins survived prior to my all-in that was unsuccessful. That game, at least from the early few KOs could've gone a lot of different ways. I missed Week 7, however, Shae kept up her demolishing ways and I heard the game was over around 11pm, easily the earliest a game has finished up in a few years at least...
The finale was this past weekend and in the interest of "not so long blog posts"(Too late!) I'll write up a seperate entry for the finale.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Failing a Satellite
So I played in a River's satellite to try to get into the 225 Saturday deepstack a few weekends ago. The Rivers has been having three $225 deepstack tournaments a month with a Month end $550 deepstack tournament. I've previously played in 1 Rivers satellite of this type to get into a $550 deepstack back in July/August - talked about it my ALMOST MAKING IT post.
First of all, I usually play poker with 2 card protectors. First one I use strictly for my cards. It's the first chip I've ever received. a Venetian $1 chip, I strictly use this as my card protector. My other one has changed throughout the years, but the most recent ones have either been a Boston souvenir chip my wife got me when she went to, ugh Boston(duh) and the one I've been using is a Pittsburgh Penguin's chip I have no idea where I got it... This day I think my daughter must have been playing with them and I couldn't find them(took 3 weeks to finally find them) So I went to this tournament stag...or it felt stag...
There seems to be a pattern developing that every tournament that I've played lately at Rivers seems to have a massive(relative) turnout. There were 56 buy-ins for this particular satellite that one of the dealers mentioned there's usually 30-ish. I played 2 buy-ins. First buy-in I was really card dead and the 1 hand I tried to bluff my opponent had basically what I was trying to rep. The other 2 hands that were decent starting hands ended up being second best. I raised with A-Q and got 2 callers, c-bet the 10 high flop and got raised by caller1, caller2 called so I mucked. The other hand was my last I raised with pocket 7s with about 15 bets left, got re-raised by a pretty active player. I called and shoved a 4-6-8 flop, my opponent called with Ks...nothing helped and I was out pretty early. (I actually didn't shove the flop, I put all my chips in except for the 100 denomination chip I was using as my card protector...ugh... the turn was a brick so I checked cause I thought it would be funny and then shoved the Q river...not that it mattered)
I rebought and was put on arguably the most action packed table in the place. Blinds and antes were high enough that we should lose players fairly quickly until the dust settles a little bit, but we were literally going through players ever 3-4 hands. I admit I got lucky, with the A-Q,7s from the prior buy-in not panning out, my first hand I played, possibly 2nd hand dealt I looked down at pocket Ks in late position. A raise and reraise prior to my turn was enough for me to shove. I got called and Ks won over 10s. 5 or 6 hands later I look down at pocket Aces. I played them a little tricky. Based on the dynamic of the table being pretty aggressive I called an early position raiser, flop was pretty dry so I check-raised him all-in and he called me(it felt like this particular player would respond better to aggression than to continually give him rope) He flipped over A-Q and was pretty much dead and rebought(I almost had another shot to KO this same guy later when he shoved and I had 5s, but based on the situation at that time I didn't want to risk 1/4 of my stack for a possible flip/possible dom situation) I pretty much played 3 big hands and was able to just about coast to the final table. This satellite paid out 6 players, 5 got a buy-in of 225, 6th got 209. We lost 2 players pretty quickly and I was able to battle my stack from having 5 bets to 15 bets with blind/ante shoves. However, the blinds were going up at an insane pace. We went from 3k-6k to 5k-10k, with 10k-20k coming next... I had just gotten my stack to about 48K, probably 3rd or 4th at the table. Blinds went to 5k-10k across the table from me, meaning in 4 hands I'd be the BB for 10k. I went from having 9 bets to 4. So I look down at A-8. My immediate thought was to fold, everyone was playing really tight at this point, folding all the way around, so while I know only bigger hands are calling a shove from me, I should be able to pick up the blinds and antes just about all of the time. That's what I thought when I shoved all-in. Probably the Shortest stack in the room shoved for 17K, all else folded. He held 9s and I hit an 8 on the flop, though nothing improved and I was down to 30K and I doubled up the shorty... Next hand I look down at AKsuited...thinking if I made a mistake with the A-8 I felt like I had to make up for it here, so I shoved...the new short-stack called with pocket Aces and I lost another 20K...Next hand I was UTG and had 9500 left, looked down at 5c4c and folded, hoping to win the all-in in the blinds hand... I ended up having Q-6 and lost to A-Q when we both hit Qs and an Ace on the river. I went from thinking I was getting the buy-in to holy crap being out and not really knowing what happened within 4 hands... Usually I'd say that's poker but I think I made a few monumental mistakes. I think that even though I had only 4 bets, there were other stacks that were lower than mine and I should probably figure that I'm favored to make the top 6 if I just fold and hope 2 shorter stacks don't win their all-in moments. I read an article waaaaaaay back in 06 with a follow up in 09 written by Bernard Lee on ESPN about folding Aces in satellites when you're pretty much guaranteed the spot. I felt like I was less guaranteed the spot than the situation he explains in his article, however, I was probably in better shape than I realized...
A few hands after I was KOd the 1st short stack I doubled up shoved and was KOd. What happened next was really interesting. There were now 6 players left, 5 get a buy-in 6th gets 209. Not much of a difference, but still a difference. Well, the uber-chip leader comes back to the table(he'd sat out the last 20 minutes or so since he was probably a lock at a spot) and the super short stack guy at this point put out there the option of playing 1 hand and the worst of the 6 would get 6th place. The hilarious part of this was that he ended up getting the table to agree to this right as he would've been the BB, and almost all-in anyway. Everyone agreed, including the 2 super-stacks who had about 12 blinds(over 100K at 5-10K) for some reason... The dealer puts out the last hand and the chip leader, again, he'd previously been sitting out for the last 20 minutes because he was pretty much guaranteed a spot so long ago ended up being the loser of the hand. I think he ended up buying into the 225, however, he cost himself $16 when he didn't have to...blew my mind. I was in awe at the fact that the short stack was almost all-in and prior to the deal got everyone to agree to give him the same shot they all had to get the buy-in ...awesome job guy!
To sum up my satellites so far, I've played in 2, one in July where I made it to the 550(top 2) and this past one for the 225 where I was KOd in 8th because I was probably dumb... I would've liked to have a 100% satellite payout for just a little while...
First of all, I usually play poker with 2 card protectors. First one I use strictly for my cards. It's the first chip I've ever received. a Venetian $1 chip, I strictly use this as my card protector. My other one has changed throughout the years, but the most recent ones have either been a Boston souvenir chip my wife got me when she went to, ugh Boston(duh) and the one I've been using is a Pittsburgh Penguin's chip I have no idea where I got it... This day I think my daughter must have been playing with them and I couldn't find them(took 3 weeks to finally find them) So I went to this tournament stag...or it felt stag...
There seems to be a pattern developing that every tournament that I've played lately at Rivers seems to have a massive(relative) turnout. There were 56 buy-ins for this particular satellite that one of the dealers mentioned there's usually 30-ish. I played 2 buy-ins. First buy-in I was really card dead and the 1 hand I tried to bluff my opponent had basically what I was trying to rep. The other 2 hands that were decent starting hands ended up being second best. I raised with A-Q and got 2 callers, c-bet the 10 high flop and got raised by caller1, caller2 called so I mucked. The other hand was my last I raised with pocket 7s with about 15 bets left, got re-raised by a pretty active player. I called and shoved a 4-6-8 flop, my opponent called with Ks...nothing helped and I was out pretty early. (I actually didn't shove the flop, I put all my chips in except for the 100 denomination chip I was using as my card protector...ugh... the turn was a brick so I checked cause I thought it would be funny and then shoved the Q river...not that it mattered)
I rebought and was put on arguably the most action packed table in the place. Blinds and antes were high enough that we should lose players fairly quickly until the dust settles a little bit, but we were literally going through players ever 3-4 hands. I admit I got lucky, with the A-Q,7s from the prior buy-in not panning out, my first hand I played, possibly 2nd hand dealt I looked down at pocket Ks in late position. A raise and reraise prior to my turn was enough for me to shove. I got called and Ks won over 10s. 5 or 6 hands later I look down at pocket Aces. I played them a little tricky. Based on the dynamic of the table being pretty aggressive I called an early position raiser, flop was pretty dry so I check-raised him all-in and he called me(it felt like this particular player would respond better to aggression than to continually give him rope) He flipped over A-Q and was pretty much dead and rebought(I almost had another shot to KO this same guy later when he shoved and I had 5s, but based on the situation at that time I didn't want to risk 1/4 of my stack for a possible flip/possible dom situation) I pretty much played 3 big hands and was able to just about coast to the final table. This satellite paid out 6 players, 5 got a buy-in of 225, 6th got 209. We lost 2 players pretty quickly and I was able to battle my stack from having 5 bets to 15 bets with blind/ante shoves. However, the blinds were going up at an insane pace. We went from 3k-6k to 5k-10k, with 10k-20k coming next... I had just gotten my stack to about 48K, probably 3rd or 4th at the table. Blinds went to 5k-10k across the table from me, meaning in 4 hands I'd be the BB for 10k. I went from having 9 bets to 4. So I look down at A-8. My immediate thought was to fold, everyone was playing really tight at this point, folding all the way around, so while I know only bigger hands are calling a shove from me, I should be able to pick up the blinds and antes just about all of the time. That's what I thought when I shoved all-in. Probably the Shortest stack in the room shoved for 17K, all else folded. He held 9s and I hit an 8 on the flop, though nothing improved and I was down to 30K and I doubled up the shorty... Next hand I look down at AKsuited...thinking if I made a mistake with the A-8 I felt like I had to make up for it here, so I shoved...the new short-stack called with pocket Aces and I lost another 20K...Next hand I was UTG and had 9500 left, looked down at 5c4c and folded, hoping to win the all-in in the blinds hand... I ended up having Q-6 and lost to A-Q when we both hit Qs and an Ace on the river. I went from thinking I was getting the buy-in to holy crap being out and not really knowing what happened within 4 hands... Usually I'd say that's poker but I think I made a few monumental mistakes. I think that even though I had only 4 bets, there were other stacks that were lower than mine and I should probably figure that I'm favored to make the top 6 if I just fold and hope 2 shorter stacks don't win their all-in moments. I read an article waaaaaaay back in 06 with a follow up in 09 written by Bernard Lee on ESPN about folding Aces in satellites when you're pretty much guaranteed the spot. I felt like I was less guaranteed the spot than the situation he explains in his article, however, I was probably in better shape than I realized...
A few hands after I was KOd the 1st short stack I doubled up shoved and was KOd. What happened next was really interesting. There were now 6 players left, 5 get a buy-in 6th gets 209. Not much of a difference, but still a difference. Well, the uber-chip leader comes back to the table(he'd sat out the last 20 minutes or so since he was probably a lock at a spot) and the super short stack guy at this point put out there the option of playing 1 hand and the worst of the 6 would get 6th place. The hilarious part of this was that he ended up getting the table to agree to this right as he would've been the BB, and almost all-in anyway. Everyone agreed, including the 2 super-stacks who had about 12 blinds(over 100K at 5-10K) for some reason... The dealer puts out the last hand and the chip leader, again, he'd previously been sitting out for the last 20 minutes because he was pretty much guaranteed a spot so long ago ended up being the loser of the hand. I think he ended up buying into the 225, however, he cost himself $16 when he didn't have to...blew my mind. I was in awe at the fact that the short stack was almost all-in and prior to the deal got everyone to agree to give him the same shot they all had to get the buy-in ...awesome job guy!
To sum up my satellites so far, I've played in 2, one in July where I made it to the 550(top 2) and this past one for the 225 where I was KOd in 8th because I was probably dumb... I would've liked to have a 100% satellite payout for just a little while...
Monday, February 10, 2014
Poker League Season 10 Game #4 Results
I finally got the "official" results through e-mail the other day:
I would like my spot to be more undisputed, however, Heck is points leader, I'm points after dropped leader. Heck is also winning on KOs and cashes for the season:
I have a few good ideas for Chris' costume, my favorite idea I'm going to have to create it myself so I've gotta get on that soon. I also need to get a few KOs to help widen the gap, no way do I want him to have any chance of overtaking my lead in the final regular season game. I just have to play my game and they'll come as they always do. Only 3 games to go before the finale!
| Player | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Bounty Bonus | Total Points | Dropped Total |
| Fred | 9 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 40 | 33 | |
| Heck | 12 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 41 | 32 | |
| Chris | 10 | 8 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 31 | 28 |
| Jon | 8 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 27 | 27 | |
| Terri | 7 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 33 | 26 |
| Jake | 4 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 21 | 21 |
| Jaime | 5 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 23 | 18 | |
| Sean | 6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 14 | |
| Chivers | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 15 | 12 | |
| Shae | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 12 | |
| Craig | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
I would like my spot to be more undisputed, however, Heck is points leader, I'm points after dropped leader. Heck is also winning on KOs and cashes for the season:
| Player | Knockouts | Cashes |
| Heck | 11 | 4 |
| Fred | 9 | 3 |
| Jon | 5 | 1 |
| Chris | 4 | 2 |
| Terri | 2 | 1 |
| Jake | 1 | 1 |
| Craig | 1 | 0 |
| Chivers | 0 | 0 |
| Jaime | 0 | 0 |
| Sean | 0 | 0 |
| Shae | 0 | 0 |
I have a few good ideas for Chris' costume, my favorite idea I'm going to have to create it myself so I've gotta get on that soon. I also need to get a few KOs to help widen the gap, no way do I want him to have any chance of overtaking my lead in the final regular season game. I just have to play my game and they'll come as they always do. Only 3 games to go before the finale!
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Poker League Season 10 Game #4 Recap!
Wow, already past the halfway mark!! Game 4, we were missing a few players, Craig and Sean, so tables were split 4 and 5. I was at the 4 table and since we were starting this way and didn't want to take multiple blind levels to play hand for hand we decided not to(we probably should've instituted hand for hand at some point, however). I bet with Chris that 1st out would be prior the 8th level(20 minute blinds with a break would be near 3 hour mark). 1st one out was somewhere around the 11th level, it was Chivers. 1st, 2nd and 3rd one out should have actually been somewhere around the 8th level, though, there were 2 short stacks at the other table, I think Chivers and Jake and our table, Chris around that time all had something like 10 bets, 2-3K. Chris lost a lot of his stack early. He was making really loose calls all over the place. He called 3 barrels from Jon with A-2, flopping a gut-shot and hitting a 2 on the turn. He called Jaime with Ace high and another hand he called a turn and river bet with an under-pair. He was really trying to make hero-calls all night. Finally he had 3K left and went into Craig-mode(decidedly, Craig-mode is now official for all-in or fold situations) At about the same time, Chivers and Jake were in Craig-mode also, this was about 7 or 8th level. Chris was able to win a few shoves and got himself back to a respectable 5K or so when I found myself sitting on a little over 4K when I went into "Craig-mode". It was at this point we realized how much of a disadvantage our short-stacks were to the other table's short stacks. We went through a hand roughly in maybe 1 1/2 minutes for a full hand while the other table was taking a lot more time than that even on B vs B hands or an open and all fold hands. We decided to sit and wait out a hand and we literally watched the time go from 18 minutes left in the blind to 12 minutes left in the blind while the other table went through 1 hand and a shuffle and deal into the next hand...ugh! We must have played 30 hands more than them at least...So while we played the last couple hands as a "hand-for-hand" style I "survived" and Chivers went out. He said he played his best poker of the season. Terri was destroying the other table from the start, apparently holding Aces a few times, Ks and Qs. One hand he held 7s and hit a set, just owning everyone.
1st hand at the final table I shoved, pretty sure I had Ks. Heck asked Chris "How's he been playing" as if he wanted to call me pretty light. Honestly, I can't even remember if Heck called me and I doubled up or he folded...Most of the tournament was a blur...One hand I do remember, I think Jon either opened or shoved all-in for a small amount, maybe 5 blinds, Terri went all-in over the top(chip leader) and I looked down at pocket Aces and called, Terri had 10s. I won that hand and pretty much crippled Terri and got myself up to a really nice stack. I think I was 2nd in chips, Heck in 1st, Chris 3rd and Terri 4th. Terri went out next, I think Chris KOd her. Heck ended up KO-ing Chris and then Heck and I went heads up for a little over an hour.
We went back and forth a bunch, I tried to slowly wittle him down but we ended up switching stacks a ton mostly staying even. Heck's been really good this season, cashing in all games. Winning game1, 2nd place losing to Jon last game and now top 2 in this one. Final hand I got lucky and I was hoping to trap Heck, he raised and I wanted to 3-bet but decided to "trap" and called with K-9, I flopped a K and decided to keep the rouse going, I turned another K and he shoved the river with an A-6(paired the 6) and I probably thought a little too long for the call... Heck can either make the worst play in the world or the most ingenius play in the world and lately he's been getting lucky when he's had the worst of it(K-8 One-time! vs Ks) and getting action when he's got the best of it. I called and it was over. I was told I was undefeated at Heck's place, however I know I was out early one time but I have won the other 3 times, 2 of those times were against Heck Heads Up, 1 last season, 1 this season.
Fred and Chris KO Bet:(We both KOd 2 players)
Fred: 9
Chris: 4
Possible Season 10 Great/Terrible Storylines:
Heck and I play Heads Up for the trophy this year, and Heck has beaten me twice the other 2 times we were Heads Up for the trophy so along with the last 2 heads up matches I've won, he's definately due to beat me...These are probably self-fulfilling prophecies somehow...It would really suck to have Heck's name up on the trophy for a 3rd time, especially since I don't have my name on the trophy at all, and most especially if every time Heck won it was Heads Up against me...Maybe Craig will miss the rest of the season, only to show up and win the finale...? Maybe Season 10 is when we'll get one of the women of the league to be the "Luckiest Bastard"??...Maybe I'll finally get to be the Luckies Bastard...time will tell...
1st hand at the final table I shoved, pretty sure I had Ks. Heck asked Chris "How's he been playing" as if he wanted to call me pretty light. Honestly, I can't even remember if Heck called me and I doubled up or he folded...Most of the tournament was a blur...One hand I do remember, I think Jon either opened or shoved all-in for a small amount, maybe 5 blinds, Terri went all-in over the top(chip leader) and I looked down at pocket Aces and called, Terri had 10s. I won that hand and pretty much crippled Terri and got myself up to a really nice stack. I think I was 2nd in chips, Heck in 1st, Chris 3rd and Terri 4th. Terri went out next, I think Chris KOd her. Heck ended up KO-ing Chris and then Heck and I went heads up for a little over an hour.
We went back and forth a bunch, I tried to slowly wittle him down but we ended up switching stacks a ton mostly staying even. Heck's been really good this season, cashing in all games. Winning game1, 2nd place losing to Jon last game and now top 2 in this one. Final hand I got lucky and I was hoping to trap Heck, he raised and I wanted to 3-bet but decided to "trap" and called with K-9, I flopped a K and decided to keep the rouse going, I turned another K and he shoved the river with an A-6(paired the 6) and I probably thought a little too long for the call... Heck can either make the worst play in the world or the most ingenius play in the world and lately he's been getting lucky when he's had the worst of it(K-8 One-time! vs Ks) and getting action when he's got the best of it. I called and it was over. I was told I was undefeated at Heck's place, however I know I was out early one time but I have won the other 3 times, 2 of those times were against Heck Heads Up, 1 last season, 1 this season.
Fred and Chris KO Bet:(We both KOd 2 players)
Fred: 9
Chris: 4
Possible Season 10 Great/Terrible Storylines:
Heck and I play Heads Up for the trophy this year, and Heck has beaten me twice the other 2 times we were Heads Up for the trophy so along with the last 2 heads up matches I've won, he's definately due to beat me...These are probably self-fulfilling prophecies somehow...It would really suck to have Heck's name up on the trophy for a 3rd time, especially since I don't have my name on the trophy at all, and most especially if every time Heck won it was Heads Up against me...Maybe Craig will miss the rest of the season, only to show up and win the finale...? Maybe Season 10 is when we'll get one of the women of the league to be the "Luckiest Bastard"??...Maybe I'll finally get to be the Luckies Bastard...time will tell...
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Rivers Tournament early thoughts...
I was having an issue with my last post at the end having some kind of strange code replacing my text so I'll just put up some thoughts of the last 2 tournaments here:
Now I know I'm playing the cheap tournaments; $50 Sunday, $125 Poker Opens, etc... The one $550 deepstack I played in I don't remember having a beef at all with the way it was run...so maybe it's just the fact that I'm playing in the cheaper tournaments....
However, the more tournaments I'm playing at the Rivers, the more I'm worried I'll be frustrated at the way they are being run. In my last $50 tournament, I don't think we played hand 4 hand at the money/final table bubble(it worked in my favor I guess...I made it?)
My biggest beef would be the blind structure as the blind levels jump at the strangest times, 5K-10K to 10K-20K to 20K-40K(we chopped prior to this level). To me, nothing says, "We don't really care about you and GET THE HELL OUT OF MY POKER ROOM!" like doubling blinds at the end of a tournament. I only hope the more expensive tournaments are be more leveled out. I also remember there was 1 other level jump in the middle of the tournament that seemed unnecessary. At the time I thought maybe they skipped a blind to help move things along, having 50% more entries this last game.
Another issue is that it seems silly to only pay out 8% of the field,10 of 122 entrants got paid in my last tournament. They have the payouts stacked so much toward the 1st 3 spots, and they have the blinds doubling at the end to the point everyone has less than 10 blinds that it would be foolish to not chop... Again, I hope this is just because I'm playing in the cheaper tournaments and I don't remember thinking this when I played the 550 deepstack so I'll just have to decide after playing a few of those...if I still have an issue...
Now I know I'm playing the cheap tournaments; $50 Sunday, $125 Poker Opens, etc... The one $550 deepstack I played in I don't remember having a beef at all with the way it was run...so maybe it's just the fact that I'm playing in the cheaper tournaments....
However, the more tournaments I'm playing at the Rivers, the more I'm worried I'll be frustrated at the way they are being run. In my last $50 tournament, I don't think we played hand 4 hand at the money/final table bubble(it worked in my favor I guess...I made it?)
My biggest beef would be the blind structure as the blind levels jump at the strangest times, 5K-10K to 10K-20K to 20K-40K(we chopped prior to this level). To me, nothing says, "We don't really care about you and GET THE HELL OUT OF MY POKER ROOM!" like doubling blinds at the end of a tournament. I only hope the more expensive tournaments are be more leveled out. I also remember there was 1 other level jump in the middle of the tournament that seemed unnecessary. At the time I thought maybe they skipped a blind to help move things along, having 50% more entries this last game.
Another issue is that it seems silly to only pay out 8% of the field,10 of 122 entrants got paid in my last tournament. They have the payouts stacked so much toward the 1st 3 spots, and they have the blinds doubling at the end to the point everyone has less than 10 blinds that it would be foolish to not chop... Again, I hope this is just because I'm playing in the cheaper tournaments and I don't remember thinking this when I played the 550 deepstack so I'll just have to decide after playing a few of those...if I still have an issue...
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
2014 50% Cash at the Rivers
So I noted in my last post that I have a new proposition, a new years resolution, if you will, to play poker at least once a week. Though I wasn't able to play at the Rivers last weekend due to "life" and the super frigid cold and snow... I played last Sunday(1/19) and Poker League was at Heck's this past Saturday(1/26).
I'm actually starting to think I should take a pad and pen to the poker tables, if I'm going to play every week and give some kind of accurate detailed report of my tournament experiences I probably should write things down during...Maybe I can go all Gus Hansen and take a recorder so I can record a hand after it's played... I'm also going to try to keep track of my bankroll, $ spent, $ earned, etc...
Rivers 35+10+5 tournament(Cheap Bastard Tournament)
There were 122 entries, which probably amounted to about 100 players in the tournament. I'm pretty sure they had 11 tables to start. This was much larger than the week prior, I believe because of the yearly freeroll that was happening that day, there probably was a higher turnout and this probably shouldn't be considered a regular occurance. My table was pretty beautiful. TAG/NITs throughout with 2 to 3 Looser calling-machine players. This didn't help me win many pots, however, in the early goings. Our table didn't break for a long time, so I got to play with a core group of players for almost half the tournament. This allowed me to use really strong reads when I needed them as the blinds got higher. My real turning point hand was around 40 players left, I was sitting a little over 5K in chips, blinds at 300-600 50 ante when I looked down at pocket 2s. There was a raise and a caller prior and I decided to shove. Prior to this I was able to shove preflop and take it down a few times without any callers, as 5K was too much for these guys to risk at this point. I thought this seemed like another good spot to squeeze and even if I get called a little light I'll probably still have a 50/50 shot some of the time I get called. I never know what to do with ducks, so in this case I didn't like folding, and calling seemed wrong, so shoving appeared to be the "most right" thing to do...I dunno... Next guy shoved and 1st raiser called, unfortunately, and I was up against 2 monsters, Js and Ks. The flop was amazing, though, all small and a duck to boot. No J or K on the turn or river and I more than tripled up that hand to about 20K. Ks knocked out the Js. I was able to get my stack to about 30K when I was just about decimated. 500-1000, 100 ante and at this point, it's all-in or fold mode for about half the field, whether they know it or not is what I have to decide. A guy in early position shoves all-in for 14K and I look down at suited AK(spades) I shove all-in myself and it's A-5off vs AKsuited, The door of the flop was a 5, so I knew right away I was in bad shape to KO this guy, but more importantly, reverse all the luck I had with the ducks and the work I'd put in since then... The river pulled out an Ace so I was getting chopped back down myself to near all-in/fold mode...again... This is what's really crazy about this tournament. From this point on to the final table I was sitting on 10-15 bets. I basically weaved my way through every situation and hand and if it was a good spot I shoved, if it wasn't I folded. This went on to the final table...
Final Table:
Wow, I made it to the final table. Payouts were only for the top 10 players(Final Table), this, to me seemed like a really small % of the field to get paid(10/122, 8%??), but I guess that's what I should expect for a $50 tournament? I'd be really peeved if it were one of their poker opens, though. I think they should probably pay out around 12% at least, maybe especially since there were so many buyins... Anyway, I think the final table bubble was pretty nice to me, I decided that I wasn't going to fold my way there and I made a few good shoves to make it and get a "decent" stack to start the final table. A set of 8s helped double me up to near 25 bets, too. Since we would go from 6 players at my table to 10 for the final, I knew that I'd have to tighten up my shove/starting hand ranges if/when I made it, not to mention the time each hand would take would also increase.
So we're at 10 left and the blinds are 4000-8000, 1K ante and I have 75K stack, most certainly one of 3 shorter stacks, though the largest stacks weren't much more than 150K. UTG+1 limps, and she'd been playing really passively at the other table and had a larger stack of about 130K. So I took her limp as pretty weak, at least not something she'd risk her large stack on. Another limps, and I look down at KdQd. This seems like a decent spot in the cutoff so I shove, UTG+1 calls quicker than I thought and other limper folds. She flips over AsJs. When she called that quickly I thought I might be dead, so small victory there. Flop was brutal, and I saw it unfold as if I knew what it was probably going to be, K-Q-10...She flopped the nut-straight...I didn't even realize I had any outs at first as a 5d hit the turn. As the dealer began flipping over the River, I realized a K or Q would be my only savior, I saw the King of Spades. She looked pretty devastated as the realization of what happened settled in and I counted out my chips to near 200K stack. In the few hands after this we lost the woman sitting to my left and that's when murmers of chopping began flying around. At this point, I think we would all get $450, or between 4th and 3rd place money. I would entertain chopping only if everyone else wanted to, so I waited to declare my decision. The woman I just chopped in half didn't want to chop, however, and ended up shoving with K-7, getting called by AJ and she was history. There were 2 stacks larger than mine, blinds were now 10-20K 3K ante(I know, they went from 4-8,5-10 to 10-20, wtf? I had at least hoped there'd be a 8-16 in there) Why play in the tournament for 6 hours to make the final table and then have the payouts be a crapshoot is beyond my comprehension...) I had 180K, most had 120K-ish, chip leader had 260K after his KO. Now we would all get 482, 3rd place money was 498, the next one out gets 187, then 207, 260, 310, 350 and then 398, 670 and 1206 for first. I thought this would be a good spot to chop due to the large amount of risk even for the chip leaders, I mean, every pot preflop was sitting at 50K at this point...It would be a crap-shoot of who would win and I guarantee myself almost $500 at this point. We all decided to chop. We counted out our stacks and took the points for that spot, so I got 8 points for 3rd place. Moneywise, 8 players all took home $482 and after 2 Rivers tournaments in 2014, I've spent 110 and walked out with $482. Adding $150-$55 I've allotted myself for the month, that's a total of $522 for my poker bankroll so far. I don't expect this to keep up, but I'm cashing in half of my tournaments so far in 2014! (Small sample size :-))
I'm actually starting to think I should take a pad and pen to the poker tables, if I'm going to play every week and give some kind of accurate detailed report of my tournament experiences I probably should write things down during...Maybe I can go all Gus Hansen and take a recorder so I can record a hand after it's played... I'm also going to try to keep track of my bankroll, $ spent, $ earned, etc...
Rivers 35+10+5 tournament(Cheap Bastard Tournament)
There were 122 entries, which probably amounted to about 100 players in the tournament. I'm pretty sure they had 11 tables to start. This was much larger than the week prior, I believe because of the yearly freeroll that was happening that day, there probably was a higher turnout and this probably shouldn't be considered a regular occurance. My table was pretty beautiful. TAG/NITs throughout with 2 to 3 Looser calling-machine players. This didn't help me win many pots, however, in the early goings. Our table didn't break for a long time, so I got to play with a core group of players for almost half the tournament. This allowed me to use really strong reads when I needed them as the blinds got higher. My real turning point hand was around 40 players left, I was sitting a little over 5K in chips, blinds at 300-600 50 ante when I looked down at pocket 2s. There was a raise and a caller prior and I decided to shove. Prior to this I was able to shove preflop and take it down a few times without any callers, as 5K was too much for these guys to risk at this point. I thought this seemed like another good spot to squeeze and even if I get called a little light I'll probably still have a 50/50 shot some of the time I get called. I never know what to do with ducks, so in this case I didn't like folding, and calling seemed wrong, so shoving appeared to be the "most right" thing to do...I dunno... Next guy shoved and 1st raiser called, unfortunately, and I was up against 2 monsters, Js and Ks. The flop was amazing, though, all small and a duck to boot. No J or K on the turn or river and I more than tripled up that hand to about 20K. Ks knocked out the Js. I was able to get my stack to about 30K when I was just about decimated. 500-1000, 100 ante and at this point, it's all-in or fold mode for about half the field, whether they know it or not is what I have to decide. A guy in early position shoves all-in for 14K and I look down at suited AK(spades) I shove all-in myself and it's A-5off vs AKsuited, The door of the flop was a 5, so I knew right away I was in bad shape to KO this guy, but more importantly, reverse all the luck I had with the ducks and the work I'd put in since then... The river pulled out an Ace so I was getting chopped back down myself to near all-in/fold mode...again... This is what's really crazy about this tournament. From this point on to the final table I was sitting on 10-15 bets. I basically weaved my way through every situation and hand and if it was a good spot I shoved, if it wasn't I folded. This went on to the final table...
Final Table:
Wow, I made it to the final table. Payouts were only for the top 10 players(Final Table), this, to me seemed like a really small % of the field to get paid(10/122, 8%??), but I guess that's what I should expect for a $50 tournament? I'd be really peeved if it were one of their poker opens, though. I think they should probably pay out around 12% at least, maybe especially since there were so many buyins... Anyway, I think the final table bubble was pretty nice to me, I decided that I wasn't going to fold my way there and I made a few good shoves to make it and get a "decent" stack to start the final table. A set of 8s helped double me up to near 25 bets, too. Since we would go from 6 players at my table to 10 for the final, I knew that I'd have to tighten up my shove/starting hand ranges if/when I made it, not to mention the time each hand would take would also increase.
So we're at 10 left and the blinds are 4000-8000, 1K ante and I have 75K stack, most certainly one of 3 shorter stacks, though the largest stacks weren't much more than 150K. UTG+1 limps, and she'd been playing really passively at the other table and had a larger stack of about 130K. So I took her limp as pretty weak, at least not something she'd risk her large stack on. Another limps, and I look down at KdQd. This seems like a decent spot in the cutoff so I shove, UTG+1 calls quicker than I thought and other limper folds. She flips over AsJs. When she called that quickly I thought I might be dead, so small victory there. Flop was brutal, and I saw it unfold as if I knew what it was probably going to be, K-Q-10...She flopped the nut-straight...I didn't even realize I had any outs at first as a 5d hit the turn. As the dealer began flipping over the River, I realized a K or Q would be my only savior, I saw the King of Spades. She looked pretty devastated as the realization of what happened settled in and I counted out my chips to near 200K stack. In the few hands after this we lost the woman sitting to my left and that's when murmers of chopping began flying around. At this point, I think we would all get $450, or between 4th and 3rd place money. I would entertain chopping only if everyone else wanted to, so I waited to declare my decision. The woman I just chopped in half didn't want to chop, however, and ended up shoving with K-7, getting called by AJ and she was history. There were 2 stacks larger than mine, blinds were now 10-20K 3K ante(I know, they went from 4-8,5-10 to 10-20, wtf? I had at least hoped there'd be a 8-16 in there) Why play in the tournament for 6 hours to make the final table and then have the payouts be a crapshoot is beyond my comprehension...) I had 180K, most had 120K-ish, chip leader had 260K after his KO. Now we would all get 482, 3rd place money was 498, the next one out gets 187, then 207, 260, 310, 350 and then 398, 670 and 1206 for first. I thought this would be a good spot to chop due to the large amount of risk even for the chip leaders, I mean, every pot preflop was sitting at 50K at this point...It would be a crap-shoot of who would win and I guarantee myself almost $500 at this point. We all decided to chop. We counted out our stacks and took the points for that spot, so I got 8 points for 3rd place. Moneywise, 8 players all took home $482 and after 2 Rivers tournaments in 2014, I've spent 110 and walked out with $482. Adding $150-$55 I've allotted myself for the month, that's a total of $522 for my poker bankroll so far. I don't expect this to keep up, but I'm cashing in half of my tournaments so far in 2014! (Small sample size :-))
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
How not to play in a Rivers Tournament...Probably...
I've made it a priority now(New Years Resolution, anyone?) to start playing poker more regularly, at least tournaments for now as my bankroll is pretty nonexistent. My plan for now is to take $150 for this past pay period and start my bankroll from that, if needed refill either next 2 week pay or more likely in pay increments of 2(each month).
I started my quest two Sundays ago when I registered for the 35+10+5 cheap bastard Sunday 2pm tournament at the Rivers. I was slightly late to the tournament so I believe I sat down at the end of level 1, I played my 2nd hand at the table, pocket 9s.
25-50, I raised it up to 225(3 other limpers) in the cutoff with 9s and got 2 callers, flop is A-Q-7 I think 2 diamonds. Checked to me so I bet out 650 hoping to rep the ace and take it down right there. Folds around, guy on my direct right calls.
-People were post-flop betting extremely large amounts a lot,
like a flop with 1500 in the pot was getting a bet of 2500 or 3K for some
reason…my strategy at that point was to play suited nuts and connectors,
set-mine, etc… try to get a large pot with a flopped nuts hand. I
actually looked down at 7-10suited and had a strange feeling but since I lost a
few hands in a row that I played I folded it, low and behold the flop is
6-8-9rainbow and 2 guys betting into it…ugh…
In the end, I still can’t believe I folded Ks for what turns out to be basically
no good reason…that’s as textbook-shove as it gets, right…? Conversely, I
suppose if the guy said he had 10-J I’d feel good about the fold, though…nope, I hate playing badly...it eats my soul...
I started my quest two Sundays ago when I registered for the 35+10+5 cheap bastard Sunday 2pm tournament at the Rivers. I was slightly late to the tournament so I believe I sat down at the end of level 1, I played my 2nd hand at the table, pocket 9s.
25-50, I raised it up to 225(3 other limpers) in the cutoff with 9s and got 2 callers, flop is A-Q-7 I think 2 diamonds. Checked to me so I bet out 650 hoping to rep the ace and take it down right there. Folds around, guy on my direct right calls.
Turn is a Q. He checked, I checked. River was a J
and he bet out 650. That seemed strange like unless he wanted to
check-raise me with the 2nd Queen and didn’t want to risk getting
nothing on the river, however his bet of 650 seemed small if he was trying to
get back lost turn chips and/or get value on the river, it seemed more of a
blocker-type bet, like this is the amount he was comfortable with losing so
instead of checking and allowing me to bet the amount I was comfortable
with. So after some thought, the only way I win this pot is a raise and
if he’s capped at not having a Queen and might actually have only a weak Ace or
not even and my range is much stronger than his, I raised to 1800. He
looked puzzled and thought for a few moments before finally calling. He
looked really puzzled/surprised at my hand/play and I was hoping I could use that against
him later on, even though I lost the hand I felt like I played it pretty good
and put him to a test he might have made a mistake folding on… I think in retrospect the fact that any Ace chops and my small amount of raise was enough for him to speculate, though... The
perfect spot to look spewy landed a few levels later however, I was (to say it really pc) an
F%$#ing idiot…
100-200, 4 limpers(including guy to my right) and I look down at
Ks in the HJ, I have about 7K. I raise it up to 800 and get 3 callers, 1
limper folds. Flop is 10-J-7 rainbow. 1st guy checks, 2nd
guy checks, guy to my right looks really confident. Since my previous hand above, He’s been playing a
lot of connector kinda junky hands. As he reached down to bet I was
already hoping it would be enough that I could shove. He bet out
2500. In retrospect, this is a great amount and afterwards he did bet
“pot” on a lot of flops he hit, however at the time it appeared really strong
and slightly high bet to me. I think it seemed too good to be true so I looked for the thunder in the clear blue sky.... I got a strange feeling like I was about to
get coolered and I started to feel “monsters under the bed” syndrome… 8-9,
10-J, 7s, strangely played 10s…were all I kept thinking he was going to flip
over and so I actually folded my Ks…WTF…right…? It was only afterwards
that I thought, “Dummy, he probably just had A-J or something, that also fits, QJ or
KJ, too…ugh. I couldn’t decide prior to folding what would be more gross,
thinking about how I folded that hand or thinking about how I got coolered and
I finally decided “I’ll find a better spot” (I know...I'm not sure where a better spot can be found...) I never did find a better spot...duh....and soon after I found myself at 4000, 200-400 blinds
and all-in or fold mode. I looked down at A-8 UTG+2 and folded
instead of shoving my 13bet stack. I have a history with A-8 that I don’t
like and so maybe against better strategy I folded…Wow...I'll never win with this style...
After that I won 2 straight hands preflop shoving with 5s, a postflop
shove with A-J after hitting an Ace and then I look down at A-Q, 5900 total in
chips at this point, 3 limpers at 300-600 and I shove, girl to my left(now
this was the 3rd time I saw someone do this) puts in a stack of 1Ks,
like 10K, having like 2K behind. I’m not sure why you’d do this, if someone
actually goes over the top of her, could she decide to fold? And if someone does go
over the top, their range has to be really tight that she’d have to be
crushed, I guess I just don't like calling off my chips as much as shoving them in first…? All folds to her and it’s AQ vs Js and the board ran out low,
low, low,....low and..... low…gone in 60 minutes or less it seemed… I asked the guy what he had
that hand he bet 2500, “Jack with an Ace”…blech…sometimes you just play like
crap, right…?(I really never ever feel this way, but I did actually play like an imbecile...hence, feeling like crap...)
I’ll be thinking about my stupidity all week now till I
play again next Sunday to try to redeem myself…
Some things I really loved about my table that I never got to
utilize:(maybe next time...?)
-Everyone was really passive, nobody was raising preflop, a lot
of limped pots and then as I said, larger postflop bets…
-1 woman was betting 4x-5x preflop that’s always good if she’s a
nit, which she was, call and then bet the flop, she folds…however, later I
3bet-shoved on her 4x raise preflop and she folded so I guess her preflop raise
range was wider than I was giving her credit for, or just her calling range is a lot
tighter than her preflop raise range…which makes the 4x-5x betting patterns that much nicer!
Another hand 100-200 I raised to 600 with QJsuited, 2 callers and
flopped a Q with a gut-shot straight draw(I think needing a 10), 1st
to act, I checked and Girl in seat 1 bets out 6K(she had 12K, the pot was like 1500…wtf…?) I was
seat 9, girls were in seat 6(older lady), seat 10(20-something who ko’d me
later) and 1(30-something) at my table) I folded…what else can I do,
right…? Lots of females in this tournament, which is always good to see (for the game)
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Poker League Season 10 Game #3: Poker Against Humanity
Poker League Season 10, Game #3 is in the books...not the best finish...but I'm ok where I'm at so far...
First of all, I was the bounty. I wasn't sure how this would effect anyone's play against me and it turns out it didn't do all that much as I don't think anyone was playing more or less due to my "disadvantage/advantage" of being worth an extra point upon being Knocked Out. I did find myself with just about a double stack early on, however, I think it was due to some nice hands that were catching and not really due to extra calls that wouldn't have happened if my opponents weren't trying to cooler me. My tournament was going smoothly, Shae was to my left and as Shae usually does, she calls probably way too much and wittles down her stack really early. Then I looked down at Ac-6c and raised it up. tables are split up 5 and 5(missing Jake). I have Shae to my left, then Jaime, Terri, Chivers and then me. Yes, I'm at the girls+Chivers table. Anyway, Ac-6c, 100-200 level and I raise it up to 550, Shae calls, because that's what Shae does, folds all around. Now I notice Shae only has about 4K left over. The flop is pretty awesome, 3-3c-4c, I think and a big part of me hopes that Shae has some small/mid over-pair that she'll like. I bet out 1100 and she raises all-in. This is strange, Shae will have the nuts almost all of the times she does this, however, she previously stated how all her chips were pretty much gone and she'd probably be out soon so I was thinking she just didn't want to be bullied and thought her over-pair was probably best. I like the option of the nut flush draw and possibility Ace would be good, or even a 6 could be good in this spot, though not as likely as the others. I think it was 3500 more to call and so I'm getting 2 to 1 on a call and I'm cool with that plus I have a large stack. She flips over 2-3(off...I think...?) and I Ace the river but my flush doesn't come so she's doubled up and I'm back down from 16K to 11K. Next group of hands I lost a few pocket pairs, one hand with open ended w/2 overs didn't catch and was down to about 8K(starting stack) and Shae was pummelling me, probably had her stack to about 14K. At this point she lost a large pot(5K or so) to Chivers in a 2-pair vs 2 pair struggle and so I was hoping to get them back from Chivers when I looked down at Ks. Chivers, 200-400, raised it up to 1200 UTG, I 3bet him to 2500 and was hoping to get stacks in asap as he actually only had about 7K more and that's more Chivers style. Chivers called and the flop was K-J-7. Chivers bet out 2500 and I shoved, thinking he'd never fold in this situation. He thought for a few moments and then folded, I swear he told me he folded Jacks, but afterwards, I'm thinking he meant 1 Jack and not a set of Jacks...
Oh well, I got a decent stack of 10K moving to the final table when I doubled up Shae again and then Terri, too... I hate it when I just can't seem to knock anybody out and this is what seemed to be happening. I could've had Shae out 3 times, Chivers folded but I could've had him, Terri had the best hand going in, but not by much and out of 5 all-ins I didn't get 1 winning hand... Sometimes poker is just poker! With 7 players left, blinds at 500-1000, Chivers raised to 2500 under the gun, Heck folded and Craig shoved all-in for 2700, I folded small blind. This is one of those interesting spots, if Jon calls, Chivers can't raise because Craig's all-in isn't a complete raise. betting opens if Jon raises, however...Jon only calls the 2700, 1700 more than his blind. Chivers put in the extra 200. I can't remember the flop, but I think Jon bet, Chivers shoved and Jon called. K-9 for Jon ends up being the best hand, Craig had AJ and I think Chivers had KJ, maybe the board was K-high I don't know...but Jon KO'd 2 players in one amazing crappy hand and had a huge stack top 5.
I had to play "survivor" shoving in situational spots because my hands were just not there and my stack was dwindled down... I looked down at 9-4hearts, I was the button with a little over 5K left, Jon is the small blind to my left, Terri next to him as the BB. I had already won a few all-in preflop shoves with no callers and since Jon was stacking his chips, I figured he'd probably fold a really large amount of hands since he was worried about stacking chips and Terri folds a really large range of hands no matter what so when it folded to me I shoved. Jon folded with a hint of thought, but went back to counting/stacking his chips and Terri looked down and looked like she got sick, but blurted, "Alright, I'll call..." in her best impression of Eeyore. I asked her, "Do you have a 9", hoping I'm at least live... I think she thought I asked her that because I had 8s or something and after flipping over pocket 7s kind of irritably, she perked up when she saw it was only 9-high... The board ran pretty dry, not even a heart in sight to give me any kind of hope and I was out 5th...So no "all cash season" for me this year... I will say that I usually suck out on Terri and that's probably the only times I've KOd her so I definately owed her a few double-ups over the years. The only good things that came out of this last game: Dejo was KOd prior to the final table when he was coolered Ks vs K-8suited AIPF, Chris is in great shape to double up, however, Heck used his "ONE TIME" for the season and turned a flush. This was good for me in that I would be able to rack up KO count distance on him, however, as I stated, 5 all-ins and not one win for me, then I couldn't win my own all-in...
Fred Vs Dejo KO Bet Count:
Fred: 7
Dejo: 2
About the time I was KOd, others were starting to play a new game Sean brought called Cards Against Humanity(I had previously played this game with my family over Christmas/New Years and had a blast) and we had a ton of fun with this amazing and horrible game. I think they call it a "Great Game for Horrible People". Aint that the truth. It's like "Apples to Apples" in that a card is read by a player and cards supplied by the other players are compared against that card to answer/complete a sentance and that player picks the best card, giving points to whomever's card is picked...(not my best explanation...):
For example: "The U.S. postal service spent 3 million dollars last year promoting _______"
All of the other players have 5-10 cards that they use to fill in the blank. Each player turns in the card they pick to be their best to fill in the blank and the original reader reads them aloud to much hysteria and picks their favorite/best. The person who's card was picked as the best gets a point. The significant difference/specialty of this game is that it's extremely, ugh...dirty, to say the least...
Turns to be the reader move in a clockwork fashion and we just played until nobody had any cards left. Up until the last round I was leading with 7 points, Dejo had 6 and he won the last card, which for some reason was deemed worth 2 points and so he won. Nobody cares about winning, though, as the game is just too much fun to play and hear all the ridiculousness.
Some were even saying we should play that instead of poker next time, while I don't think that's happening, I know we'll definately be playing both games again next time...
Supplied by Jaime
1st: 55 gallon drum of lube
2nd: HotPockets
3rd: Profit!
| Player | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Bnty | Tot Pts | Drp Pts |
| Heck | 12 | 9 | 10 | 31 | 22 | |
| Fred | 9 | 12 | 7 | 28 | 21 | |
| Terri | 7 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 25 | 18 |
| Chris | 10 | 8 | 3 | 21 | 18 | |
| Jon | 8 | 0 | 12 | 20 | 20 | |
| Jaime | 5 | 5 | 8 | 18 | 13 | |
| Jake | 4 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 15 |
| Sean | 6 | 6 | 2 | 14 | 12 | |
| Chivers | 3 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 9 | |
| Shae | 2 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 8 | |
| Craig | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
First of all, I was the bounty. I wasn't sure how this would effect anyone's play against me and it turns out it didn't do all that much as I don't think anyone was playing more or less due to my "disadvantage/advantage" of being worth an extra point upon being Knocked Out. I did find myself with just about a double stack early on, however, I think it was due to some nice hands that were catching and not really due to extra calls that wouldn't have happened if my opponents weren't trying to cooler me. My tournament was going smoothly, Shae was to my left and as Shae usually does, she calls probably way too much and wittles down her stack really early. Then I looked down at Ac-6c and raised it up. tables are split up 5 and 5(missing Jake). I have Shae to my left, then Jaime, Terri, Chivers and then me. Yes, I'm at the girls+Chivers table. Anyway, Ac-6c, 100-200 level and I raise it up to 550, Shae calls, because that's what Shae does, folds all around. Now I notice Shae only has about 4K left over. The flop is pretty awesome, 3-3c-4c, I think and a big part of me hopes that Shae has some small/mid over-pair that she'll like. I bet out 1100 and she raises all-in. This is strange, Shae will have the nuts almost all of the times she does this, however, she previously stated how all her chips were pretty much gone and she'd probably be out soon so I was thinking she just didn't want to be bullied and thought her over-pair was probably best. I like the option of the nut flush draw and possibility Ace would be good, or even a 6 could be good in this spot, though not as likely as the others. I think it was 3500 more to call and so I'm getting 2 to 1 on a call and I'm cool with that plus I have a large stack. She flips over 2-3(off...I think...?) and I Ace the river but my flush doesn't come so she's doubled up and I'm back down from 16K to 11K. Next group of hands I lost a few pocket pairs, one hand with open ended w/2 overs didn't catch and was down to about 8K(starting stack) and Shae was pummelling me, probably had her stack to about 14K. At this point she lost a large pot(5K or so) to Chivers in a 2-pair vs 2 pair struggle and so I was hoping to get them back from Chivers when I looked down at Ks. Chivers, 200-400, raised it up to 1200 UTG, I 3bet him to 2500 and was hoping to get stacks in asap as he actually only had about 7K more and that's more Chivers style. Chivers called and the flop was K-J-7. Chivers bet out 2500 and I shoved, thinking he'd never fold in this situation. He thought for a few moments and then folded, I swear he told me he folded Jacks, but afterwards, I'm thinking he meant 1 Jack and not a set of Jacks...
Oh well, I got a decent stack of 10K moving to the final table when I doubled up Shae again and then Terri, too... I hate it when I just can't seem to knock anybody out and this is what seemed to be happening. I could've had Shae out 3 times, Chivers folded but I could've had him, Terri had the best hand going in, but not by much and out of 5 all-ins I didn't get 1 winning hand... Sometimes poker is just poker! With 7 players left, blinds at 500-1000, Chivers raised to 2500 under the gun, Heck folded and Craig shoved all-in for 2700, I folded small blind. This is one of those interesting spots, if Jon calls, Chivers can't raise because Craig's all-in isn't a complete raise. betting opens if Jon raises, however...Jon only calls the 2700, 1700 more than his blind. Chivers put in the extra 200. I can't remember the flop, but I think Jon bet, Chivers shoved and Jon called. K-9 for Jon ends up being the best hand, Craig had AJ and I think Chivers had KJ, maybe the board was K-high I don't know...but Jon KO'd 2 players in one amazing crappy hand and had a huge stack top 5.
I had to play "survivor" shoving in situational spots because my hands were just not there and my stack was dwindled down... I looked down at 9-4hearts, I was the button with a little over 5K left, Jon is the small blind to my left, Terri next to him as the BB. I had already won a few all-in preflop shoves with no callers and since Jon was stacking his chips, I figured he'd probably fold a really large amount of hands since he was worried about stacking chips and Terri folds a really large range of hands no matter what so when it folded to me I shoved. Jon folded with a hint of thought, but went back to counting/stacking his chips and Terri looked down and looked like she got sick, but blurted, "Alright, I'll call..." in her best impression of Eeyore. I asked her, "Do you have a 9", hoping I'm at least live... I think she thought I asked her that because I had 8s or something and after flipping over pocket 7s kind of irritably, she perked up when she saw it was only 9-high... The board ran pretty dry, not even a heart in sight to give me any kind of hope and I was out 5th...So no "all cash season" for me this year... I will say that I usually suck out on Terri and that's probably the only times I've KOd her so I definately owed her a few double-ups over the years. The only good things that came out of this last game: Dejo was KOd prior to the final table when he was coolered Ks vs K-8suited AIPF, Chris is in great shape to double up, however, Heck used his "ONE TIME" for the season and turned a flush. This was good for me in that I would be able to rack up KO count distance on him, however, as I stated, 5 all-ins and not one win for me, then I couldn't win my own all-in...
Fred Vs Dejo KO Bet Count:
Fred: 7
Dejo: 2
About the time I was KOd, others were starting to play a new game Sean brought called Cards Against Humanity(I had previously played this game with my family over Christmas/New Years and had a blast) and we had a ton of fun with this amazing and horrible game. I think they call it a "Great Game for Horrible People". Aint that the truth. It's like "Apples to Apples" in that a card is read by a player and cards supplied by the other players are compared against that card to answer/complete a sentance and that player picks the best card, giving points to whomever's card is picked...(not my best explanation...):
For example: "The U.S. postal service spent 3 million dollars last year promoting _______"
All of the other players have 5-10 cards that they use to fill in the blank. Each player turns in the card they pick to be their best to fill in the blank and the original reader reads them aloud to much hysteria and picks their favorite/best. The person who's card was picked as the best gets a point. The significant difference/specialty of this game is that it's extremely, ugh...dirty, to say the least...
Turns to be the reader move in a clockwork fashion and we just played until nobody had any cards left. Up until the last round I was leading with 7 points, Dejo had 6 and he won the last card, which for some reason was deemed worth 2 points and so he won. Nobody cares about winning, though, as the game is just too much fun to play and hear all the ridiculousness.
Some were even saying we should play that instead of poker next time, while I don't think that's happening, I know we'll definately be playing both games again next time...
Supplied by Jaime
1st: 55 gallon drum of lube
2nd: HotPockets
3rd: Profit!
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