Busted

This Tuesday and Wednesday, Felicia and I found us at Binion’s again. She wanted to be able to play more satellites, and I don’t blame her. She won yet another lammer (having chopped)! Go Felicia!

I, of course, played the no limit (NL) games. This time around, however, was not as successful. I sometimes wonder if it was my play, but really, I think it’s one of those situations where “they told me there’d be days like this”.

I suppose I should have known things would go down hill on this first big hand. Tight player I’ve seen play before raises in our 2/5 blind NL game to 20. Folds to me and I see AK (one heart, one diamond); I call. Ace on the flop. Good to go! He bets 60. I call; no raise, I know the player well enough; I’m putting him on AK too. Turn is another A, this time, the A of spades, which puts 3 spades on the board. He bets 80. Now I’m sure we have the same hand. After I called the flop bet, I really don’t think he’ll be betting into me with less than AK, and there are no other royals on the board to give him two pair or a possible set from a high-wired pair; so I just flat call. River, another spade. He checks his hole cards and makes it 300. Duh. I’m not stupid. I know we have the same hand, say so, but add that he ran me down and chuck my hand. He courteously shows me AK with the K of spades. I stick another hundred under my stack and play on.

Another hand comes where I raise to 15 UTG w/ AQo and get 5 callers. Not exactly what I was looking for. Flop is Q99, two hearts. I really don’t want to check it, and I know I got a lot of callers, but at the same time, they know how tight I am so I don’t put anyone on a 9. Still, I bet 15 as a feeler bet. I get one caller. This guy is loose and plays most pots. He keeps checking his hole cards and I figure I’m done with the hand until the dealer turns up another 9 on the turn. Hmm, does he now have me with four 9’s? I bet 15 again, thinking it’s now less likely that he has another 9, and I don’t want him drawing to a K for a higher full house. I suppose I could have made it more, it was argued as such, but I know how loose the guy is and didn’t want to lose him if he had a smaller wired pair. River is the T of hearts. OK, I have the best full house (without him having KK or AA in the hole), but he’s calling all the way, so I check, thinking it might be a split pot. He bets 20. I’m wondering if he has the case 9, but call anyway, too much money in the pot. He turns over KJ of hearts for the rivered, gut-shot straight flush! OMG. He drew to his flush with a boat on board, but got his one outer. I should have stopped playing altogether right there. But I couldn’t, I figured I’d get some of my money back from him.

I did the Mike Caro and got on the loose guy’s (LG) left once a seat opened. Caro talks about how the money flows clock-wise on the table. Being on LG’s right, I might raise him out of pots that I might otherwise trap him in for, at least, his bring-in. LG, however, gets in a big pot that doubles him up. It’s funny how you can see things so clearly when you’re not in the hand. Flop is Q4Q and it goes check, check, bet, call, raise, call all-in, reraise all-in, call. I figured two people for Q’s and one for 4’s full. I was dead on. LG had the 44, and although the first all-in made a higher boat when he paired his suited 5 kicker, he was so short stacked (wonder why) that LG still doubled through from the bring-ins. After that, LG played till his blind and left. Felicia came by a little later and I think we ended up going to get something to eat. I was 210 down.

After eating, I actually had a great session. Had a tipsy maniac (TM) at our table that wanted to see every flop. Would bet anything, and sometimes nothing. I almost doubled through him in one hand where I had KK and raised to 20 pre-flop (2/5 blind again). He called, stating that since I played with him when he raised, he’d do the same. Why thank you! Flop came Q63, two clubs. I bet around the pot, 70 (we had one other caller pre). TM looks at his whole cards and goes all-in for about 160. Dude in the middle looks at his cards, but mucks. I think for a minute. I could very well be possible for him to have 63o, that’s the way he played. But I have seen him bluff before and, although he must know I have a big hand and shouldn’t be bluffing me, I called anyway getting about 4-1 on my money. Well, I was close on his hand: 64o. He had middle pair and a 3 straight. He called an all-in earlier with a gut-shot and got there, so I wasn’t too surprised. He almost got there, he was 4 straight by the turn, but the river was another 3, giving me the winner with KK’s-up. I ended that session 140 ahead.

Felicia and I called it a night and found a room.

The next day I started playing again. Played another 2/5 for about an hour and a half and got nothing. I called a couple small raises with marginal hands with multiple people in, but never made anything. Mostly I was blinded down to 100 down before they called me for my table change.

Switched over to a 1/2 blind NL game and immediately started doing better. No big memorable hands, but I ended 68 up in an hour.

Felicia pulled me away for a Wednesday Poker Discussion Group (WPDG) meeting. We had never been to one and she really wanted me to be there with her, so I went. I would play all day if you let me, but I guess I could use some grub (-grin-), not to mention I really was interested to join in the meeting. I was a fun meeting (the Kung Pao chicken was great) and I actually participated in the discussion of a NL hand that someone brought up. Two respected people complimented me on my comments too. Bonus!

Back to the tables after dinner! You know I just can’t get enough. I was able to get into another 1/2 game fairly quickly.

Almost right away, a short stack bets 30 or his last 45 and I see AQs. Tournament mentality kicked in and I called. Before the flop he asks if I’m going to call his last 15, I say “sure” and he sticks it in blind. I really should have had bells going off, but for whatever reason, I stuck in another 15 and he showed his QQ. Ugh. I should have remembered reading in Ciaffone and Steward’s NL and PL (pot limit) book about bets that are large relative to the opponents stack size and known that he had a high-wired pair. 30 pre-flop is not that uncommon a raise for the 2/5 table and I had a calling hand for that table, but, again, didn’t think about where I was, at the 1/2 table. So, two errors on my part there.

Couple hands later, I have KQ in the big blind and flop top two. It’s rainbow, but anyone with JT would be drawing for free if I checked, so I potted it. I got a caller to my left. Turn is a T. I pot it again and get raised. I reraise, thinking he might have KT or KJ and want to charge him. River is a blank and, although a straight is out there, it would have been a gut-shot so I quickly dismiss it and pot it again, which puts me all-in. He shrugs and calls. He had the straight. He called a pot bet with a gut-shot. I quickly bring out two hundred more. With people this bad, I’m not leaving. I should have slowed down with the raise, but he didn’t reraise me on the turn, which just enforced that he didn’t have the straight. That part, at least, was a good play by him.

One of the pros from the WPDG came to our table. She sat three seats to my left (I was 6 seat, she was 9). Not good position for me, but I did want to see how she played. She bought into the 1/2 table for 500. Largest I’ve seen someone buy in for on that table.

I got some starting hands here and there that didn’t go anywhere and got a little blinded down to 173 when this hand came up. I was big blind: seat 8 limps, pro in 9 seat limps, seat 2 limps (the total fish at our table, saw every hand), seat 3 makes it 10 total. When it gets to me, I see 77 and call the raise, knowing that others will call to and I felt I had good implied odds. Everyone calls the raise, so there’s about 51 in the pot to start (5 people for 1, plus 1 from the SB that folded). Flop is 972, two hearts. I check my second set, knowing that seat 3 will bet. Seat 8 and 9 check. Seat 2, the fish, actually bet 10 into the pot. He would always bet a red bird if he had any pair, but 10 means he probably had top pair. Seat 3, I’m guessing, had an over pair and made it 30. I shove all-in for my remaining 163, wanting to shutout any flush and/or straight draws. Seat 8 folds. Pro in seat 9 scrunches her brow and asks how much I have and goes into a think tank. After a minutes she shoves all-in! What the heck? I wondered if she slow played top set. Her all-in folds seat 2 and 3 and we get heads-up. I ask her if she has top set and she says no, top pair and flush draw, turning over T9 of hearts. OMG. I couldn’t believe the move. I gathered she wanted to shut out any others drawing to the same flush, since she wasn’t drawing to the nuts. Of course, the turn is the 4 of hearts and the board fails to pair on the end. Again, with calls like that, I bring another 300 to the table, even being 400 down at that point.

I’m thinking that she felt to call the raise I must have had an over pair. It’s the only thing I can think of. After plugging some hands into twodimes.net, I find that if I had AA, she was actually a 52% favorite! However, my having a set, I’m a 68% favorite. She obviously did not put me on a set. I’m thinking as a pro, she was taking the odds that I hopefully had an over pair. If she knew she was a slight favorite in that situation, it makes sense. 51 in the pot pre-flop + 10 by seat 2 + 30 by seat 3 + my 163 makes it 144, but she had to call 163. This is where I get off track. It’s close, but she really didn’t have 2-1. Plus, there were two others in the pot that might have called and have to contend the pot multi-way. After she left, seat 8 (who was an excellent player) and I got into a discussion. He mentioned the viperous way I shoved all-in and put me on a set, like I was just waiting to spring. How she failed to notice this, I don’t know. Shrug. He felt, however, if I was deeper (had more money) she wouldn’t have been able to call. At the 1/2 table, there are few that have more than 200, so I don’t bother to buy-in for more than that. Perhaps I will bring more in the future.

After buying in again, I made 43 back. By that time, Felicia came back and was tired. We headed home, talking about the hands and her satellites.

So, I’m still learning this NL game. Although I lost big this time, I don’t feel I did too much badly. I always had the best of it to start. The straight to the top-two hand, I perhaps shouldn’t have gone all-in before he acted on the river, but I definitely put him on the wrong hand. The QQ vs. AQ, obviously, was a bad call. The other ones, I know I had the best of it. That’s what we do in poker, put our money in when we have the best of it. While the odds might be in my favor in the majority of the hands above, that’s no guarantee that I’ll win. They said there’d be days like this.

Posted by Glenn