Getting Friendly With The Pros

OK, been wondering what to put down on “paper” regarding my excursion to Orleans with Felicia during the WPPA tournaments. I, as always, played mostly ring games while Felicia did her tournament thing. I did play a bunch of satellites as well, but the majority of hours I played ring games.

Some memorable hands:

First big hand was AA vs. KK. I got into the same habit of hitting and running initially and would sit down at a table, make a bit, and get up. One of those times that I sat back down again, was at 6/12. I missed the BB and asked if I could post between the blinds to “buy” the button. I was told “no”. Um, ok… this really isn’t true, but I knew by this time that I wouldn’t have to post behind the button in the 6/12, so that was fine by me. (The only reason that I really asked is that it gives the initial [mis]conception that I’m an ‘action’ player.)

Once I finally was able to get cards in the cutoff, I looked down to find AA! I raised the one limper. The button reraised! Limper folded and the button and I capped it. By this time, I’m putting the button on KK. I just sat down, the guy doesn’t know me, so he’s not going to just assume that I have AA. There’s only one combination of AA left, so I have to assume KK for him. The flop further confirmed this: AKx, all clubs. We capped again. QJ or JT of clubs? No way, he flopped 2nd set and was more than happy to put in the money with a set.

Turn: case Ace! In the frenzy, I did the automatic “check” when getting quads. He thought for a second, but still bet. I, of course, raised, then bet the river blind (which was probably stupid, but it all went on so fast –grin-). He did the crying call. He said after the hand that he thought maybe I had AK. That would mean that all the Kings were out; plus I capped preflop. I know that he doesn’t know me, but that meant that I had to put the 4th bet in before the flop with AK? Then capped again on a suited flop with just two pair? Either way, he was beat by the turn if I held AK. But there was so much in the pot, I don’t blame him for the river call at least. He would have been screaming if I showed him QQ with the Qc if he folded the turn [QQ with Qc is the only other hand –other than AA- that I could put me on if I was him].

I also recall him saying something about the Bad Beat jackpot. Well, I did try to give him a free turn. Once he bet, all, well, "bets" were off and I raised! Besides, if he truly thought about the Bad Beat, he'd have to call my turn check-raise in the hopes of catching the case King for the possible 25k he would have gotten for the losing hand. So, I know he's stuck on the turn... and besides, I did check to him, all he had to do was check behind and he would have gotten a free look at the river.

And, yes, I played one more orbit and got up, LOL.

OK, that one was a good hand. How about a bad one?

AA again. This time me HU with a local pro in the 10/20. He limps UTG, I’m UTG+1 and raise. He said something like, “I thought about doing that”. Probably to try to tell me he has a good hand; hint, hint, lol. So I spar back, “you should have so that I could reraise and protect our hands”. AKx on the flop, two spades (not the Ace). He checks, I bet, he calls. Turn is another spade. He says, “now I have to look if I have a spade”, and I said, “yeah, me too, I do remember one was black”. He checks, I blabber something about still being able to fill and bet. He calls. Oh brother. Me and my big mouth. River, another spade! He bets. I lay down my hand. He said something about not giving out information. I nod, knowing that I did a very bad thing. So much for getting “friendly” with the pros.

I think the reason I said something about filling, was that I didn’t feel he’d chase a flush on the last card, HU, knowing that a pair would counterfeit the hand. But, what I didn't think of was with 3 spades on the board, that would only mean the Ace of spades would pair it. If he had the Ace of spades, he would have known that all his 9 outs are clean. Once again, I shouldn’t have said a thing, just keep firing and let him guess. If he did have the Ace of spades, knowing that particular person, he would have called anyway. He chased too much heads-up.
Interestingly, the majority of time in any one session, I was either hitting, or I wasn’t. Twice I cashed out of the 10/20 about 500 up. But there were also some sessions a couple hundred down! Either the cards were there or not. I hardly was just a little up or a little down. That made it a little different for me, other than my normal hit and run. I tried to do that a couple times, but then it was like, well, what else am I going to do? I’m here for a long time! So, I’d go back to playing.

Once Felicia caught me almost to the felt at the 10/20 in one hand. She asked "how come you don't have any hundreds tucked under your chips?" "I DID; most of my hands haven't been holding up!" Course, I was saying that after raking in a pot with my AK that caught the gutshot for Broadway on the turn. I ended up getting most of my money back, but was still almost 200 down for that session; ouch!

Sometimes after a good hit, I’d freeroll it in a smaller game. Once, I made my way to the 4/8 table, just to be destroyed! YAAA! Worse, it was mostly, from one hand. The Orleans has 1 and 2 dollar blinds on their 4/8 game; so if it’s not raised (which would be to 6) you can get in for 2. One hand I was in late position with a few limpers with 66 and called. The flop was KQ6, two diamonds. An early position limper and I went to 6 bets on the flop. I kept thinking after he 4 bet, that he couldn’t have limped with KK or QQ, and maybe had JTd for the straight/flush draw or KQ. After I made it 5 and he made it 6, I said out loud, “QQ is good”. I called the turn and the river to be shown what I now knew he had: QQ. He definitely would have raised with KK, but QQ, he wanted to make sure there was no Ace or King on the flop (unless a Queen was there too). One of these days I’ll muck knowing that I know…you know?

After that hand, I really didn’t make any headway and cashed out after the biggest of the fish left. So much for the freeroll. Blah!

I tried Omaha a few times and NEVER got ahead in that game. Once on the turn, I had the nut low as well as the nut flush draw. The bettor to my right I put on the flopped nut straight. I thought about raising, but knew that I’d just get reraised and no one with a set is going anywhere (being low limit Omaha). Sure enough, I get counterfeited on the river, do the crying call, just to see A5 (with a small set) take down the low. The armchair commentators at my table went back and forth “I’d have raised on the turn with that hand”! Then the other, yeah, but she (the A5) had a set, she wasn’t going anywhere”. No one hit the better play, my smooth calling in the hopes to not lose anyone and scoop the whole pot should the flush hit! Omaha is a trapping game. (Oh, and by the way, the _other_ better play would have been to fold to the river bet, knowing that someone else most likely had a better low… another “one of these days I’ll muck knowing that I know…you know”? –grin-)
As for satellites, I was ahead on those too, until I started playing the supers. Three at 500 a pop a piece. The only reason that I played is that they were giving away free seats, giving a great overlay; plus, Felicia made a cash in two of the tourneys. One super I chopped a satellite for, so made 1/2 my buy in (minus the 60 for the entry of the sat). Then ended up coming in just 2 spots short of the seats. They paid the top 3 (short of the seats) and I ended up getting 450 in cash. The other 2, I bombed out.

One of the other supers, I lost a race against AK vs. my TT. My opponent was short stacked and took so long to call my raise that I knew he had a marginal hand, so I called his all-in. This, though, left me short stacked. Once the blinds were 150/300 with 25 ante, I had around 1300 left and tried to steal the blinds with K9s when passed to me on the button. I pushed, but was called by the BB (Warren Karp) who just happened to have QQ. Getting one Queen on the flop wasn’t enough, he went and busted my possible straight draw on the turn by getting the case Queen on the river for the mortal nuts.

Last super that I played, I started strong. Very first hand I get 63s in the BB, and 8 players to the flop! I get a beautiful flop of 245 and bet 300. The blinds were only 25/25, but with all the green in the center and 2 clubs on the board, I over bet the pot. Folded all the way to the button who raised me! I shoved and he folded. So I gained about 800 in chips on the first hand. Later, I got dealt AQs, raised and got one caller. AJT on the flop and I bet the flop and turn. My one opponent folded to the turn bet, saying something like, “I hate small kickers”. Well, don’t call with that crap then! (-grin-)

Then, nothing, nothing, and more nothing! Once the blinds were 150/300 again (no antes yet), I called the SB with JTs of spades. I got a possible flop of Axx, two spades. Only problem was the table that I was moved to, people loved to trap. There were 4 others in the pot with me: the BB and 3 limpers! I’m sure one of them had to have an Ace, so I checked. It got checked all the way around. Hmm. Turn, Jack. I shoved all in for my remaining 1100 with 2nd pair and flush draw. Short, tubby, stubby-fingered trapper says “call” and tables his A8o. I get no help and IGHN. Ugh! That was almost as bad as his limping in with KK and QQ other hands that I saw. I only hope he didn’t get a seat with his calling, calling, calling! Hehe.All in all, I was mostly happy with my play. I guess I shouldn’t have shoved the two times that I did. The K9s hand, I had enough chips to wait for a few more hands. The JTs, I pretty much knew someone was probably slow-playing an Ace and should have checked. Felicia agrees with my move in terms of the low amount of chips that I had left. Plus, there were 2 hands that I could have played and won and gotten some chips on that table and wouldn’t have been so desperate, but those people limping with strong hands kept me from taking some chances that I could have taken. However, I played against mostly pros each time and felt like I got far enough that I’m liking my game in a good structure as that was. If I can win some satellites, I think I’ll start playing some of the good structure tournaments with Felicia.

Posted by Glenn