If anyone actually reads this, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been getting set up at my job, finding an apartment, etc. All is well.
Back to poker. After Friday's debacle, I showed up for Saturday's satellites for Sunday's $400 tournament. In the satellites, 10 players put up $90, and the last two players receive $400 each to enter the tournament with or put in their pocket.
First satellite is going well. I got lucky when I played tricky and tried to trap a couple of aggressive players. Of course, you usually just trap yourself in spots like this.
Blinds 100-200. All fold to the chip leader on the button, who limps. I just complete with JJ in the small blind, thinking there is a good chance the big blind, by far the most aggressive player in the game, will raise. He disappoints me and checks.
Flop looks good, 862, but with a flush draw. I bet 500, call, raise! Yikes. The button would almost always raise preflop with a big pair. It's much more likely he will have an 8 or maybe a flush draw. I move in, and the big blind folds what he said later was A8.
The button calls with an 8 ... 86 for two pair. Of course, I am capable of sucking out from time to time and spike the 2 on the river to make a higher two pair.
I cruise from there to four-handed play, but poker has a way of evening out the luck (and then some). Blinds 400-800, big blind from previous hand moves all-in UTG for 3K or so. I have about 10K (half the chips in play) and call with AK of spades. He has A6, 6 on the flop, no help.
It stings, but I'm still chip leader. Three-handed now, button folds, and I just move all-in from the SB with TT, expecting the BB to call with a wide range. He beats me into the pot with 66 (as he should, by the way).
This pot has 75 percent of the chips in play in it, and another 6 on the flop does me in. Now he has 15K, and the other player and I have about 2500 each.
Why does poker hate me so much? I have twice had chances to earn my $400 seat for $90, once as a 3-1 favorite and another as a 4 1/2-1 favorite, and lost both. It happens, but FUCK!
Now, I lose my nerve and ask the third player if he wants to chop and take $200 each, for a $110 profit. He agrees. Why did I do this? Answer: Because I was scared to lose.
This is not a proper mindset in which to play poker. I take the profit and enter another satellite, lose, and finish up a clean $20 for the session.
So, I pony up the $400 to play my last big tournament before heading back to work.
In my next post, you'll read how I donkeyed that money off.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
I'm done, part 1
I am no longer a professional poker player.
I will likely be hired as a copy editor at a Texas newspaper on Monday. This weekend's results did not make a difference in my decision to go back to the grind, but they sure encapsulated all the disappointment and frustration I have felt over the last six months.
Start on Friday. The local home game is holding its periodical $400 tournament this weekend. I enter Friday's $60 rebuy tournament to warm up and maybe get a financial jump on the weekend. I also know it will probably be one of the last times I play in any decent-sized poker game for a while.
The tournament is going very well. I chip up and am already one of the chip leaders with 18 of the 44 players remaining when I bust another big stack to take a gigantic lead.
I have been active with my stack. With blinds at 400-800, 100 ante, I limp in early position with T9 of diamonds. Another limper follows along, small blind calls, big blind checks.
Flop QQJ. Big stack in SB bets out 2500, I call. Turn K gives me the straight. SB bets same 2500, I raise to 12000. He thinks for a bit, then calls. River 3, he immediately goes all-in. I call and beat his Q2.
The guy is a typical young aggressive player, but he always comes in drunk and keeps drinking. It is difficult to lay down trips, but I hate his play here. All he can beat is a bluff on the turn. I really hate his play on the river when I will never fold a better hand or call with a worse one.
I am now a huge stack, and I cruise to the final table. It all starts to go awry 8-handed. The loose, former chip leader, who is steaming after losing a couple pots, limps UTG, all fold, I complete A5 in SB, short-stacked BB checks. Flop comes 864 rainbow, I check, BB goes all-in for about half the pot, UTG calls. I have four outs, very possibly seven, and the rest of the hand will probably be checked down with a player all-in. I call.
Turn T, river A. The BB stands up and says, "No!!" when the A hits. I check, and UTG goes all-in for 35K, about the size of the pot. I am stunned. It will cost me over a third of my stack, and I can beat nothing. My kicker will play. I assume he made aces up or has something like AQ, AJ or AT.
I fold and UTG shows K7, nothing. BB triples up with T9. I am livid. I have played a ton of hours with UTG. He is a purely recreational player, but I can't believe he would completely forget about the situation and move in on a dry side pot. "Oh, yeah, I guess I shouldn't have done that," he says after I explain the situation. Christ. Instead of upticking 30K or so, I downtick 13K, and there are still eight players left instead of seven.
UTG busts, and I am still the chip leader with 105K. Five spots pay, first place $2,200. Blinds now 3K-6K with a 1K ante. All fold to me on the button with AQo. The player who is either second or third in chips with nearly 70K is in the BB. He knows I am aggressive, but he is also semi-competent and, I thought, wouldn't want to tangle with the chip leader this close to the money unless he had 99 or better, AK or maybe AQ or AJ suited.
I don't want him to call a standard raise and beat me on the flop when the standard raise is nearly 20 percent of my stack.
I shove for the whole 105K. SB folds and BB starts to think. At first I think maybe he is thinking about calling all the money off with a middle pair, but the more he thinks, the more I realize I have him beat.
I am surprised when he gets up the nerve to call and absolutely blown away when he shows KT of clubs. I turn over my hand, and he says, "Oh, man, I didn't think you were that good. I thought you were stealing." "With what, K9?" I think.
I mean, he actually acted like he expected to be ahead with K-high.
If my hand, which is about a 58-42 percent favorite, holds up, I will have more than 1/3 of the chips in play with six players left. Board comes J543 ... K. FUUUCCCKKK!!!!!
I am left with about 35K, six big blinds. I go through the blinds, then get caught when I am on an actual button steal and go out 7th.
Every poker player has tons of bad-beat stories, but this one just killed me. How could he call as second or third in chips when we're two spots from the money and two players have only about 20K?
I'm embarrassed to say I lost my composure a bit for one of the few times at a poker table. I didn't rant and rave, but I made snarky comments like, "Somebody's stealing again!" whenever someone moved all-in after that hand. "Here comes a steal!" "Everybody's stealing!"
The guy apologized to me later, and I, of course, told him he had nothing to apologize for. I did.
That $2200 (or event $800 for third) would have come in handy. Instead it was on to the single-table satellites for the $400 tournament on Saturday.
I will likely be hired as a copy editor at a Texas newspaper on Monday. This weekend's results did not make a difference in my decision to go back to the grind, but they sure encapsulated all the disappointment and frustration I have felt over the last six months.
Start on Friday. The local home game is holding its periodical $400 tournament this weekend. I enter Friday's $60 rebuy tournament to warm up and maybe get a financial jump on the weekend. I also know it will probably be one of the last times I play in any decent-sized poker game for a while.
The tournament is going very well. I chip up and am already one of the chip leaders with 18 of the 44 players remaining when I bust another big stack to take a gigantic lead.
I have been active with my stack. With blinds at 400-800, 100 ante, I limp in early position with T9 of diamonds. Another limper follows along, small blind calls, big blind checks.
Flop QQJ. Big stack in SB bets out 2500, I call. Turn K gives me the straight. SB bets same 2500, I raise to 12000. He thinks for a bit, then calls. River 3, he immediately goes all-in. I call and beat his Q2.
The guy is a typical young aggressive player, but he always comes in drunk and keeps drinking. It is difficult to lay down trips, but I hate his play here. All he can beat is a bluff on the turn. I really hate his play on the river when I will never fold a better hand or call with a worse one.
I am now a huge stack, and I cruise to the final table. It all starts to go awry 8-handed. The loose, former chip leader, who is steaming after losing a couple pots, limps UTG, all fold, I complete A5 in SB, short-stacked BB checks. Flop comes 864 rainbow, I check, BB goes all-in for about half the pot, UTG calls. I have four outs, very possibly seven, and the rest of the hand will probably be checked down with a player all-in. I call.
Turn T, river A. The BB stands up and says, "No!!" when the A hits. I check, and UTG goes all-in for 35K, about the size of the pot. I am stunned. It will cost me over a third of my stack, and I can beat nothing. My kicker will play. I assume he made aces up or has something like AQ, AJ or AT.
I fold and UTG shows K7, nothing. BB triples up with T9. I am livid. I have played a ton of hours with UTG. He is a purely recreational player, but I can't believe he would completely forget about the situation and move in on a dry side pot. "Oh, yeah, I guess I shouldn't have done that," he says after I explain the situation. Christ. Instead of upticking 30K or so, I downtick 13K, and there are still eight players left instead of seven.
UTG busts, and I am still the chip leader with 105K. Five spots pay, first place $2,200. Blinds now 3K-6K with a 1K ante. All fold to me on the button with AQo. The player who is either second or third in chips with nearly 70K is in the BB. He knows I am aggressive, but he is also semi-competent and, I thought, wouldn't want to tangle with the chip leader this close to the money unless he had 99 or better, AK or maybe AQ or AJ suited.
I don't want him to call a standard raise and beat me on the flop when the standard raise is nearly 20 percent of my stack.
I shove for the whole 105K. SB folds and BB starts to think. At first I think maybe he is thinking about calling all the money off with a middle pair, but the more he thinks, the more I realize I have him beat.
I am surprised when he gets up the nerve to call and absolutely blown away when he shows KT of clubs. I turn over my hand, and he says, "Oh, man, I didn't think you were that good. I thought you were stealing." "With what, K9?" I think.
I mean, he actually acted like he expected to be ahead with K-high.
If my hand, which is about a 58-42 percent favorite, holds up, I will have more than 1/3 of the chips in play with six players left. Board comes J543 ... K. FUUUCCCKKK!!!!!
I am left with about 35K, six big blinds. I go through the blinds, then get caught when I am on an actual button steal and go out 7th.
Every poker player has tons of bad-beat stories, but this one just killed me. How could he call as second or third in chips when we're two spots from the money and two players have only about 20K?
I'm embarrassed to say I lost my composure a bit for one of the few times at a poker table. I didn't rant and rave, but I made snarky comments like, "Somebody's stealing again!" whenever someone moved all-in after that hand. "Here comes a steal!" "Everybody's stealing!"
The guy apologized to me later, and I, of course, told him he had nothing to apologize for. I did.
That $2200 (or event $800 for third) would have come in handy. Instead it was on to the single-table satellites for the $400 tournament on Saturday.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Ho hum
Took a week off from poker, then played home game's $130 one-rebuy tournament on Sunday.
Not good.
1. First hand of tournament, 16 players, start with 5,000 chips. Early position player limps, all fold, I call on button with A7h. Flop KT7, check around. Turn A. Interesting. Solid player bets out 125 from small blind, limper calls, I make it 525. SB reraises to 2000 straight, limper folds, I fold.
I can beat some worse two-pair hands here, but I felt good about the laydown against this player. He is a fearful type who I think would put me on QJ when I raised unless he had it himself.
2. After winning a couple of decent pots with AA and KK, I open AKh in middle position to 150 (blinds 25-50, by the way), only the big blind, a good tournament player who respects my play, calls.
Flop K76, two clubs. Check, I bet 300, call. Turn T, he bets out 550. Normally this bet is someone trying to protect a pair, usually top pair, thinking the raiser has A-high. I call to see what he does on the river. After a blank hits, he quickly and confidently bets 1500.
I do not think he would make this bet with KQ. This is a typical "bluff or the nuts" situation for this guy, and he doesn't generally try to bluff me. I reluctantly fold.
I'm not too happy with this hand. In retrospect, I think a much better line would have been to raise his turn bet to 1200-1400 or so. That would have defined this player's hand much better. If he raises, I can give it up and sleep better at night. If he calls, I should be able to get a free showdown on the river.
3. Blinds 50-100. The most aggressive and far and away the best player at the table opens for 300 from middle position. His opening range here is literally as wide as 22+, A2s+, A8o+, any two broadway, and any two suited connectors (including one- and two-gappers, down to even 52s, 42s and 32s). He has already doubled up or close to it.
All fold to me with JJ in the small blind and about 4500 chips. My default line against him is to just call and try to trap him after the flop with any playable hand in this spot. For whatever reason, I decide to stand up this time and reraise him, making it 1000 to go.
I'm hoping to take the pot there, but he calls with little hesitation. Flop is a terrible AQ9 rainbow. I bet 1800, he immediately reraises all-in, I immediately fold, and he laughs, saying I was trying to bluff him. I am crippled, having lost more than half of my stack.
I think I played this hand about as bad as I could, especially against this player.
First, preflop: With this stack size, my reraise puts me in a pretty bad spot. I am in the small blind with a hand that will not be easy to play against an aggressive player. By bloating the pot, any continuation bet will commit most of my chips to the pot. This is not good with an overcard likely to come more than 50 percent of the time.
Also, I think my raise was too small. With this hand, if I am going to raise at all, I should have made it 1500 at least to cut down on his pot odds. (As played, he called 700 to win 1400, plus whatever he could win after the flop.)
As bad as it seems in general, my right play may have been to just move in for the whole 4500. AA, KK and QQ will call and crush me, of course, but he is the kind of player who would be willing to race with a lower pair, AK or AQ.
After the flop, given the way I played it preflop, I think I have to check and fold with my stack size. The continuation bet (which was a bit big anyway) put more than half of my chips in the pot, and I couldn't stand a reraise.
I feel sick about a check, though, because I know it is like handing the pot to him when I have already invested nearly a quarter of my stack preflop.
A butchering all the way around. In this situation, I now think my best plays were either:
1. Call 300, then make a large check-raise (possibly all-in) on favorable flops. Check-fold on flops like the actual one.
2. Move all-in before the flop, with the possibility of getting called by a worse hand.
I got the rest of my money in a few hands later with AQc vs. AKd and didn't suck out.
Making money in poker is hard enough without fucking things up yourself. I feel like I did that yesterday.
Did I run into straights in the first two hands? Would he be crazy enough to move in with JT on the third hand? Did I get bluffed there, too? Did I get bluffed at all? Am I going crazy?
I wish I could give my opponents truth serum at the end of the day to find out what happened.
Those decisions are what separate the winners from the losers at the poker table.
Not good.
1. First hand of tournament, 16 players, start with 5,000 chips. Early position player limps, all fold, I call on button with A7h. Flop KT7, check around. Turn A. Interesting. Solid player bets out 125 from small blind, limper calls, I make it 525. SB reraises to 2000 straight, limper folds, I fold.
I can beat some worse two-pair hands here, but I felt good about the laydown against this player. He is a fearful type who I think would put me on QJ when I raised unless he had it himself.
2. After winning a couple of decent pots with AA and KK, I open AKh in middle position to 150 (blinds 25-50, by the way), only the big blind, a good tournament player who respects my play, calls.
Flop K76, two clubs. Check, I bet 300, call. Turn T, he bets out 550. Normally this bet is someone trying to protect a pair, usually top pair, thinking the raiser has A-high. I call to see what he does on the river. After a blank hits, he quickly and confidently bets 1500.
I do not think he would make this bet with KQ. This is a typical "bluff or the nuts" situation for this guy, and he doesn't generally try to bluff me. I reluctantly fold.
I'm not too happy with this hand. In retrospect, I think a much better line would have been to raise his turn bet to 1200-1400 or so. That would have defined this player's hand much better. If he raises, I can give it up and sleep better at night. If he calls, I should be able to get a free showdown on the river.
3. Blinds 50-100. The most aggressive and far and away the best player at the table opens for 300 from middle position. His opening range here is literally as wide as 22+, A2s+, A8o+, any two broadway, and any two suited connectors (including one- and two-gappers, down to even 52s, 42s and 32s). He has already doubled up or close to it.
All fold to me with JJ in the small blind and about 4500 chips. My default line against him is to just call and try to trap him after the flop with any playable hand in this spot. For whatever reason, I decide to stand up this time and reraise him, making it 1000 to go.
I'm hoping to take the pot there, but he calls with little hesitation. Flop is a terrible AQ9 rainbow. I bet 1800, he immediately reraises all-in, I immediately fold, and he laughs, saying I was trying to bluff him. I am crippled, having lost more than half of my stack.
I think I played this hand about as bad as I could, especially against this player.
First, preflop: With this stack size, my reraise puts me in a pretty bad spot. I am in the small blind with a hand that will not be easy to play against an aggressive player. By bloating the pot, any continuation bet will commit most of my chips to the pot. This is not good with an overcard likely to come more than 50 percent of the time.
Also, I think my raise was too small. With this hand, if I am going to raise at all, I should have made it 1500 at least to cut down on his pot odds. (As played, he called 700 to win 1400, plus whatever he could win after the flop.)
As bad as it seems in general, my right play may have been to just move in for the whole 4500. AA, KK and QQ will call and crush me, of course, but he is the kind of player who would be willing to race with a lower pair, AK or AQ.
After the flop, given the way I played it preflop, I think I have to check and fold with my stack size. The continuation bet (which was a bit big anyway) put more than half of my chips in the pot, and I couldn't stand a reraise.
I feel sick about a check, though, because I know it is like handing the pot to him when I have already invested nearly a quarter of my stack preflop.
A butchering all the way around. In this situation, I now think my best plays were either:
1. Call 300, then make a large check-raise (possibly all-in) on favorable flops. Check-fold on flops like the actual one.
2. Move all-in before the flop, with the possibility of getting called by a worse hand.
I got the rest of my money in a few hands later with AQc vs. AKd and didn't suck out.
Making money in poker is hard enough without fucking things up yourself. I feel like I did that yesterday.
Did I run into straights in the first two hands? Would he be crazy enough to move in with JT on the third hand? Did I get bluffed there, too? Did I get bluffed at all? Am I going crazy?
I wish I could give my opponents truth serum at the end of the day to find out what happened.
Those decisions are what separate the winners from the losers at the poker table.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
265th place
Pat finished 265th in the main event, cashing for $45,422.
He played short-stacked, relative to the field, for most of days 3 and 4. Great showing.
He has the temperament and game to do well in big buy-in tournaments. I can't wait to see what event he takes on next.
He played short-stacked, relative to the field, for most of days 3 and 4. Great showing.
He has the temperament and game to do well in big buy-in tournaments. I can't wait to see what event he takes on next.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Friends cashes in main event
Think a good thought for my friend, Pat Atchison, who is still alive in the main event at the World Series of Poker.
He has started playing bigger tournaments this year and has already picked up more than $58,000 worth of cashes.
There are about 400 players remaining, and Pat has a below-average stack. However, he is guaranteed at least $34,664.
UPDATE: Pat advanced to Day 4 with a below-average, but workable, stack of 198,000. There are 337 players left, and Pat is guaranteed at least $39,445.
He has started playing bigger tournaments this year and has already picked up more than $58,000 worth of cashes.
There are about 400 players remaining, and Pat has a below-average stack. However, he is guaranteed at least $34,664.
UPDATE: Pat advanced to Day 4 with a below-average, but workable, stack of 198,000. There are 337 players left, and Pat is guaranteed at least $39,445.
Monday, July 9, 2007
I love tournaments
Days like these remind me why I fight through the frustration to keep playing tournaments.
I won a $130 one-rebuy tournament Sunday, beating 23 other players to pocket a profit of $820 after deducting my two rebuys, my 20-percent swap with a friend (the same one who outdrew me twice in the 2-5 game last week) and tip.
Basically, I sucked out twice to chip up, once with AJ vs. QQ, then with TT vs. KK. I did have both players covered, but each one would have chopped out more than half of my stack at the time.
The final table went smoothly, as I busted a couple players and picked up a lot of pots with preflop raises, especially on the bubble (five spots paid). Most importantly, I won three preflop races, busting the 11th-place finisher with 66 vs. QJ, fourth place with A9 vs. 66 and winning the event with 22 vs. AQ. The final board came J986K. Talk about all around it.
I really enjoy playing tournaments, even these fast-paced crapshoots. (Though this Sunday tournament does not have a bad structure at all for a daily tournament. 4,000 chips, first three blinds 30 minutes, blinds 20 minutes after that.) It's fun to start with 1/25th of the chips and end up with all of them.
However, the variance in these tournaments is tough to take. The difference between first and second place today was about $500, and it was decided by a hand where I moved in preflop with a barely better than 50 percent chance to win. If I had lost with A9 vs. 66, I would have had a much tougher time four-handed and very well could have finished second or even third.
I have just started "The Poker Tournament Formula" by Arnold Snyder. He's known as a blackjack expert, but feedback about Snyder's book on my favorite poker forum, twoplustwo.com, has been favorable. He is one of the few authors to really address the daily, fast-paced tournaments that most low-level players enter. Most of the poker books have focused on larger, big buy-in events that give players much more play. The fast tournaments quickly become all about making moves at pots, often moving all-in on any pot that can be won.
Tournament strategy is really more important than poker strategy in these events.
Cash games are the bread and butter of the professional grinder, but it is so easy for boredom to set in. As long as tournaments don't sap your energy for cash games (as they have done for me in the past), I think they're a worthwhile diversion.
I won a $130 one-rebuy tournament Sunday, beating 23 other players to pocket a profit of $820 after deducting my two rebuys, my 20-percent swap with a friend (the same one who outdrew me twice in the 2-5 game last week) and tip.
Basically, I sucked out twice to chip up, once with AJ vs. QQ, then with TT vs. KK. I did have both players covered, but each one would have chopped out more than half of my stack at the time.
The final table went smoothly, as I busted a couple players and picked up a lot of pots with preflop raises, especially on the bubble (five spots paid). Most importantly, I won three preflop races, busting the 11th-place finisher with 66 vs. QJ, fourth place with A9 vs. 66 and winning the event with 22 vs. AQ. The final board came J986K. Talk about all around it.
I really enjoy playing tournaments, even these fast-paced crapshoots. (Though this Sunday tournament does not have a bad structure at all for a daily tournament. 4,000 chips, first three blinds 30 minutes, blinds 20 minutes after that.) It's fun to start with 1/25th of the chips and end up with all of them.
However, the variance in these tournaments is tough to take. The difference between first and second place today was about $500, and it was decided by a hand where I moved in preflop with a barely better than 50 percent chance to win. If I had lost with A9 vs. 66, I would have had a much tougher time four-handed and very well could have finished second or even third.
I have just started "The Poker Tournament Formula" by Arnold Snyder. He's known as a blackjack expert, but feedback about Snyder's book on my favorite poker forum, twoplustwo.com, has been favorable. He is one of the few authors to really address the daily, fast-paced tournaments that most low-level players enter. Most of the poker books have focused on larger, big buy-in events that give players much more play. The fast tournaments quickly become all about making moves at pots, often moving all-in on any pot that can be won.
Tournament strategy is really more important than poker strategy in these events.
Cash games are the bread and butter of the professional grinder, but it is so easy for boredom to set in. As long as tournaments don't sap your energy for cash games (as they have done for me in the past), I think they're a worthwhile diversion.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
On the sidelines
Keeping a home game organized is harder than it looks.
Taking tournament entries, giving seat assignments, counting up rebuys, cutting up the prize pool, starting a cash game list, selling chips, condensing tournament tables. I spent the first five hours of Tuesday night on my feet.
It's not fun work, but I like making sure everything is done right. When I go play a tournament somewhere, and the host has no idea about balancing tables or a reasonable tournament structure, I'm upset. I like making sure our players have a good time.
I got into a cash game later, but only played a few hands before it broke, picking up a clean $44 profit.
I'm in charge again Friday, but there's usually not as many players, giving me more of a chance to play.
Taking tournament entries, giving seat assignments, counting up rebuys, cutting up the prize pool, starting a cash game list, selling chips, condensing tournament tables. I spent the first five hours of Tuesday night on my feet.
It's not fun work, but I like making sure everything is done right. When I go play a tournament somewhere, and the host has no idea about balancing tables or a reasonable tournament structure, I'm upset. I like making sure our players have a good time.
I got into a cash game later, but only played a few hands before it broke, picking up a clean $44 profit.
I'm in charge again Friday, but there's usually not as many players, giving me more of a chance to play.
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