flaming rockets

I think as long as I've been playing Hold 'Em, I think I've heard about every story on how Aces got cracked. It's usually against another pocket pair and you will hear how someone tripped up on the flop or made it on the river.

I played two sng tournaments last night and took second in the first and took 4th (no money) on the bubble for the second. Between the two games, I had pocket aces 5 times. Talk about luck. Of those 5 times, my aces won only once. Hmmm pretty fishy. Against pocket Kings, the Aces are a 4:1 favorite. However, of the 5 times I had it last night, I only won once.

First game: Heads up, I had 59o and limped in. My opponent checked. The flop came out 997. This is a monster flop heads up. I'm virtually guaranteed the pot. The turn came and an Ace came. I didn't think much about it. I bet and my opponent called. River came and I bet and he went all in and, of course, I called. He showed pocket Aces. He should have been punished for slowplaying those in that situation.

Last hand, I had Aces and min-raised to get some action with my short stack.

Flop: 832 - I checked, he bet and I raised all in and he called. He called with top pair. Turn - blank. River - 8.

Sometimes, no matter what you do, it's the wrong result. Normally, with the hands I was being dealt, first place should have been a cake-walk. Instead I take second. Still it's better than not placing in the money at all.

Second game, I'd been playing tight and showing down only good hands. Then I got into it with against Kings. My Aces got cracked on the turn when a King came. That put a hurting on me.

The next time I got Aces, I only picked up the big blind as the small blind. Doesn't even count.

Finally, I got it all in with my Aces against KQ. He hit a King but got no more luck on the later streets.

Of course the last and final time my Aces got cracked and sent me to the rail in 4th place happened with my opponent made a back-door straight.

Ugh. As many times I had Aces, they were simply no good last night.

broken back mountain

Here's a recap of the weekend:
Saturday

Well, my rule of losing 2 in a row never got broken. I think I played about 6 or 7 sng tourneys that day and did pretty well. Then I played in a 1000 FPP tournament for a seat to the WSOP main event. Got shit for cards the entire time. I won a couple hands here and there but just hanging around. The field was 500+ and I got knocked out at around 120th place. Not bad for playing about 5-6 hands the entire time. When you're not getting cards, you're not getting 'em.

Sunday
It was a bad day for pocket Kings. Between watching my friend play and myself having the hand at least five times, they never won vs a hand with one Ace. Of course when I was facing KK with an Ace, the kings held....go figure.

Initially, I was planning on going to AC but my friend threw out his back and I didn't feel like going alone so I decided to go to a $0.50/$1 cash game in Odenton. I did pretty well. I bought in for $135 and left with $300.

I collected a modest pot (~$50) with JcTc. I called a raise of $5 in early position and flopped a rainbow straight and slow played it until the river. The King came on the river and I bet out and got called.

My other pot I took down was with KK. The girl to my right raised it to $6. I re-raised to $20 and she re-raised me back to $40. I called. I recalled at that moment what Phil Gordon said - a 4th re-raise always means Aces. He recommended to avoid raising a 4th time. So I just called. I played a hand with her in the past months ago and she doesn't really mess around with Aces. I figured after my re-raise, she would have put all her chips in with Aces. But there's always a chance she could change her play.

Flop comes, 3 rags. She comes out betting $40. I insta-call.

Turn: another rag. She goes all in. I hesitate briefly and call.

I show my Kings and she shows me Queens. A King comes on the river - salt in the wound.

I felt her and almost double up. I went to about $330.

The rest of the night, I was getting shit for cards but that's okay. I played a few hands in position with some suited connectors and never made anything.

I took in another modest pot with K-2 in the SB. It was almost a family pot.
I flopped top and bottom pair and checked it. I was hoping someone would bet and get a bunch of callers. Sure enough someone did. I was watching all that dead money go in - $6 - $12 - $18 - $24 - $30. Then the button try to buy the pot with a raise to $15. However, I killed off the action when it got to me with a raise to $35.

Had I gone out and bet my two-pair from the get go, I would have missed out on the extra $45 that went into the pot. Plus, if I got called I'm out of position and my two pair may get counterfeited with someone playing a hand like KJ. By checking and letting someone else bet, I gain relative position on everyone else for that betting round. So that was a nice little play I made.

Well, that was about it. Pretty successful poker weekend for me.

I really need to qualify for the WSOP soon!

swimming with the fishes

Yesterday at work my friend calls me up and says there's a $20 buy in tournament in Virginia, can you meet me there? Ahhh the single life. I say, "Of course!" I take the metro in the other direction and meet him at around Springfield Mall. We both got a little mixed up on where we were but we finally made it.

As we walked in, they were already finishing up a game. I was trying to make small talk as I waited but was too interested in watching the existing players play. Needed as much information about them on how they play before I sat down.

The blinds were ridiculously low by the time the table got to heads up. Each had over 100,000 in chips and the blinds were at 500/1000. Everyone was getting a bit anxious to get started and so they started to increase the blinds.

Anyway, once that ended, I sat down with my friend and we got started with the second tournament. We all started with $20000 in chips with blinds starting at $100/$200. Pretty deep stacks - 100 BB.

After folding my few starting hands, I woke up with pocket tens in the cut off spot. There were 4 people in the pot already and the blinds were at $100/$200. I made it $800 to go. 3 people folded and this girl Heather called. We were heads up into the flop.

3-3-7 rainbow flop. She bets a $1000. I raise it up to $3000. She calls. The flop comes Q. She checks. I bet $5000. She calls. So I'm thinking what could she have that makes sense? She could have a bigger pocket pair than me OR is drawing with AK or AJ?

River came which was a blank. She checked and I checked. I show my tens and she shows me 3h4h. I lost about half my stack on that hand. I was steaming inside. It was a costly mistake for me to find out how loose she was and then played her trips passively. That won't happen again.

I was still steaming from that hand when I finally woke up with Jacks in middle position. The blinds now were at $200/$400. My stack was about $9600. I made it $1200 to go and it was folded to Heather. Round two.

Flop: Q-8-x (the x means a rag or meaningless card).
I immediately went all in. I knew she'd call with crap and I was willing to bet my remaining $8K on it. She called with A-8 and I doubled up through her. Thank you Heather!

Her reasoning was that I flopped top pair. She thought she could catch an Ace and win because she was running some hot cards. Whatever. She is the perfect person to felt in a tournament if you ever flop trips and she flops top pair. Can't wait until that happens.

Anyway, my friend got knocked out by Miss Heather when he went over the top with his raise with 8s9s. I didn't really like that play because by then I had a good read on our adversary. She likes to play any Ace. So that makes her a slight favorite against two unpaired cards...about 60%/40% or a 3:2 favorite. Even with suited connectors, ppl at the table think very highly of them. Sure, if you can limp in and see a flop. But it's a TOTALLY different thing to play them without seeing any flops and there are pre-flop raises going on.

Anyway I got knocked out 4 handed. My A-5 vs. JT. It turned out Heather also had JT which helped me out when she folded. However, when the flop showed a 7, I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was afraid of a backdoor straight. And man, did it come. And so there I was, sent to the rail.

Then the railbirds decided to get in on a quick $5 fast blinds tournament while we waited for the next tournament. It was crazy. All-ins all over the place. I began to understand why the pros don't like that play in tournaments. It really negates a lot of play making and skill difference over a weaker player.

Example: The BB went all in blind and I had A8. I figured as a blind hand, it was probable he had an average strength hand for 4-handed play: about J-4 or J-5. So while my A-8 was a 3:2 favorite, it's still too risky of a play for tournament action. Since it's winner take all tournament, and not a cash game, I laid it down.

It's not that I don't think the all-in play is a good one. I think that play is appropriate if you feel your opponents are better than you at a particular game. For me, Omaha Hi-Low Split is a game I have to play sometimes because my friends love to play that. In my opinion, we play that game like a bunch of fishes. Almost everyone stays in to see the flop. There is zero hand selection and there are rarely any pre-flop raises, unless someone has AA or KK in the hand. And even with raises, the mentality is, "well..you have to see the flop" and there are a lot of callers. So with that game, I suck. So I employ the "fold or all-in" preflop. It drives my friends crazy that I do that but I collect the blinds. Until I'm motivated to learn the game and read up on it, plus finding books on Omaha-Hi-Lo split is difficult, I'm going to consider myself a fish.

(I'm sure many of my friends reading this will have something to say in regards to me calling them fishes in Omaha but I'm sticking to my assessment.)

Anyway, back to the main blog. My overall assessment of the competition in VA is they're generally a bunch of calling stations and hyper-aggressive unsophisticated players -- man do I sound conceited or what? I'm starting to sound like Hellmuth without the crying. I mean one guy went all-in at a small pot then showed pocket Aces. I knew exactly what he's trying to do - set up the same play with a bluff next time. Gee, it only took him about 10 minutes to get knocked out - UNSOPHISTICATED. A sophisticated player would show the best hand with an all-in then do it again knowing that people will be expecting a bluff next time.

Next time I head down to VA, I'll be better armed and dangerous. With deep stacks, I'm going to play a very wide range of hands in position. The pots are generally un-raised so I'll have plenty of opportunities. Play my made hands fast and always take free cards and never bluff and never semi-bluff. Value bet, value bet, value bet.

Well, that's it for now.

the short stack continues

Last night, my winning streak continued.
I didn't get to play until pretty late (10PM). I decided to sit down and work on my book. I started around 7:30 and was thinking I'd stop around 9 to play a game. However, I lost track of time and once I found a good break point, I looked at the clock and it was 10 already.

So I fired up my 'Stars account and played a $30 sng tournament.

I was slowly accumulating chips but once again, I lost a good sized pot against a desperate player, I suppose. I had AK suited and raised it 3 times the BB which was $300. Someone went all in with KJ suited which raised it back to me for a total of $600+. Of course, I had to call. The guy made a J on the turn I was suddenly the short stack.

So, once again I had to nurse a short stack with about $500+ as the blinds were at $50/$100. So I picked my spots to go all in. I targeted the average stacks to steal blinds when I could. A good thing was this table wasn't too aggressive. It wasn't like each hand had a raiser, preventing me to make my move.

So after a bunch of stealing, I creeped my way up to about $900. After stealing a few more blinds, I was up to about $1500 with the blinds at $100/$200. I was finally able to raise a normal amount without committing the rest of my chips. I raised it up to $600 when I woke up with pocket 7s. The next guy went all in with pocket 6s. I called to see I was way ahead. I had this guy covered and eliminated him. I was now in very good position with over $3000 in chips.

Now ppl were afraid of me. I have only shown down great hands and won. They also know I wasn't afraid to go all in several times as the short stack. So I picked a few good spots to steal blinds 4 handed. Being on the bubble with a rather passive table made stealing relatively easy.

Once I made it into the money, I was the dominant chip leader. However, I lost that lead after losing two coin flips. Luckily, I was down to less than $1000 when the 2nd place guy went all in and lost. I defaulted to second place and simply did not have enough chips to scare with all-ins.

Another Cinderella story...

a super sunday

Well, last night I saw a movie at a friend's house and came home rather late - around 2AM. I wasn't tired though. I played two sng tournaments. I lost the first one but came in second place in the next one. I was decimated to $45 with 5 players left. But I got lucky two hands in a row to avoid elimination. I think I went all in 6 more times and either won with the best hand or won a bunch as a 60/40 dog.

I finally went to sleep around 5AM. I slept until noon. After I went for a run, I showered and proceeded to play a sit-n-go.

I proceeded to go on a tear. Moneyed in 3 in a row. Took 3rd. Took 1st. Took 2nd.

I started with about $100 in my account. I finished with almost $500 now.

I finally played a $50 tournament and lost. Some big losses. Was building a nice stack and someone who just lost a hand was steaming and went all in with Kh7h. I woke up with Aces and called. He flopped two pair and I couldn't improve. That crippled me down to about $500. Couldn't make anything work after that.

After that loss, I played another $50 one. That one I had some really good cards. Aces, Kings and Queens. I knocked out two ppl with the Queens. Made quad queens.

Eventually, I went heads up. My opponent was a tough one. I had to make some good hands and slow play them. I slow played Aces and flopped a set and rivered a boat. I bet about 60% of the small pot and got called.

Anyway, the hand I took the tournament with a flopped straight. He was drawing dead to a lower straight. My opponent made the wheel and I made a straight to the 9.

That was a nice $250 first place prize.

Well, when I'm running hot, gotta take full advantage.

That's about it for now.

fossilman challenge and onward

Well, my friends and I got to play a little with Greg Raymer. I think I got the year he won it wrong. I believe it was 2004, not 2005, that Greg won the main event.

There wasn't too much I learned. I understood a lot already from what he said. The one thing I learned more about was "Reverse Implied Odds." I read about this in some poker magazine articles and never really knew what they were talking about. It cleared things up a bit for me. It sort of revealed another hole in my game. So that in itself could pay for the $199 challenge course.

I played with Raymer in the last tournament event on Sunday. I was doing well early but ran into a cold deck and was just hanging on. I got busted in the middle with Ac7c vs. 55. I eventually hit two pair but my opponent hit trips on the flop. So that was that. No money involved so nothing really lost.

What was interesting was we did some simulation play and Greg would commentate on our play. He called up my table and he proceeded to deal out a hand and we would play it out like we normally would. After the hand was over, he'd comment on the play. I was actually in a very good situation to get feedback on my play from the man himself. Here's what happened:

I got dealt 77 in early position and I raise the 100/200 blinds to 600. The guy to me calls, the BB raises to 2200. I call.

The flop comes out AQ8. The big blind checks, I check.
The turn reveals a K. The pot is like 5000. The BB bets 1000. I pause and raise to 3000. The BB thinks several seconds before going all in. I immediately fold.

Greg then proceeded to perform analysis on the hand. He didn't like the guy after me calling my raise and then folding. Then he went on to my play. He said he really liked how I played the hand - calling the re-raise preflop. He said I played the flop well by just checking. He especially liked me raising to a weak bet on the turn. He said that on TV, I could look like an idiot or a genius depending on what my opponent had. It turned out my opponent had pocket Aces. So on tv, I would have looked like an idiot but if my opponent had JJ and folded to my raise, I would have looked like a genius.

In my mind, I gave my opponent credit for at least JJ or higher. The check on the flop could mean a couple of things - he missed with JJ, TT or KK and checked to see if he was behind with me flopping the A. Or...it could mean he was trapping with AA or QQ. But I checked. Checking gives me two advantages. It prevents me from being trapped and it might make my opponent suspicious of being trapped themselves, if they're behind.

The 1000 bet on the turn indicated weakness. JJ or TT is what I put him on now. So I pause slightly and raised to 3000. The all-in was the right play on his part, as Greg pointed out. Greg didn't really have much to say about my opponent because he had pocket aces. Pretty hard to play those wrong for most players.

So that was basically the highlight of our 'Fossilman Challenge' weekend.

So today, I began my cash game experience at PokerStars.

I figured with my bankroll, the 0.10/0.25 games were about the right speed for me.

I took a couple of bad beats early but it didn't cripple me or anything. I started to get bored just playing one table so I played two tables. Now this second table I was making some good money. I doubled up early with pocket jacks. I tripped up on the flop with a flush draw and the AdKd went all in to hit his flush but lost. My trip J held and I doubled up to almost $50. Meanwhile in my other window, I was just hovering around the $25 mark. All in all, that first session, my profit was $5. About 10% return.

Second session. I had to refill early on my $25 because I made a straight on the turn and gave my opponent trips. But the river quadded him up. I didn't lose a whole lot but the hand that sent me to refill was the following:

Me: K3
Opponent: KT

Flop: 6T6
Turn: K
River: K

However, I fired up a second window to play and again, I doubled up. I was on a sick 3 hand tear - AA, QQ then KK. I shown down the QQ and then doubled up showing down the KK. Not very encouraging to see if I were my opponents. So was about even since I had to refill on one table but doubled up on the other table.

That changed when my pocket 3s tripped up and stacked another player. My profit was climbing now. So far, my worst has been AQ. I've rarely won with this hand. And the last two KK got called. Both times an A flopped and I had to throw away my hand even though I didn't want to.

Total cash profit: $16 from both sessions.

down to the felt

Well, with a losing streak that continues to build, I was reduced to play my last $7.00+ by entering a $5.50 sng to somehow miraculously rebuild my bankroll. I was playing well until my raise with Aces got re-raised with KsJs. So, I'm thinking, "This is where I want to be." Well, the flop brings with it a King. I already feel a little something in the pit of my stomach that wants me vomit. I could just envision another King on the turn. Of course, I couldn't be more right. I needed to hit an Ace on the river as my only salvation. No such luck. Oh well, at least I'm limiting my losses to just two sng a day.

Well, two of my friends and I are going to meet Greg Raymer, 2005 WSOP main event champ, tonight at Hukas bar and grill. He's going to give a 6 hour lecture tomorrow. Tonight is mostly a meet and greet session with a sit n go tournament that he will personally participate in. He'll watch us play and do some analysis. Maybe he'll be so impressed by me, he'll take me under his wing and I can be his protege. LOL.

Anyway, I've been considering playing cash games lately. I've been reading about it and it's is definitely a different type of poker vs. tournament style. No adjusting to blinds going up and your table life isn't limited to how many chips are in front of you. If you lose all your money to a bad beat, you can always hit your bankroll to reload again. The downside is tilting. I'm afraid if I start tilting, I could lose my entire bankroll. It's gonna be tough to have that kind of discipline to stop when I'm in an emotional state where all I want to do is recoup my money. But if that becomes my goal, I'm no longer playing poker. I'm just using poker as a means to get rid of my emotional state of being on tilt. I'll just have to go for a run or do something away from my computer.

Anyway, I played a play money tournament and my QQ got cracked by some donkey who called my raise with two rags and made two pair on the flop. Of course being on tilt, I couldn't let go of my ladies and got knocked out. Sometimes I hate this game.

Oh well, I should go do my taxes but I think I'll search for a reason to procrastinate. I'll probably post after tomorrow's meeting with Raymer.

a quick post before 'Lost'

Well, I've been busy all day working from home. Went for a job interview during my lunch break and it looks pretty good. It's about 2 miles from where I live. So it's real short. It will save me about 2 hours of commuting if I take this job.

So anyway, after 10+ hours coding, I decided to play a sng on stars. Well, the way I lost is quintessential me. I've been playing real tight with good cards and have shown down some great hands. Once I had pocket jacks and flopped quads. Couldn't make much money off of them but whatever.

The hand that crippled me was KQ. This guy, "jmusteve" limped on the button. It was folded all the way to him and the SB folded and I was the BB. So I sensed weakness so my KQ deserved a raise. So he called. Flop came T8Q. I flopped top pair. I'm losing to a AQ but didn't put him on that since I'm sure he'd raise pre-flop with that. J9 is a possible hand. But flopping a straight is very unlikely.

So I bet and he raises me. I re-raise him to put him all in and he calls. He made bottom two pair. I'm not sure how to feel about that hand right now. I mean, I guess I shouldn't get it all in there with just one pair but it's difficult for me to put my opponent on a hand like T8. I guess that combined with the fact that it's hard for me to lay down top pair.

Well that hand crippled me. I went from second chip leader the short stack. BOOM. One hand. It's sick. I guess I just didn't like him calling my raise with T8. I mean wtf? Where's the respect. All I've ever shown were premium hands and he decides to call me with T8. Oh well. I've been watching him after I got railed. He's getting some ridiculous cards. KK vs. JT (all in). QQ vs. AQ (all in). Donkey! There, I feel better.

Oh well...we'll meet again 'jmusteve'

wsop qualifier

Well, it's that time again. Pokerstars WSOP qualifiers. I'll be looking to play a lot of satellites to win a seat this time. Last year, I staked half my buy-in at the main event and the other half by friends and family. You know you have a great support system and network of friends if they're willing to stake half of your buy in - esp. if it's the Main event. Anyway, I plan on playing the smaller buy-ins anyway for like $1000 or $2000. I would totally love to win a bracelet. I'd wear that shit all the time.

Anyway, I played a $5.50 tournament that is a satellite to a $160 double-shootout. The $5.50 is a unlimited rebuy tournament during the first round of play. Luckily enough, I never had to rebuy. Got real lucky a few times. I had AA vs. 77 in a three way hand and we both flopped a set. Of course he slow played and I slow played. By the river, we had all the money in and I took it down. Then I called a raise pre-flop with pocket 3s and tripped up and felted another poor soul. The very next hand I had pocket deuces and folded to a raise. I would have tripped up again and would have increased my bankroll. It was ridiculous. I should have played. Anyway, the blinds increased every 5 minutes. Talk about super-turbo mode. I made it into the top 20 - we got a free seat to the double-shootout. But to give you an idea of how ridiculously high the blinds were, they were $6000/$12000 blinds with $1000 antes.

Anyway, I'm waiting now to play the double-shootout. In case you don't know what a double-shootout is, it's basically playing two sit-n-go tournaments in a row. You have to win both to win the whole thing. Not an easy feat. This particular one has 81 players (9 tables of 9 players). The winner of each table ends up at the final table. The winner of the final table gets a paid seat at the World Series Main Event with $1000 and spending money/hotel for the week.

I'm back now and I didn't take it down :(
I played my pocket jacks a little too aggressively. What happened was I had the JJ in the big blind. The button raised and the small blind called. First of all, with the raise on the button, I can't give any credit to the hand. The call felt weak so I felt my Jacks were the best hand. So I raised the size of the pot. The button was short stacked and went all in. The small blind folded and I called. The button had AKo. My JJ didn't hold up as my opponent made two pair. Oh well. That pretty much crippled me. I played my short stack strategy but couldn't recover.

Next, I played a turbo sng. This game is a PERFECT example why I don't like turbos at all. I was playing some short-stacked poker and was tied for 4th with 3 other players. We were all short stacked and basically playing the "fold or all-in" method. So I was BB with $600. The shortest stack raised all in with another $630 or so to go. The button called and I should have called. The pot contained $3060 and I had to call another $630. Basically 5 to 1 on my return. Should have been a no-brainer but the odds weren't what I was thinking about. I was thinking about survival and having the all-in guy eliminated. Of course I would have been the one to eliminate him with trip queens but that didn't happen. He survived and of course I get eliminated on the bubble.

My main problem was I didn't have enough time to think out my actions fast enough due to the turbo format. Ughhh. I would have let the pot odds dictate my play in that position. 5 to 1 is a great return: even with 27o. Even if I knew I had pocket deuces vs. pocket aces, 5:1 is the right return to call. That's about as dominated as you'll get in hold 'em. Dumb fold on my part! No more turbos...EVER!

streaking...

Well, just sat down to play some online poker at 'stars and lost two in a row.

Ugh...sucks when all I want to do is play again to get back to even. But I've been down that path before and I know EXACTLY where that leads - pulling out the bank card to re-fill.

So I'm stopping.

The last one I lost right outside the bubble. Those are the worst. I had all my money in with the best hand - even dominating. I had KTo and the other guy had JTs. The flop came out KJQ. So I was way ahead and I actually wouldn't mind a tie either but the turn came out J. No Ace or King on the river to bail me out. So I was out in 4th. SUCKS. Hate going out on the bubble.

This trend is consistent with me not getting many good starting cards. I doubled up early in my second game with QQ vs. KK. I raised and called a re-raise pre-flop. I hit a set and slow played them even with a flush possibility. After that, I'm riding the drought.

Well, since 'm tilting a little, I think I will play some play money games to just play stupidly and just get it out of my system. I have plenty of play chips and can steam off at the 200/400 NL tables.