When things start to go your way, my advice is to try and mine as much out of that vein of good luck as humanly possible. Work is still crazy, but even though the recent changes there weren't entirely to my liking, things are calming down and I'm getting some projects that I can sink my teeth into. Soccer was going so badly at one point that I was about ready to quit in frustration of my complete incompetence. But, I had three good efforts in a losing cause before this Friday, where I got a shutout and two very creditable 2-2 draws. Tonight, I went to my friend's house in Chelsea and won a tournament against six players...all of whom are strong except for one (but Conn knows this, though!).
I've talked here in this space before about how the first couple of hands will usually serve as a barometer for how my night is going to go (it works that way for me in soccer, too...if I don't stop the first couple of shots in the warm-up before we start, I usually get frustrated and play poorly). The reason I keep mentioning soccer is because it isn't all that different for me than poker, especially with the mental aspect of it. Last night at the soccer field, I just kind of let my instincts take over and the effects were amazing. My body did everything I asked it to...shit, I saved one shot that I didn't even consciously know was coming. My brain just basically told my left leg to shoot out, and sure enough a shot deflected off it harmlessly wide. I never saw it, but I let my muscle memory do its thing. Tonight, I pretty much just played my normal game, but I made some strong laydowns and stuck to my guns with my continuation bets. Everything fell into place tonight.
Right from the first hand, I picked up 10-10. A bunch of people all limped, but I raised it on up and the rest went right into the muck. From there, I was off and running. I don't remember most of the hands, but I was definitely the early chip leader. Conn went out first, and I was content to sit on my lead. I wasn't getting tons of good hands, and I was never so far ahead where I could start really swinging the Bully Stick. Between the blinds and some speculative limps with suited connectors and Ace or King-high flush draws, I found myself down towards the middle of the pack again. I kept at that level though pretty much on nothing but continuation bets...I made sure not to do it so much where people would start figuring me out, but it was enough to maintain the health of my chip stack.
Finally, our gracious host Morgan was blinded down, and had to go all-in. Greg (I think) called her, and with J-5 in my hand and my blind already in, I figured I'd speculate and call as well. I don't remember what she had (it was a legit hand though...maybe A-10 or something?), and I think Greg had K-Q or something like that. Anyway, a Jack came off on the river, and I fairly sheepishly took down the pot and sent Morgan to the rail.
From there, I kind of sat out again for a while...most of the entertainment at that stage was some fierce battles between Greg and his wife Tami. Tami eventually had to go all-in and Greg was the one to bust her, so now we were one away from the money. Greg had built up a huge chip lead at this time, and I believe it was Heath who was way down. My biggest laydown of the night came here, with Greg re-raising big. I had A-10 and the flop was 10-high, but I put Greg on a big hand (he played fairly tight all evening) and with Jon still to act, it was a pretty easy fold.
I don't remember the exact order, but Heath and Jon were both on life support at one time or another, but they kept doubling up against each other - then Heath rivered me on what I think was a 5-outer. After that, Heath was in great shape, and then doubled up again when Greg went all-in and his hand didn't get there. As for me, I still was winning pretty much on continuation bets, though I did make a set once with 5-5 (actually, I think that's why Tami was on life support), and I rivered a flush somewhere in there. That put Greg in the red zone, and Heath was the one to finish him off.
Long story short, we're in the money...yay! Heath then busted Jon, so he must have had a 7-to-1 or 8-to-1 chip lead on me going into heads-up play. By now, the blinds were 50/100, and there were only something like 2500 chips in play. In the past, I have been very passive in heads-up situations and have had an abysmal track record because of it. However, my good friend Action Al was dead-on when he pointed me in the direction of Harrington on Hold 'Em, and it really did the trick here. Any time I had paint in my hand, even just one card, I went all-in. Heath caught a run of abysmal cards (8-2, 9-4, etc) and couldn't really call me. Soon enough, I doubled up when I think it was K-10 that held up (King-high won, we both whiffed), and took the chip lead.
Maybe 8-10 hands later, I woke up with Q-Q in the BB. Heath called, and I checked. The flop was 7-x-x with two diamonds, so he went all-in. I called, and he showed 7-2, both diamonds (not sure of the exact suit, he had a pair and a flush draw). My hand held-up, and thus A WINNAR IS ME! I know this was just a friendly home game where my opponents were playing for fun and I was playing to win, but it was nice to actually play well and win the thing. I'll take any win where I can get it right now, and to beat a pretty good field to do it was satisfying.
Again, I don't know if I could have done this online. I had time to think, and I was able to exploit a tell to win a bunch of hands off of Jon (he's a friend, so I did tell him what he was doing afterwards - staring hard at a missed flop as if willing the cards to change denominations, suits or both). I'm almost at a point where I want to say "fuck you" to online poker until I can afford to play at higher limits...especially because what I do depends so much on having opponents who are actually willing to fold. We'll see. Anyway, a win is in the bank, $30 profit for 3 hours' worth, and now I'm off to hit up my DVR...Canadiens-Ducks, baby!
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Home Game Fun with 7-2
Last night was another fun home game session...it wasn't at the normal one in Queens - sometimes we host one here in the BKNY, too. It was a bit short-handed at 5 people, but to tell the truth, that fits my style a lot better. The four other guys are among the tighter players in our group, so I turned on the aggression big-time and turned $5 into $14.
First, at my roommate's suggestion, we played a few hours of Omaha to kick things off. Not that I'm the world's leading expert or anything, but I have at least played it a bit and read the chapter in Super System...meaning I had more experience with it than most of the rest of the group. I gave them a short tutorial about what kinds of starting hands they should be looking for and some basic concepts to know. With that, we spent about 3 hours or so at it. Oddly, it was a fairly tame Omaha session in terms of winning hands. What I mean is that there weren't any gross instances that I can remember of boat over boat or boat over flush, shit like that. I wasn't writing things down this time because honestly, it's a huge distraction to my play. I made much more of an effort last night to watch the other players at the table and try and pick up minor tells to help me out. Sorry guys, but I'm not saying shit about what I did or didn't see. I'll just say that I won one or two pots that I wouldn't have won had I not been paying attention, and I mucked one or two probable second-best hands that I may have lost more with.
After a dinner break, the guys wanted to move back to Hold 'Em. However, my roommate had another fun idea, which was to play out a tournament using our current chip stacks to make paying out a lot easier (we had two $10s and a $5, and breaking that up would have been a bitch). Joe (who you may remember from my last home game post as being quite the survivor) decided to try a new tack, which was to Hoover up any chips he could find. You ever play Hungry Hungry Hippos as a kid? You know how sometimes, for whatever reason, all the little marble things ended up with one kid for whatever reason, like the board was tilting that way or something? That's what playing against Joe was like last night!
Still, your dashing protagonist doubled up the $5 buy-in by finishing second. Joe had a monster chip lead, while Al (the other survivorman) uncharacteristically busted out first (we're taking advantage of his Omaha inexperience while we still can!). Brendan and I were on horrifically short stacks, so it became a battle of who can cling on the longest. Brendan ended up getting a hand that he was pretty much contractually obligated to go all-in with. I ended up using that time to take a leak, and by the time I came back, I found that I had made the money. Isn't that rad? It's like taking a piss at a restaurant and coming back to find that your food has arrived. Anyway, the heads-up battle ended up lasting all of one hand - I too got something had to go in with, and Joe I think had a better hand and it held up. Still, it was fun for a change to play some Omaha in a setting where I was comfortable and not up against much-more experienced players. I think I may try that against online competition later on, if Sportsbook has some micro tables.
Oh...now I remember a weird one from the Omaha portion. I had K-K-4-4, and raised it up. Only Joe called. I fired at every street, and Joe called every time. The board on the turn was 5-6-7-8, so I had the ignorant end of the straight. I figured it was good for some reason though, so I kept going (I had Joe on a set or two pair, with a small chance of him on a flush draw where my Kings would still be good - this was only five-handed after all). The river was a 9, and the board played. Incidentally, he had Q-Q-5-5.
Once it turned to hold 'em, I had a hot streak for quite a while. I turned into a total card rack...and while I didn't win any super-mega-monster pot that I can remember, the combination of winning with solid hands and a constant stream of continuation bets had me up at around $22 for a while ($10 buy-in). Unfortunately, I got a little too loosey-goosey at that point and ended up losing $8 of it. Of course, one has to be a little more relaxed with starting requirements five-handed, but it got to the point where my continuation bets were being called 100% of the time, and I wasn't catching anything where I could actually win the hands.
All in all, I'm happy with my play in both disciplines. One last thing - we always play the 7-2 game, and as it turned out, 7-2 cracked K-Q THREE TIMES, and I think it beat K-J once as well. I was the beneficiary once when I caught trip 2s against Rob KGB. But, it was only fair - he called a raise with 10-2, and caught two pair to beat my high pair (I forget what I had). So there.
First, at my roommate's suggestion, we played a few hours of Omaha to kick things off. Not that I'm the world's leading expert or anything, but I have at least played it a bit and read the chapter in Super System...meaning I had more experience with it than most of the rest of the group. I gave them a short tutorial about what kinds of starting hands they should be looking for and some basic concepts to know. With that, we spent about 3 hours or so at it. Oddly, it was a fairly tame Omaha session in terms of winning hands. What I mean is that there weren't any gross instances that I can remember of boat over boat or boat over flush, shit like that. I wasn't writing things down this time because honestly, it's a huge distraction to my play. I made much more of an effort last night to watch the other players at the table and try and pick up minor tells to help me out. Sorry guys, but I'm not saying shit about what I did or didn't see. I'll just say that I won one or two pots that I wouldn't have won had I not been paying attention, and I mucked one or two probable second-best hands that I may have lost more with.
After a dinner break, the guys wanted to move back to Hold 'Em. However, my roommate had another fun idea, which was to play out a tournament using our current chip stacks to make paying out a lot easier (we had two $10s and a $5, and breaking that up would have been a bitch). Joe (who you may remember from my last home game post as being quite the survivor) decided to try a new tack, which was to Hoover up any chips he could find. You ever play Hungry Hungry Hippos as a kid? You know how sometimes, for whatever reason, all the little marble things ended up with one kid for whatever reason, like the board was tilting that way or something? That's what playing against Joe was like last night!
Still, your dashing protagonist doubled up the $5 buy-in by finishing second. Joe had a monster chip lead, while Al (the other survivorman) uncharacteristically busted out first (we're taking advantage of his Omaha inexperience while we still can!). Brendan and I were on horrifically short stacks, so it became a battle of who can cling on the longest. Brendan ended up getting a hand that he was pretty much contractually obligated to go all-in with. I ended up using that time to take a leak, and by the time I came back, I found that I had made the money. Isn't that rad? It's like taking a piss at a restaurant and coming back to find that your food has arrived. Anyway, the heads-up battle ended up lasting all of one hand - I too got something had to go in with, and Joe I think had a better hand and it held up. Still, it was fun for a change to play some Omaha in a setting where I was comfortable and not up against much-more experienced players. I think I may try that against online competition later on, if Sportsbook has some micro tables.
Oh...now I remember a weird one from the Omaha portion. I had K-K-4-4, and raised it up. Only Joe called. I fired at every street, and Joe called every time. The board on the turn was 5-6-7-8, so I had the ignorant end of the straight. I figured it was good for some reason though, so I kept going (I had Joe on a set or two pair, with a small chance of him on a flush draw where my Kings would still be good - this was only five-handed after all). The river was a 9, and the board played. Incidentally, he had Q-Q-5-5.
Once it turned to hold 'em, I had a hot streak for quite a while. I turned into a total card rack...and while I didn't win any super-mega-monster pot that I can remember, the combination of winning with solid hands and a constant stream of continuation bets had me up at around $22 for a while ($10 buy-in). Unfortunately, I got a little too loosey-goosey at that point and ended up losing $8 of it. Of course, one has to be a little more relaxed with starting requirements five-handed, but it got to the point where my continuation bets were being called 100% of the time, and I wasn't catching anything where I could actually win the hands.
All in all, I'm happy with my play in both disciplines. One last thing - we always play the 7-2 game, and as it turned out, 7-2 cracked K-Q THREE TIMES, and I think it beat K-J once as well. I was the beneficiary once when I caught trip 2s against Rob KGB. But, it was only fair - he called a raise with 10-2, and caught two pair to beat my high pair (I forget what I had). So there.
Monday, August 25, 2008
The first annual KGB Millions...
...well, maybe not millions, but there was a bracelet.
Sadly, the author did not take that particular piece of jewelry home. There were 10 players, and I ended up finishing in 7th. Believe me, I was NOT happy about how I played in the slightest. While I do think that taking down all the info to blog about it hurt my concentration a little, I don't want to use that as an excuse. I got felted because I was only half-focused, and I once again ignored my read and what I believed to be a tell. Ugh.
Anyway, since my cash-game homies wanted to be famous, here you go, guys. Let me introduce you to the principals:
Seat 1: Mike - Part of Team Ballin'. I first met him in AC back in May, but I had never had the chance to play against him before. He had lost a few bucks at the tables there...and that was all I had to go on other than a pre-game scouting report of "he's aggressive". I hate to admit this now, but Brendan (my roommate) and I had a side bet as to who would go out first, and I guessed Mike due to his aggressive nature.
Seat 2: Brian - Solid player, but a guy who craves action...sometimes to his detriment. He knows the right plays and in general is pretty good at changing gears and mixing up his play. But, where he gets into trouble is his "inklings"...which usually translate into fairly loose calls with, oh, how do I say this charitably? Umm..."less-than-premium hands". Yeah, that's it. I'm going to regret giving this advice I'm sure, but dude...less calls, less hands, more re-raises. That's all you're missing.
Seat 3: Matt - Just met him that night. Drank nine beers during the course of play.
Seat 4: Other Rob - He's the "other" Rob because a) I also just met him that night, and b) He wasn't hosting. He turned out to be a solid, quality player.
Seat 5: Joe - One of the two tournament specialists at the table. Remember my post from a while back where me and my two friends finished 1-2-3 in a $1 SNG? He was the zombie dude who just wouldn't die.
Seat 6: Rob - Our gracious host. Rob KGB is, by my estimation, the best overall player at the table. His knowledge of odds and the proper play to match them is unmatched by any of the rest of us there, and he has the courage to go along with it. I'm not going to regret giving this advice because I've already done it, but he rarely loses because of outright mistakes...when he does lose, it's due to going on tilt and/or talking himself out of hands he'd probably win otherwise.
Seat 7: Me - You know about this guy by now. Crap tournament player, overplays medium-high holdings, has a super-aggressive reputation even though I really don't play that many hands, etc and so on. The "maniac" of the home game.
Seat 8: Al - The other tournament specialist. To an even greater extent than Joe, he will go into what we call the "beserker rage" when he's down some in chips...before you know it, he's doubled up twice and right back in the hunt. He used to sarcastically be called "Action Al" due to being a tight player - especially by this game's standards. Honestly, he plays just enough hands, and plays them well. He has an amazing talent of folding when the other guy has a monster, and often extracts the maximum when he has one. Like Rob, when he loses, it's because he's probably beaten himself. Is WAY too hard on himself, and has to learn to recognize sometimes that losing doesn't mean you played incorrectly.
Seat 9: Brendan - My roommate, as mentioned. Considering he has only intermittently played for a few short months, he's astonishingly good. No joke, he's made me look like a rookie more than once in our home games. Great actor (in terms of portraying false tells), great at spotting tells...just a little too tight-passive at times.
Seat 10: Niko - Another good, solid player. He has a reputation of ALWAYS hitting his straights and flushes, but that's because he has the stones to play the drawing hands in the first place. If you really watch him, you'll notice that he's good about only drawing when he has the correct odds (or close to them) to do so. He does an excellent job of taking advantage of his reputation, too.
So, without further ado, I'll get into the notable "TV" hands. I know this is going to be long and probably tedious reading if you aren't a) my friend or b) someone who played in this game, so I'll try and be as brief as I can.
Hand 1: Robbie KGB takes down a big pot right away, at Joe's expense (and Brian's somewhat, but he bailed on the turn). The board was 8-5-5-5-J, and Rob showed 4-5. Yep...quads on the first fucking hand.
Hand 5: Rob loses this one, but not a lot considering the board was K-K-K-Q-6, and Brendan had A-K. That's right...that's the SECOND time quads were hit within five hands.
Oh, by the way, this game was sloth-like for the first few hours. By the time we were three hours in or so, we had only played like 25 hands. With the usual home-game stuff (rabbit-hunting, people not realizing it's their turn, etc), I suppose that was inevitable. It made it a little weird in that the blinds had gone up and up and up, and we were playing maybe 3-4 hands per level. This was the first time we've done a home-game tournament though, so we'll figure it out for the next time. Anyway...
Hand 7: The good guy takes down his first pot, catching two pair with 7-6 off-suit.
Hand 8: Had middle pair with Q-10, but couldn't stand the heat of Mike's $80 bet with three flush cards out there.
Hand 10: Rob KGB loses to Other Rob. Other Rob calls 4X BB raise pre-flop, and then calls Rob's flop and river bets. The board was J-10-2 (all spades) - 4-2. Rob shows A-8 off-suit, Other Rob had Q-10.
Hand 11: I accidentally exposed a 4 when I folded the State Patrol hand. That helped out Rob quite a bit, as he ended up having 4-4! Matt and Mike play a fairly big pot, which is taken down by Matt's king-high flush.
Hand 12: Rob isn't so lucky this time - his A-Q is beaten by Matt's 4-3. His call of Rob's pre-flop raise is likely partially due to the fact that he was 2 beers in at that point. Rob is now steaming.
Hand 13: Mike takes control with this one. I call with 10s-7s, a couple of other limpers are driven out along with me by Joe's raise up to $200. Rob goes in the tank forever, but goes away (he showed me 9-9). Niko then enters the tank, and eventually comes to the same conclusion. Mike goes all-in for $315 more, which Joe calls. Joe shows Ad-Ks, Mike shows 9s-8d (see what I mean about the aggression?). The flop comes 7-6-5, the King on the river is obviously no help to Joe. Joe is below $500 in chips, so he is the first to utilize the one re-buy.
Hand 15: I build up my stack at Niko's expense. I call with 6-5 in the SB, Niko and Matt are along for the ride. The flop is a gorgeous 6-5-2, to which I immediately fire out $80. Niko calls, Matt bails. I get another $200 when a 7 hits on the turn, and the river was a 9. We both checked it down, and he showed A-7.
Hand 16: I get A-K on the button, and call Rob's raise along with Al and Brendan. The flop is 10-4-3 rainbow, and my continuation bet takes it down.
Hand 19: Rob, still steaming, goes all-in with 9-9. Brian makes what I think is an excellent fold with A-Q. If he had lost, his stack would have been crippled.
Hand 20: Rob wins again with 8-8, Brian had made a "very bad call", but didn't stick around to the river. Matt did with 6-4, having paired the latter on the flop.
Hand 23: Mike takes it down when Brendan calls his $250 raise with Ah-Q, only to see it lose to Mike's J-9. The flop came out all-hearts, so Brendan would have taken it if one more came out.
First Break - Going up to 50-100. This was the leaderboard at the time:
Mike - 2560
Other Rob - 2535
Me - 2285
Matt - 1975
Brendan - 1630
Al - 1600
Brian - 1480
Niko - 1390
Rob - 1375
Joe - 705
Hand 25: Other Rob takes over the chip lead as Mike's $200 raise is called, but he folds on the flop of 8-4-2 to Rob's $400 raise. It ended up being a great fold, as OR showed K-K.
Hand 29: Mike takes it back by calling Joe's $300 raise, then taking it on the flop with a continuation bet.
I win hands 30 and 34, and all of a sudden it's looking real good for your boy.
Hand 35: For the second time today, someone with a pocket pair lucks out as the third of that denomination is accidentally exposed. Joe goes all-in for his last $760, Matt calls. Having seen the third Jack go bye-bye, Brian wisely folds J-J. Joe's A-Q beats out Matt's 4-4 when a Queen comes on the flop. Unfortunately for Brian, if that Jack hadn't been shown, he'd have won as the board was K-9-10-Q-9.
Hand 39: Fucking Niko. I call with Ks-8s, and Niko immediately goes all-in for his last $815. Matt goes all-in for $700, and Mike calls. Niko has A-8, Matt 8-7, and Mike A-J. Mike's Ace plays on a board of 10-5-5-K-6. Dammit, dammit, sonofabitch. Matt and Niko are felted in 10th and 9th.
Hand 40: I get A-K, and raise to $300. Mike and the Other Rob call. The flop was Q-10-8, two diamonds. I raise to $500, Rob re-raises to $1250. Well, shit. With only one diamond and a gutshot straight draw, I'm not risking my tournament life here.
Hand 41: Joe heads to the rail in 8th. I wasn't expecting that one, that's for sure. I'm splashing around with 3h-2h, Mike calls. Joe bets $400, Mike calls. The flop is 8-8-7, two diamonds. It's checked around, turn is the King of diamonds. It's checked again, and the river is the 4c. Joe goes all-in, and Mike calls. It was a gutsy call on Mike's part with 5-5, but he had the best hand - Joe shows A-Q. If Joe had went all-in on the turn, there's no way Mike could have reasonably called him, I think.
Hand 42: Rob puts his name in for the Laydown of the Night competition that seems to be going on. Brendan goes all-in for $1,010. Rob counts his chips and thinks hard about making a stand, but elects to fold his 7-7. Brendan is courteous enough to show his J-J.
Hand 43: Brendan doubles up through Mike - Brendan held A-Q and paired on the flop. Unfortunately for Mike, he had to call with Q-Q, and was a bit unlucky. Still, he could afford it, dammit.
Hand 46: Three hands later, Brendan's stack is crippled. This hand DEFINITELY was a television hand. Rob limps in...Al goes all-in for $725, Brendan goes all-in for $2090. Everyone else bounces, as you'd imagine. Rob shows The Weapons of Mass Destruction...Brendan shows Q-Q, Al shows 7-7. Immediately, Al starts berating himself (dude, it's getting late in the tourney, you're short-stacked, you had to make a move. He could have been limping with 3-2, for fuck's sake). Flop is 10-9-6, no help to anyone. Wouldn't you know it, but the turn is a 7. The river is a Jack, sending Brendan out. Al is STILL berating himself despite tripling up, and now Rob is absolutely spitting fire that his bullets didn't hold up. He told me afterwards that he would have won the tournament if he had won that hand, and honestly, he's right. I'd be pissed, too.
Hand 47: Yep - your hero crashed out of the tournament in 6th place. You will be shocked and amazed to know that it was from overplaying a medium-high holding. I wake up with 10-10, and bump it up to $600. Mike can't get his chips into the pot fast enough. The flop is 5-4-4, and I'm only thinking of that rather than what Mike is possibly holding. He bets $500, and like an idiot, I call. He's leading into the pre-flop raiser on a nothing board...what could he have that I was ahead of? I know he's aggressive and all, but I had barely played a hand all night...out of 47, I think I was seriously involved in the 5-8 range. The turn is a Queen, and I go all-in. He insta-calls, and of course shows A-A. I couldn't believe that they showed up in two consecutive hands, but I should have known I was beaten. I head to the rail, and deservedly so.
Hand 48: We're dropping like flies - Brendan is out in 6th. He goes all-in with 9-9, Other Rob calls with K-J. Sure enough, a King comes right in the door.
Hand 51: Brian doubles up through Mike. They had limped in, and saw a Qs-7c-5h flop. It's checked around through the turn and river, which are Ac and 5d. Mike tries to steal it for $500, Brian goes all-in for his last $930. Mike is pretty much pot-committed and had to call. Mike shows A-7, Brian shows 8-5 to the shock and laughter of the whole table. Long story short, Brian had his A-A cracked in Atlantic City by some douche-rocket that called a huge pre-flop raise with 8-5 off-suit.
Hand 52: Other Rob loses a decent amount of chips to his namesake when the Polish/Russian dynamo hit trips with his A-5.
Hand 55: Three hands later, the aforementioned dynamo is WAMBOOZLED and out in 5th (incidentally, Al does an amazing solo Chad Ford and Lon McEachern act). Brian opens for $500, Rob goes all-in. Brian calls with A-Q, which has A-J dominated. A Queen on the flop ends the tournament hopes of our host.
Hand 58: A further three hands later, the tournament all of a sudden finds itself Rob-free. Mike opens for $1000, Al and Other Rob call. The flop is Js-10d-7d. Mike bumps it to $2000, Other Rob is all-in for $1450 more. Mike calls and shows Kh-Jh. Other Rob showed Qs-Jc. The turn and river were no help, and Other Rob became the bubble boy in 4th.
Mike was pretty much a lock to at least make the money, but Al really caught fire after catching lightning in a bottle with that third 7. As for Brian, he wasn't in a ton of the "TV hands", but he kept his gambling tendencies in check and really picked his spots beautifully. He earned his spot in the money, that's for sure. At this point, the stacks looked like this:
Mike: 11,515
Brian: 3,510
Al: 2,475
Hand 62: Brian doubles up to make a contest out of it. Mike raised Brian's BB to $800, Brian goes all-in. Brian's Q-10 is comfortably ahead of Mike's 10-7, and as a big middle finger to the poor chip leader, Brian gets top two on the flop of Q-10-9. The turn was a 6, making it interesting...but a King fell on the river.
Hand 67: Al's tournament ends with a solid 3rd-place finish. His all-in is called by Mike, who must have been stoked to finally be dominating a hand after the last 3-4 times when he was on the other end of it. A-Q vs. A-10, and the Queen ended up playing.
Sadly, there was no Shana Hiatt or other gorgeous women to bring out the money and the bracelet (yes, Rob bought a bracelet online for the occasion). That said, luckily (as it was late and I was exhausted), the heads-up match didn't last long. Brian made it more interesting on Hand 70 when his K-6 held up for another $1000 in chips, but it was all over two hands later:
Final Hand - Hand 72: Mike goes all-in, Brian calls. Again, Mike is dominated, K-Q to Q-J. The flop is Q-10-9, and the turn is an Ace. The river is a King, winning the bracelet for the proud member of Team Ballin'.
All in all, it was a fun time and some good poker was played. Sooner or later, I want to get one of those bracelets as well and host the Pot-Limit Omaha event. THAT should make some interesting reading, anyway!
Sadly, the author did not take that particular piece of jewelry home. There were 10 players, and I ended up finishing in 7th. Believe me, I was NOT happy about how I played in the slightest. While I do think that taking down all the info to blog about it hurt my concentration a little, I don't want to use that as an excuse. I got felted because I was only half-focused, and I once again ignored my read and what I believed to be a tell. Ugh.
Anyway, since my cash-game homies wanted to be famous, here you go, guys. Let me introduce you to the principals:
Seat 1: Mike - Part of Team Ballin'. I first met him in AC back in May, but I had never had the chance to play against him before. He had lost a few bucks at the tables there...and that was all I had to go on other than a pre-game scouting report of "he's aggressive". I hate to admit this now, but Brendan (my roommate) and I had a side bet as to who would go out first, and I guessed Mike due to his aggressive nature.
Seat 2: Brian - Solid player, but a guy who craves action...sometimes to his detriment. He knows the right plays and in general is pretty good at changing gears and mixing up his play. But, where he gets into trouble is his "inklings"...which usually translate into fairly loose calls with, oh, how do I say this charitably? Umm..."less-than-premium hands". Yeah, that's it. I'm going to regret giving this advice I'm sure, but dude...less calls, less hands, more re-raises. That's all you're missing.
Seat 3: Matt - Just met him that night. Drank nine beers during the course of play.
Seat 4: Other Rob - He's the "other" Rob because a) I also just met him that night, and b) He wasn't hosting. He turned out to be a solid, quality player.
Seat 5: Joe - One of the two tournament specialists at the table. Remember my post from a while back where me and my two friends finished 1-2-3 in a $1 SNG? He was the zombie dude who just wouldn't die.
Seat 6: Rob - Our gracious host. Rob KGB is, by my estimation, the best overall player at the table. His knowledge of odds and the proper play to match them is unmatched by any of the rest of us there, and he has the courage to go along with it. I'm not going to regret giving this advice because I've already done it, but he rarely loses because of outright mistakes...when he does lose, it's due to going on tilt and/or talking himself out of hands he'd probably win otherwise.
Seat 7: Me - You know about this guy by now. Crap tournament player, overplays medium-high holdings, has a super-aggressive reputation even though I really don't play that many hands, etc and so on. The "maniac" of the home game.
Seat 8: Al - The other tournament specialist. To an even greater extent than Joe, he will go into what we call the "beserker rage" when he's down some in chips...before you know it, he's doubled up twice and right back in the hunt. He used to sarcastically be called "Action Al" due to being a tight player - especially by this game's standards. Honestly, he plays just enough hands, and plays them well. He has an amazing talent of folding when the other guy has a monster, and often extracts the maximum when he has one. Like Rob, when he loses, it's because he's probably beaten himself. Is WAY too hard on himself, and has to learn to recognize sometimes that losing doesn't mean you played incorrectly.
Seat 9: Brendan - My roommate, as mentioned. Considering he has only intermittently played for a few short months, he's astonishingly good. No joke, he's made me look like a rookie more than once in our home games. Great actor (in terms of portraying false tells), great at spotting tells...just a little too tight-passive at times.
Seat 10: Niko - Another good, solid player. He has a reputation of ALWAYS hitting his straights and flushes, but that's because he has the stones to play the drawing hands in the first place. If you really watch him, you'll notice that he's good about only drawing when he has the correct odds (or close to them) to do so. He does an excellent job of taking advantage of his reputation, too.
So, without further ado, I'll get into the notable "TV" hands. I know this is going to be long and probably tedious reading if you aren't a) my friend or b) someone who played in this game, so I'll try and be as brief as I can.
Hand 1: Robbie KGB takes down a big pot right away, at Joe's expense (and Brian's somewhat, but he bailed on the turn). The board was 8-5-5-5-J, and Rob showed 4-5. Yep...quads on the first fucking hand.
Hand 5: Rob loses this one, but not a lot considering the board was K-K-K-Q-6, and Brendan had A-K. That's right...that's the SECOND time quads were hit within five hands.
Oh, by the way, this game was sloth-like for the first few hours. By the time we were three hours in or so, we had only played like 25 hands. With the usual home-game stuff (rabbit-hunting, people not realizing it's their turn, etc), I suppose that was inevitable. It made it a little weird in that the blinds had gone up and up and up, and we were playing maybe 3-4 hands per level. This was the first time we've done a home-game tournament though, so we'll figure it out for the next time. Anyway...
Hand 7: The good guy takes down his first pot, catching two pair with 7-6 off-suit.
Hand 8: Had middle pair with Q-10, but couldn't stand the heat of Mike's $80 bet with three flush cards out there.
Hand 10: Rob KGB loses to Other Rob. Other Rob calls 4X BB raise pre-flop, and then calls Rob's flop and river bets. The board was J-10-2 (all spades) - 4-2. Rob shows A-8 off-suit, Other Rob had Q-10.
Hand 11: I accidentally exposed a 4 when I folded the State Patrol hand. That helped out Rob quite a bit, as he ended up having 4-4! Matt and Mike play a fairly big pot, which is taken down by Matt's king-high flush.
Hand 12: Rob isn't so lucky this time - his A-Q is beaten by Matt's 4-3. His call of Rob's pre-flop raise is likely partially due to the fact that he was 2 beers in at that point. Rob is now steaming.
Hand 13: Mike takes control with this one. I call with 10s-7s, a couple of other limpers are driven out along with me by Joe's raise up to $200. Rob goes in the tank forever, but goes away (he showed me 9-9). Niko then enters the tank, and eventually comes to the same conclusion. Mike goes all-in for $315 more, which Joe calls. Joe shows Ad-Ks, Mike shows 9s-8d (see what I mean about the aggression?). The flop comes 7-6-5, the King on the river is obviously no help to Joe. Joe is below $500 in chips, so he is the first to utilize the one re-buy.
Hand 15: I build up my stack at Niko's expense. I call with 6-5 in the SB, Niko and Matt are along for the ride. The flop is a gorgeous 6-5-2, to which I immediately fire out $80. Niko calls, Matt bails. I get another $200 when a 7 hits on the turn, and the river was a 9. We both checked it down, and he showed A-7.
Hand 16: I get A-K on the button, and call Rob's raise along with Al and Brendan. The flop is 10-4-3 rainbow, and my continuation bet takes it down.
Hand 19: Rob, still steaming, goes all-in with 9-9. Brian makes what I think is an excellent fold with A-Q. If he had lost, his stack would have been crippled.
Hand 20: Rob wins again with 8-8, Brian had made a "very bad call", but didn't stick around to the river. Matt did with 6-4, having paired the latter on the flop.
Hand 23: Mike takes it down when Brendan calls his $250 raise with Ah-Q, only to see it lose to Mike's J-9. The flop came out all-hearts, so Brendan would have taken it if one more came out.
First Break - Going up to 50-100. This was the leaderboard at the time:
Mike - 2560
Other Rob - 2535
Me - 2285
Matt - 1975
Brendan - 1630
Al - 1600
Brian - 1480
Niko - 1390
Rob - 1375
Joe - 705
Hand 25: Other Rob takes over the chip lead as Mike's $200 raise is called, but he folds on the flop of 8-4-2 to Rob's $400 raise. It ended up being a great fold, as OR showed K-K.
Hand 29: Mike takes it back by calling Joe's $300 raise, then taking it on the flop with a continuation bet.
I win hands 30 and 34, and all of a sudden it's looking real good for your boy.
Hand 35: For the second time today, someone with a pocket pair lucks out as the third of that denomination is accidentally exposed. Joe goes all-in for his last $760, Matt calls. Having seen the third Jack go bye-bye, Brian wisely folds J-J. Joe's A-Q beats out Matt's 4-4 when a Queen comes on the flop. Unfortunately for Brian, if that Jack hadn't been shown, he'd have won as the board was K-9-10-Q-9.
Hand 39: Fucking Niko. I call with Ks-8s, and Niko immediately goes all-in for his last $815. Matt goes all-in for $700, and Mike calls. Niko has A-8, Matt 8-7, and Mike A-J. Mike's Ace plays on a board of 10-5-5-K-6. Dammit, dammit, sonofabitch. Matt and Niko are felted in 10th and 9th.
Hand 40: I get A-K, and raise to $300. Mike and the Other Rob call. The flop was Q-10-8, two diamonds. I raise to $500, Rob re-raises to $1250. Well, shit. With only one diamond and a gutshot straight draw, I'm not risking my tournament life here.
Hand 41: Joe heads to the rail in 8th. I wasn't expecting that one, that's for sure. I'm splashing around with 3h-2h, Mike calls. Joe bets $400, Mike calls. The flop is 8-8-7, two diamonds. It's checked around, turn is the King of diamonds. It's checked again, and the river is the 4c. Joe goes all-in, and Mike calls. It was a gutsy call on Mike's part with 5-5, but he had the best hand - Joe shows A-Q. If Joe had went all-in on the turn, there's no way Mike could have reasonably called him, I think.
Hand 42: Rob puts his name in for the Laydown of the Night competition that seems to be going on. Brendan goes all-in for $1,010. Rob counts his chips and thinks hard about making a stand, but elects to fold his 7-7. Brendan is courteous enough to show his J-J.
Hand 43: Brendan doubles up through Mike - Brendan held A-Q and paired on the flop. Unfortunately for Mike, he had to call with Q-Q, and was a bit unlucky. Still, he could afford it, dammit.
Hand 46: Three hands later, Brendan's stack is crippled. This hand DEFINITELY was a television hand. Rob limps in...Al goes all-in for $725, Brendan goes all-in for $2090. Everyone else bounces, as you'd imagine. Rob shows The Weapons of Mass Destruction...Brendan shows Q-Q, Al shows 7-7. Immediately, Al starts berating himself (dude, it's getting late in the tourney, you're short-stacked, you had to make a move. He could have been limping with 3-2, for fuck's sake). Flop is 10-9-6, no help to anyone. Wouldn't you know it, but the turn is a 7. The river is a Jack, sending Brendan out. Al is STILL berating himself despite tripling up, and now Rob is absolutely spitting fire that his bullets didn't hold up. He told me afterwards that he would have won the tournament if he had won that hand, and honestly, he's right. I'd be pissed, too.
Hand 47: Yep - your hero crashed out of the tournament in 6th place. You will be shocked and amazed to know that it was from overplaying a medium-high holding. I wake up with 10-10, and bump it up to $600. Mike can't get his chips into the pot fast enough. The flop is 5-4-4, and I'm only thinking of that rather than what Mike is possibly holding. He bets $500, and like an idiot, I call. He's leading into the pre-flop raiser on a nothing board...what could he have that I was ahead of? I know he's aggressive and all, but I had barely played a hand all night...out of 47, I think I was seriously involved in the 5-8 range. The turn is a Queen, and I go all-in. He insta-calls, and of course shows A-A. I couldn't believe that they showed up in two consecutive hands, but I should have known I was beaten. I head to the rail, and deservedly so.
Hand 48: We're dropping like flies - Brendan is out in 6th. He goes all-in with 9-9, Other Rob calls with K-J. Sure enough, a King comes right in the door.
Hand 51: Brian doubles up through Mike. They had limped in, and saw a Qs-7c-5h flop. It's checked around through the turn and river, which are Ac and 5d. Mike tries to steal it for $500, Brian goes all-in for his last $930. Mike is pretty much pot-committed and had to call. Mike shows A-7, Brian shows 8-5 to the shock and laughter of the whole table. Long story short, Brian had his A-A cracked in Atlantic City by some douche-rocket that called a huge pre-flop raise with 8-5 off-suit.
Hand 52: Other Rob loses a decent amount of chips to his namesake when the Polish/Russian dynamo hit trips with his A-5.
Hand 55: Three hands later, the aforementioned dynamo is WAMBOOZLED and out in 5th (incidentally, Al does an amazing solo Chad Ford and Lon McEachern act). Brian opens for $500, Rob goes all-in. Brian calls with A-Q, which has A-J dominated. A Queen on the flop ends the tournament hopes of our host.
Hand 58: A further three hands later, the tournament all of a sudden finds itself Rob-free. Mike opens for $1000, Al and Other Rob call. The flop is Js-10d-7d. Mike bumps it to $2000, Other Rob is all-in for $1450 more. Mike calls and shows Kh-Jh. Other Rob showed Qs-Jc. The turn and river were no help, and Other Rob became the bubble boy in 4th.
Mike was pretty much a lock to at least make the money, but Al really caught fire after catching lightning in a bottle with that third 7. As for Brian, he wasn't in a ton of the "TV hands", but he kept his gambling tendencies in check and really picked his spots beautifully. He earned his spot in the money, that's for sure. At this point, the stacks looked like this:
Mike: 11,515
Brian: 3,510
Al: 2,475
Hand 62: Brian doubles up to make a contest out of it. Mike raised Brian's BB to $800, Brian goes all-in. Brian's Q-10 is comfortably ahead of Mike's 10-7, and as a big middle finger to the poor chip leader, Brian gets top two on the flop of Q-10-9. The turn was a 6, making it interesting...but a King fell on the river.
Hand 67: Al's tournament ends with a solid 3rd-place finish. His all-in is called by Mike, who must have been stoked to finally be dominating a hand after the last 3-4 times when he was on the other end of it. A-Q vs. A-10, and the Queen ended up playing.
Sadly, there was no Shana Hiatt or other gorgeous women to bring out the money and the bracelet (yes, Rob bought a bracelet online for the occasion). That said, luckily (as it was late and I was exhausted), the heads-up match didn't last long. Brian made it more interesting on Hand 70 when his K-6 held up for another $1000 in chips, but it was all over two hands later:
Final Hand - Hand 72: Mike goes all-in, Brian calls. Again, Mike is dominated, K-Q to Q-J. The flop is Q-10-9, and the turn is an Ace. The river is a King, winning the bracelet for the proud member of Team Ballin'.
All in all, it was a fun time and some good poker was played. Sooner or later, I want to get one of those bracelets as well and host the Pot-Limit Omaha event. THAT should make some interesting reading, anyway!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
$1 SNG with some friends – WE OWN IT, BABY!
My first inclination after last night’s success was to get right back on the .10/.20 horse and hope for some good hands to really get myself paid off. However, I got a text from my friend Joe right as I was about to sign on, so off to Sit-N-Go land I went. Honestly, I am a mediocre tournament player, as I mentioned yesterday. I’m not terribly comfortable with ever-escalating blinds, and most of my strategy is based on how I handle playing against a full table. I have ventured into SNGs before, and the best I’ve ever done is 3rd. Today, I went one better, but was absolutely clowned heads-up against my other friend, Josh.
Oh, and as you’ll see, I ended up being a total card rack tonight, and a run of cards like this in a ring game would have been like printing money in all likelihood. At the end of the day, though, this is supposed to be fun. And, I’d rather have some fun with friends if the opportunity is there…I think I’d be a rather sad excuse for a person if I didn’t.
On to some crucial hands:
Hand 3: Two off the button, guess what I wake up with? I haven’t held the weapons of mass destruction in ages, but here I am with Ac-Ad. The player in front of me raises to $140, and I am loving life. I call, everyone else folds, and we see a 7c-4d-3s flop. I knew right away I probably wouldn’t get donked out on with 6-5 or 7-4 or something…not with that pre-flop raise. Full speed ahead, captain! Mr. Aggressive bets $310, I call. Normally I don’t slow-play monsters, but there is absolutely nothing scary about that board. The turn is 6c, so now with two clubs out there, I’m resolved to get all the chips in. If he’s donking out on me, he’s going to pay for it. He saves me the trouble though, and bets $930. Interesting…why not all-in if that much? Typically, I consider that to be a sign of weakness as they want to at least have something if things don’t go their way. I had him on a lower pair or A-K here, so I put him all-in. He calls, and shows Qc-Qs. Awesome! He’s dead to two outs, and the 6s sends him home. On one hand, unless he put me on K-K or A-A, there was little for him to be afraid of out there. Then again, what did he think I called $310 with? I think the trouble is that a lot of donks do the all-in thing with A-A hoping that someone has a hand they like. It’s just that hand, really…any other monster is usually cause for check-calling all the way. So, I double-up nice and early...up to $3010!
Hand 5: The guy to my left, “skimwater”, calls my 60-cent raise (I had 8-8), as does Josh. Flop is A-Q-4, Josh bet $60 and skim raised to $120 on each street thereafter, with Josh calling each. My homie shows A-K, skim showed A-9. Wow. What do you think he was calling you with, bro? I pretty much had my read on this guy right there, and as I’ll explain later, he became quite the irritating little lunatic.
Hands 8-11: Skim goes nuts, betting and raising with ludicrously-high turn bets on all these hands. He’s up to $1953 for hand 11. I fold my awesome J-2, four callers to a 10s-9s-9c flop. Early-position guy pops it up to $150, skim calls, everyone else flees. The turn is 6d, the original bettor puts in $225, skim goes all-in, other guy calls. The original bettor shows 4c-4d, skim shows 10h 7c. The river is As, and the first guy is gone. I have no words…how did he not put him on A-10, K-10, Q-10 or J-10? He liked his 7 kicker that much? Really? Anyway, Skim won hand 12 as well, so he was at $3430 at that point to my $2840.
Hand 14: I didn’t win as much with them this time, but I see Ac-Ad in early position. I raise to $60, with visions of Skim raising all-in in my head. He folds, and Joe is my only customer in the BB. Let me just say that he and my friend Al are almost incapable of being trapped. Al has dodged bullets on quite a few occasions in my presence, and Joe is a survivor…his instincts (and Al’s) are almost always spot-on (especially in comparison to the author). The flop comes 5s-2s-2d. I have no idea what Joe has, as he checks. I don’t want him catching anything with random spades, so I bet $60 to see what happens. He goes away, leaving me with just a $75 profit. Every time I get a monster against those guys, I feel like a vaudeville villain trying to tie them to the railroad tracks. Curses, foiled again.
Hand 15: OK, this is almost not fair. Under the gun, I get Ah-Ks. I raise up to $90, and a previously-quiet player calls a few seats ahead of me. Everyone else bids adieu. The flop comes Jh-3s-2s. With two overcards and the potential for a runner-runner second-nut flush, against one caller, the continuation bet is automatic. Quiet Man calls. The turn is an absolutely beautiful Ad. I bet $360, he calls. What the hell is he calling me with? I have no idea, but I’m confident in my standing in the hand. The river is the Qs. I admit that I was a little cavalier here and wasn’t really thinking too much about what he had…if he had A-J, Q-J or J-J, I was just going to have to pay him off. In retrospect, I’m amazed that I wasn’t a little more frightened of the flush draw that was completed on the river…you can see how I overplay the shit out of top pair-top kicker sometimes. I bet $240 (OK, guess I was at least a little nervous), he calls and shows 5s5c. Man, thank fucking goodness for the stupid. On the next hand, the Skim All-In Special sent him to the rail when his 9-6 beat Quiet Man’s K-9 when the 6 came on the flop.
Hand 21: The guy directly to my right is knocked out by, well, Guess Who. He held J-J, the flop came J-7-2. The other guy ended up having A-J, so the result was inevitable. When another 7 hit on the turn, Skim’s ridiculous over-bet was called and that was that. That’s great, but what about the other 90% of the time when the other guy quietly deposits his hand in the muck? He and I are the big stacks, he leads $5,670 to $3,710.
Hand 22: My 10c-10s is good enough for a $150 raise (25/50 blinds), which Skim calls. The flop is Jh-8h-7s. I bet $325, he raises $650, and I insta-call. Honestly, I didn’t believe he had much other than maybe a flush draw or perhaps second or third pair. The turn comes Js, and he immediately throws in $1,625. Well, that made my decision easy, didn’t it? If he had put out a teaser bet, I almost certainly would have called (with two Jacks out there, there was less chance he had the third), and I maybe even would have raised. Instead, this was an easy fold…I’m at least tournament-savvy enough to wait for a better spot when I’m safely in second chip position with 74 BBs. I show my 10-10 to let him know I’m capable of folding it, and he was kind enough to show his J-2. Yes, he called a 3x BB raise with J-2 off-suit. No, I don’t know why either. At this point, our boy Skim is starting to royally get on my tits. It’s $6,495-$2,910 now, but I’m still in decent shape.
Hand 24: Skim raises to $100 pre-flop, Random Anonymous Guy 2 is his only customer. The flop is 9-4-4, RAG2 checks, and Skim goes all-in for $6,295. Err, OK. What exactly was he going to call you with? The inevitable fold is met with a showing of Ks-Qs. Cheers, thanks for the free information.
Hand 27: Skim wins the next two (I have to give it to him, in a crazed sort of way he’s playing his big stack pretty well), and he raises this one to $100. I re-raise to $250 with Kc-Qd, he calls. Flop is 6s-5d-3h, and he checks. Huh, that’s odd. I throw out $575, and he goes away. Well, that was uncharacteristic. At this point, I was beginning to think that he had a deliberate game plan and as much as I hate to admit it, it was working. It was hard as hell to put him on anything, that’s for sure. It’s not how I’d play because all it takes is someone waking up with a monster hand to send you packing, but he was accumulating chips like mad. The smart thing to do at that point would probably be to change gears and slow it down for a few orbits before picking up speed again. He wasn’t that smart, though.
Hand 28: Speaking of changing gears, Josh starts to pick up speed, and wins a nice pot off of Random Anonymous Guy 1. With that, he overtakes me for second place.
Hand 29: My lucky number is 29, it was my hockey number in high school, it’s my soccer number now. It also was the hand where RAG2 proved to be…a bird? A plane? No, it’s SUPERDONK! I find Qs-Qc in the BB. RAG2 calls, Joe raises to $150, I pop it up to $600 (I really, really don’t want A-x beating me). RAG2 calls, Joe (having possession of a brain) goes away. The flop comes 6c-5h-3s. While you do have to spare a thought for what this guy is calling with, this is a tournament and you do have to accumulate chips sometime. I still had $1,220 if all the chips went in, so I figured this was a good spot to go on the attack. I bet $500, and he goes all-in for $1,140. I go into the tank for just about the whole 15 seconds, and I considered using my extra time. However, at the end of the day, I was still 24.5 BBs to the good if I guessed wrong, so I couldn’t justify a fold. Good thing too, because Mr. Genius shows 2c-2h. Now, if a 4 had come off, I wouldn’t be writing this right now as I would have probably had a stress-induced heart attack. Instead, the turn and river were 9s and As, leaving me with a clean bill of health and an extremely healthy chip stack. Down to 5 players, I was second again - $6,470 to $4,775.
Hand 33: Joe was down to his last $495, but Skim doubled him up when his A-Q unluckily got beat by 10-7 when the 7 paired. Seriously, you can’t kill this guy.
Hand 34: Chip leader, baby! Still at 25/50, I get 5c-4c in the BB. Skim calls out of the SB, everyone else bolts. The flop comes Kc-7c-6c. Wunderbar! However, who the hell knows what this maniac next to me has, so let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks yet. I bet $100, he raises to $400. I was slightly concerned, but also fairly certain that he was capable of re-raising with total squadoosh. The turn was 10h, Skim bets $450 and I call. I suppose at this point, I made the decision that he didn’t have a higher flush. The river was 3s, and he bet $900. Normally sequentially-increasing bets are a fairly reliable indicator of strength, but I just didn’t buy it for some reason. I trusted my read and called (notice I didn’t re-raise, hedging against the possibility that I was being roped in). He showed Kh-7d for two pair, so my flush was good. I took down a monster pot, and now led $6,625-$4,175.
Hands 35-41: Josh changed gears brilliantly once it became four-handed, and he basically traded these with Skim. I ask him via this very public forum whether he’s also a disciple of the Harrington school, as he seems to advocate the “tight early, loose late” strategy. Skim had $4,375, but Josh was knocking on the door with $3,360. Joe was on life support with $640.
Hand 42: Speaking of Joe, he went all-in (it’s now 50/100). I had Ad-8d, and figured it was probably ahead of Random Desperate Short-Stack Hand. Well, not exactly. He had Ac-8c, and not surprisingly we chopped it. Apparently, you have to shoot the creature directly in the head, or else it keeps on shambling towards you in its quest for delicious brains.
Hand 44: Joe raises again in hand 43, and my J-2 isn’t worth a call. This time, Josh calls his all-in raise, and it was the classic race: Josh with 8-8, Joe with Q-J off-suit. A Queen hit on the flop, and Joe doubled up once again. This hand has been brought to you by the Umbrella Corporation.
Hand 47: Josh closes the gap on me with a timely all-in bet. I got 10-10 in the BB, and he raises to $300 from the SB. No one else plays, so we’re off to the flop which comes K-8-5 rainbow. I check (I don’t know why, that’s almost always continuation-bet time from me), he bets $300, and I call. I don’t know why that was worth a call if it wasn’t worth a bet in the first place. The turn is a 7 – I bet $700, and he goes all-in with his last $2,195. I’d still have $3,005 if I called and lost, but it didn’t seem like a great spot to risk relinquishing the chip lead. If I remember correctly, I figured there was a 25-30% chance he was on a total bluff, and a 70-75% chance he had 5-5, 8-8 or any King-Other Picture Card hand. Risking $2,195 into a pot of $1,900 when I could very easily be dead to two outs (or drawing dead if he had K-K, a reasonable holding in this scenario) is not something I generally look for in a hand. I gracefully made my exit, and he took over second place with over $4,000 in chips for the first time. If that was a bluff, I take my hat off to you…it was a great one. And, because it’s not every other hand like SOME people in this tourney, I’m much less likely to call if you were bluffing. Well done.
Hand 49: Josh raises first to $300, Skim calls. Flop is K-5-3 with two clubs. Skim bets $650, Josh re-raises to $1,500. I was shocked, but Skim went away. As much as I was picking on him before, I think he was really a pretty good player, and we were just all irritated by the success of his style. He smartly folded here, and Josh was now less than $500 behind me.
Hand 50: One of Josh’s few mistakes – he called a re-raise from Skim on a Q-10-10 board. Interestingly, Skim checked it down the rest of the way, and showed J-10. Josh showed 3-3, which I think were slightly over-played after the flop. That worked for me, though…I was $1,000 ahead again.
Hand 52: With 8-8 on the button, only Joe calls my $300 raise. I hit my set on the flop with a Q-8-6 rainbow board, and it went check-check. The turn was a 7, and with two hearts out there I picked up a little speed (I think I pick up too much speed on the turn in this situation…maybe?). Joe bet $400, and my re-raise to $1,200 chased him away. That would have set him all-in, and I suppose it would be hard to expect him to have A-Q or K-Q when he checked the turn.
Hand 53: With K-10 off-suit under the gun, I raise to $300. Joe goes all-in for $980, and I fold. In retrospect, that’s probably virgin-cheerleader tight before the flop. Skim calls with K-3 off-suit, and Joe’s A-J off-suit holds up when all five cards miss them both. Joe is now past normal zombie status and now resembles that fucking thing from Resident Evil 2 (or is it 3?) that shows up more often than Jason Vorhees and mumbles “Staaaaaaaaaaaars”. Ugh. Moving on…
Hand 54: I get K-10 again in the BB now, and fold it again to Joe’s $400 raise. Josh calls, but can’t stand the heat of Joe’s continuation bet (flop was J-7-3 with two spades). Don’t look now, but Joe’s in third!
Me: $5,550 – Josh: $3,695 – Joe: $2,910 – Skim: $2,845
Hand 55-57: Skim re-awakens, and wins all three hands with some solid continuation bets and re-raises. He goes from 4th to 2nd just that quick.
Hand 58: I call people donkeys pretty often here, but as much as I can dish it out, I can take it too. The name of this blog is what it is because at different points in my poker career (hell, even in one session), I feel I have been all three of those. This time, I was a lucky, lucky donkey, and the shamrock-covered horseshoe up my ass sent Skim to the rail.
I found Qs-9d in the BB, and called Skim’s raise from the SB up to $300. The flop was Ah-Qc-7d. He checks, I make the $300 information bet, and he goes all-in for his last $4,645. Now, I’d like to say that I went into the tank for ages and came up with some brilliant thought process to justify my call. As it turns out, I just felt like he had done this too often for my liking in the second quarter of hands that were played, and he had shown in the past that he was capable of doing so with bluffing. I also felt he was capable of doing so with third pair, or a tiny pocket pair. This was a hand where the math went out the window, and I went entirely on my gut about the player. As it turns out, I was dead wrong...I called damn near instantly and my heart sank when I saw his Ac-3h. With no flush or straight possibilities, I was dead to 5 outs, meaning he was an 82% favorite to win the hand. Well, for fucking once, I got to donk out on someone else for a change, as the miracle 9 spiked on the turn, and the river was a blank. I would have been down…I DESERVED to be down to my last $155, but instead Skim was out and I rejoiced in the fact that not only did I definitely cash, all three friends had survived into the money. Nice.
Hand 67: I sat on my giganto-stack for a while, resolving not to play unless I had a strong hand. Joe and Josh traded some wins, until Joe re-raised Josh’s $450 pre-flop bet (75/150 now) all-in for his last $1,860. Josh called, and showed Kc-7c against Joe’s Jd-10s. Two Kings came out on the flop, and just to add insult to injury, the last two streets both were fives to fill up Josh’s boat. Joe went to the rail, as Hogie finally found the rocket launcher to slay the zombie-demon-beast-awful metaphor-beast.
Hand 68: I won a heads-up hand! I really, really did it! All by myself, with no one else’s help! Sadly, this was the last one. I raised to $450 pre-flop with Qd-6h, Josh folds.
Hand 69: I have Jd-5c in the BB. Josh raises to $450, I decide not to be pushed around and call. The flop is A-4-4 rainbow, and I decide to check-fold and wait for a better spot. I probably should have looked into that strategy in the next hand as well.
Hand 70: I have Qh-2d in the SB. He raises to $450, I call. The flop is 10-8-5 with two clubs. He makes the $450 continuation bet, and at this point, I kind of lost my mind and decided that OMG MUST MAKE STAND. I re-raise to $1,350, and at the very least he went into the tank for a bit. Unfortunately, when he came out, he re-raised to $2,750. Dammit shit fuck motherfuck shit shit shit. I can’t take the heat, and fold. He now leads $8,855-$6,145.
Hand 71: I have 4c-3h in the BB. He raises to $450, and I muck quickly. I am getting frustrated now.
Hand 72: I call with Ac-2h in the SB. He actually does not raise, so the flop comes Qh-5c-2s. He checks, and that won him the tournament right there. I bet $150 as a kind of teaser type bet because heads-up, it’s so hard to hit flops that I was sure I was ahead (especially with no pre-flop raise and the post-flop check, I at that point eliminated any Queen holdings). Josh re-raises to $450, and I immediately double it to $900. I imagine Josh knew right here that I was hooked on the line, and not going anywhere. Yes kids, I decided to go to war with third pair despite the maxim “Never go broke with a Queen in your hand”. Don’t look at me, I never make it to heads-up so I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing here! Josh re-re-raises to $3,000, and I call. Yep, at this point, I’m pot-committed. The turn is a 5h. At this point, I eliminate any holding Josh might have that has a 5, just going by the odds. Again, I was convinced he didn’t have a Queen for the reasons already stated. Josh set me all-in, and really, at this point I should have changed my mind about the Queen, mucked this piece of shit hand, and set about trying to grind my way back into it. Instead, I called, and took it on the chin when he showed Qd-4c. Just as a big, giant middle finger to your fearless correspondent, the river was another Queen. Well fuck you too, Sportsbook.
Honestly, Josh played an almost flawless tournament and deserved to win it. I remember him posting some hands he played to the message board we all post at last year, and thinking he had a loooooooooooong way to go. Fast-forward a year, and here he is teaching me a lesson in heads-up tournament poker. I think I’m getting better at this version of the game, but I feel like a UFC fighter that has the tools but doesn’t know how to finish fights. Josh seems to be a fairly deadly finisher, and that was about as one-sided of a heads-up match as you’ll get. It had some shades of Fedor vs. Sylvia, really. Heh.
Anyway, I profited almost as much with this as I did in my 90-minute session at .10/.20 last night, so it’s not all bad. Until next time!
Oh, and as you’ll see, I ended up being a total card rack tonight, and a run of cards like this in a ring game would have been like printing money in all likelihood. At the end of the day, though, this is supposed to be fun. And, I’d rather have some fun with friends if the opportunity is there…I think I’d be a rather sad excuse for a person if I didn’t.
On to some crucial hands:
Hand 3: Two off the button, guess what I wake up with? I haven’t held the weapons of mass destruction in ages, but here I am with Ac-Ad. The player in front of me raises to $140, and I am loving life. I call, everyone else folds, and we see a 7c-4d-3s flop. I knew right away I probably wouldn’t get donked out on with 6-5 or 7-4 or something…not with that pre-flop raise. Full speed ahead, captain! Mr. Aggressive bets $310, I call. Normally I don’t slow-play monsters, but there is absolutely nothing scary about that board. The turn is 6c, so now with two clubs out there, I’m resolved to get all the chips in. If he’s donking out on me, he’s going to pay for it. He saves me the trouble though, and bets $930. Interesting…why not all-in if that much? Typically, I consider that to be a sign of weakness as they want to at least have something if things don’t go their way. I had him on a lower pair or A-K here, so I put him all-in. He calls, and shows Qc-Qs. Awesome! He’s dead to two outs, and the 6s sends him home. On one hand, unless he put me on K-K or A-A, there was little for him to be afraid of out there. Then again, what did he think I called $310 with? I think the trouble is that a lot of donks do the all-in thing with A-A hoping that someone has a hand they like. It’s just that hand, really…any other monster is usually cause for check-calling all the way. So, I double-up nice and early...up to $3010!
Hand 5: The guy to my left, “skimwater”, calls my 60-cent raise (I had 8-8), as does Josh. Flop is A-Q-4, Josh bet $60 and skim raised to $120 on each street thereafter, with Josh calling each. My homie shows A-K, skim showed A-9. Wow. What do you think he was calling you with, bro? I pretty much had my read on this guy right there, and as I’ll explain later, he became quite the irritating little lunatic.
Hands 8-11: Skim goes nuts, betting and raising with ludicrously-high turn bets on all these hands. He’s up to $1953 for hand 11. I fold my awesome J-2, four callers to a 10s-9s-9c flop. Early-position guy pops it up to $150, skim calls, everyone else flees. The turn is 6d, the original bettor puts in $225, skim goes all-in, other guy calls. The original bettor shows 4c-4d, skim shows 10h 7c. The river is As, and the first guy is gone. I have no words…how did he not put him on A-10, K-10, Q-10 or J-10? He liked his 7 kicker that much? Really? Anyway, Skim won hand 12 as well, so he was at $3430 at that point to my $2840.
Hand 14: I didn’t win as much with them this time, but I see Ac-Ad in early position. I raise to $60, with visions of Skim raising all-in in my head. He folds, and Joe is my only customer in the BB. Let me just say that he and my friend Al are almost incapable of being trapped. Al has dodged bullets on quite a few occasions in my presence, and Joe is a survivor…his instincts (and Al’s) are almost always spot-on (especially in comparison to the author). The flop comes 5s-2s-2d. I have no idea what Joe has, as he checks. I don’t want him catching anything with random spades, so I bet $60 to see what happens. He goes away, leaving me with just a $75 profit. Every time I get a monster against those guys, I feel like a vaudeville villain trying to tie them to the railroad tracks. Curses, foiled again.
Hand 15: OK, this is almost not fair. Under the gun, I get Ah-Ks. I raise up to $90, and a previously-quiet player calls a few seats ahead of me. Everyone else bids adieu. The flop comes Jh-3s-2s. With two overcards and the potential for a runner-runner second-nut flush, against one caller, the continuation bet is automatic. Quiet Man calls. The turn is an absolutely beautiful Ad. I bet $360, he calls. What the hell is he calling me with? I have no idea, but I’m confident in my standing in the hand. The river is the Qs. I admit that I was a little cavalier here and wasn’t really thinking too much about what he had…if he had A-J, Q-J or J-J, I was just going to have to pay him off. In retrospect, I’m amazed that I wasn’t a little more frightened of the flush draw that was completed on the river…you can see how I overplay the shit out of top pair-top kicker sometimes. I bet $240 (OK, guess I was at least a little nervous), he calls and shows 5s5c. Man, thank fucking goodness for the stupid. On the next hand, the Skim All-In Special sent him to the rail when his 9-6 beat Quiet Man’s K-9 when the 6 came on the flop.
Hand 21: The guy directly to my right is knocked out by, well, Guess Who. He held J-J, the flop came J-7-2. The other guy ended up having A-J, so the result was inevitable. When another 7 hit on the turn, Skim’s ridiculous over-bet was called and that was that. That’s great, but what about the other 90% of the time when the other guy quietly deposits his hand in the muck? He and I are the big stacks, he leads $5,670 to $3,710.
Hand 22: My 10c-10s is good enough for a $150 raise (25/50 blinds), which Skim calls. The flop is Jh-8h-7s. I bet $325, he raises $650, and I insta-call. Honestly, I didn’t believe he had much other than maybe a flush draw or perhaps second or third pair. The turn comes Js, and he immediately throws in $1,625. Well, that made my decision easy, didn’t it? If he had put out a teaser bet, I almost certainly would have called (with two Jacks out there, there was less chance he had the third), and I maybe even would have raised. Instead, this was an easy fold…I’m at least tournament-savvy enough to wait for a better spot when I’m safely in second chip position with 74 BBs. I show my 10-10 to let him know I’m capable of folding it, and he was kind enough to show his J-2. Yes, he called a 3x BB raise with J-2 off-suit. No, I don’t know why either. At this point, our boy Skim is starting to royally get on my tits. It’s $6,495-$2,910 now, but I’m still in decent shape.
Hand 24: Skim raises to $100 pre-flop, Random Anonymous Guy 2 is his only customer. The flop is 9-4-4, RAG2 checks, and Skim goes all-in for $6,295. Err, OK. What exactly was he going to call you with? The inevitable fold is met with a showing of Ks-Qs. Cheers, thanks for the free information.
Hand 27: Skim wins the next two (I have to give it to him, in a crazed sort of way he’s playing his big stack pretty well), and he raises this one to $100. I re-raise to $250 with Kc-Qd, he calls. Flop is 6s-5d-3h, and he checks. Huh, that’s odd. I throw out $575, and he goes away. Well, that was uncharacteristic. At this point, I was beginning to think that he had a deliberate game plan and as much as I hate to admit it, it was working. It was hard as hell to put him on anything, that’s for sure. It’s not how I’d play because all it takes is someone waking up with a monster hand to send you packing, but he was accumulating chips like mad. The smart thing to do at that point would probably be to change gears and slow it down for a few orbits before picking up speed again. He wasn’t that smart, though.
Hand 28: Speaking of changing gears, Josh starts to pick up speed, and wins a nice pot off of Random Anonymous Guy 1. With that, he overtakes me for second place.
Hand 29: My lucky number is 29, it was my hockey number in high school, it’s my soccer number now. It also was the hand where RAG2 proved to be…a bird? A plane? No, it’s SUPERDONK! I find Qs-Qc in the BB. RAG2 calls, Joe raises to $150, I pop it up to $600 (I really, really don’t want A-x beating me). RAG2 calls, Joe (having possession of a brain) goes away. The flop comes 6c-5h-3s. While you do have to spare a thought for what this guy is calling with, this is a tournament and you do have to accumulate chips sometime. I still had $1,220 if all the chips went in, so I figured this was a good spot to go on the attack. I bet $500, and he goes all-in for $1,140. I go into the tank for just about the whole 15 seconds, and I considered using my extra time. However, at the end of the day, I was still 24.5 BBs to the good if I guessed wrong, so I couldn’t justify a fold. Good thing too, because Mr. Genius shows 2c-2h. Now, if a 4 had come off, I wouldn’t be writing this right now as I would have probably had a stress-induced heart attack. Instead, the turn and river were 9s and As, leaving me with a clean bill of health and an extremely healthy chip stack. Down to 5 players, I was second again - $6,470 to $4,775.
Hand 33: Joe was down to his last $495, but Skim doubled him up when his A-Q unluckily got beat by 10-7 when the 7 paired. Seriously, you can’t kill this guy.
Hand 34: Chip leader, baby! Still at 25/50, I get 5c-4c in the BB. Skim calls out of the SB, everyone else bolts. The flop comes Kc-7c-6c. Wunderbar! However, who the hell knows what this maniac next to me has, so let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks yet. I bet $100, he raises to $400. I was slightly concerned, but also fairly certain that he was capable of re-raising with total squadoosh. The turn was 10h, Skim bets $450 and I call. I suppose at this point, I made the decision that he didn’t have a higher flush. The river was 3s, and he bet $900. Normally sequentially-increasing bets are a fairly reliable indicator of strength, but I just didn’t buy it for some reason. I trusted my read and called (notice I didn’t re-raise, hedging against the possibility that I was being roped in). He showed Kh-7d for two pair, so my flush was good. I took down a monster pot, and now led $6,625-$4,175.
Hands 35-41: Josh changed gears brilliantly once it became four-handed, and he basically traded these with Skim. I ask him via this very public forum whether he’s also a disciple of the Harrington school, as he seems to advocate the “tight early, loose late” strategy. Skim had $4,375, but Josh was knocking on the door with $3,360. Joe was on life support with $640.
Hand 42: Speaking of Joe, he went all-in (it’s now 50/100). I had Ad-8d, and figured it was probably ahead of Random Desperate Short-Stack Hand. Well, not exactly. He had Ac-8c, and not surprisingly we chopped it. Apparently, you have to shoot the creature directly in the head, or else it keeps on shambling towards you in its quest for delicious brains.
Hand 44: Joe raises again in hand 43, and my J-2 isn’t worth a call. This time, Josh calls his all-in raise, and it was the classic race: Josh with 8-8, Joe with Q-J off-suit. A Queen hit on the flop, and Joe doubled up once again. This hand has been brought to you by the Umbrella Corporation.
Hand 47: Josh closes the gap on me with a timely all-in bet. I got 10-10 in the BB, and he raises to $300 from the SB. No one else plays, so we’re off to the flop which comes K-8-5 rainbow. I check (I don’t know why, that’s almost always continuation-bet time from me), he bets $300, and I call. I don’t know why that was worth a call if it wasn’t worth a bet in the first place. The turn is a 7 – I bet $700, and he goes all-in with his last $2,195. I’d still have $3,005 if I called and lost, but it didn’t seem like a great spot to risk relinquishing the chip lead. If I remember correctly, I figured there was a 25-30% chance he was on a total bluff, and a 70-75% chance he had 5-5, 8-8 or any King-Other Picture Card hand. Risking $2,195 into a pot of $1,900 when I could very easily be dead to two outs (or drawing dead if he had K-K, a reasonable holding in this scenario) is not something I generally look for in a hand. I gracefully made my exit, and he took over second place with over $4,000 in chips for the first time. If that was a bluff, I take my hat off to you…it was a great one. And, because it’s not every other hand like SOME people in this tourney, I’m much less likely to call if you were bluffing. Well done.
Hand 49: Josh raises first to $300, Skim calls. Flop is K-5-3 with two clubs. Skim bets $650, Josh re-raises to $1,500. I was shocked, but Skim went away. As much as I was picking on him before, I think he was really a pretty good player, and we were just all irritated by the success of his style. He smartly folded here, and Josh was now less than $500 behind me.
Hand 50: One of Josh’s few mistakes – he called a re-raise from Skim on a Q-10-10 board. Interestingly, Skim checked it down the rest of the way, and showed J-10. Josh showed 3-3, which I think were slightly over-played after the flop. That worked for me, though…I was $1,000 ahead again.
Hand 52: With 8-8 on the button, only Joe calls my $300 raise. I hit my set on the flop with a Q-8-6 rainbow board, and it went check-check. The turn was a 7, and with two hearts out there I picked up a little speed (I think I pick up too much speed on the turn in this situation…maybe?). Joe bet $400, and my re-raise to $1,200 chased him away. That would have set him all-in, and I suppose it would be hard to expect him to have A-Q or K-Q when he checked the turn.
Hand 53: With K-10 off-suit under the gun, I raise to $300. Joe goes all-in for $980, and I fold. In retrospect, that’s probably virgin-cheerleader tight before the flop. Skim calls with K-3 off-suit, and Joe’s A-J off-suit holds up when all five cards miss them both. Joe is now past normal zombie status and now resembles that fucking thing from Resident Evil 2 (or is it 3?) that shows up more often than Jason Vorhees and mumbles “Staaaaaaaaaaaars”. Ugh. Moving on…
Hand 54: I get K-10 again in the BB now, and fold it again to Joe’s $400 raise. Josh calls, but can’t stand the heat of Joe’s continuation bet (flop was J-7-3 with two spades). Don’t look now, but Joe’s in third!
Me: $5,550 – Josh: $3,695 – Joe: $2,910 – Skim: $2,845
Hand 55-57: Skim re-awakens, and wins all three hands with some solid continuation bets and re-raises. He goes from 4th to 2nd just that quick.
Hand 58: I call people donkeys pretty often here, but as much as I can dish it out, I can take it too. The name of this blog is what it is because at different points in my poker career (hell, even in one session), I feel I have been all three of those. This time, I was a lucky, lucky donkey, and the shamrock-covered horseshoe up my ass sent Skim to the rail.
I found Qs-9d in the BB, and called Skim’s raise from the SB up to $300. The flop was Ah-Qc-7d. He checks, I make the $300 information bet, and he goes all-in for his last $4,645. Now, I’d like to say that I went into the tank for ages and came up with some brilliant thought process to justify my call. As it turns out, I just felt like he had done this too often for my liking in the second quarter of hands that were played, and he had shown in the past that he was capable of doing so with bluffing. I also felt he was capable of doing so with third pair, or a tiny pocket pair. This was a hand where the math went out the window, and I went entirely on my gut about the player. As it turns out, I was dead wrong...I called damn near instantly and my heart sank when I saw his Ac-3h. With no flush or straight possibilities, I was dead to 5 outs, meaning he was an 82% favorite to win the hand. Well, for fucking once, I got to donk out on someone else for a change, as the miracle 9 spiked on the turn, and the river was a blank. I would have been down…I DESERVED to be down to my last $155, but instead Skim was out and I rejoiced in the fact that not only did I definitely cash, all three friends had survived into the money. Nice.
Hand 67: I sat on my giganto-stack for a while, resolving not to play unless I had a strong hand. Joe and Josh traded some wins, until Joe re-raised Josh’s $450 pre-flop bet (75/150 now) all-in for his last $1,860. Josh called, and showed Kc-7c against Joe’s Jd-10s. Two Kings came out on the flop, and just to add insult to injury, the last two streets both were fives to fill up Josh’s boat. Joe went to the rail, as Hogie finally found the rocket launcher to slay the zombie-demon-beast-awful metaphor-beast.
Hand 68: I won a heads-up hand! I really, really did it! All by myself, with no one else’s help! Sadly, this was the last one. I raised to $450 pre-flop with Qd-6h, Josh folds.
Hand 69: I have Jd-5c in the BB. Josh raises to $450, I decide not to be pushed around and call. The flop is A-4-4 rainbow, and I decide to check-fold and wait for a better spot. I probably should have looked into that strategy in the next hand as well.
Hand 70: I have Qh-2d in the SB. He raises to $450, I call. The flop is 10-8-5 with two clubs. He makes the $450 continuation bet, and at this point, I kind of lost my mind and decided that OMG MUST MAKE STAND. I re-raise to $1,350, and at the very least he went into the tank for a bit. Unfortunately, when he came out, he re-raised to $2,750. Dammit shit fuck motherfuck shit shit shit. I can’t take the heat, and fold. He now leads $8,855-$6,145.
Hand 71: I have 4c-3h in the BB. He raises to $450, and I muck quickly. I am getting frustrated now.
Hand 72: I call with Ac-2h in the SB. He actually does not raise, so the flop comes Qh-5c-2s. He checks, and that won him the tournament right there. I bet $150 as a kind of teaser type bet because heads-up, it’s so hard to hit flops that I was sure I was ahead (especially with no pre-flop raise and the post-flop check, I at that point eliminated any Queen holdings). Josh re-raises to $450, and I immediately double it to $900. I imagine Josh knew right here that I was hooked on the line, and not going anywhere. Yes kids, I decided to go to war with third pair despite the maxim “Never go broke with a Queen in your hand”. Don’t look at me, I never make it to heads-up so I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing here! Josh re-re-raises to $3,000, and I call. Yep, at this point, I’m pot-committed. The turn is a 5h. At this point, I eliminate any holding Josh might have that has a 5, just going by the odds. Again, I was convinced he didn’t have a Queen for the reasons already stated. Josh set me all-in, and really, at this point I should have changed my mind about the Queen, mucked this piece of shit hand, and set about trying to grind my way back into it. Instead, I called, and took it on the chin when he showed Qd-4c. Just as a big, giant middle finger to your fearless correspondent, the river was another Queen. Well fuck you too, Sportsbook.
Honestly, Josh played an almost flawless tournament and deserved to win it. I remember him posting some hands he played to the message board we all post at last year, and thinking he had a loooooooooooong way to go. Fast-forward a year, and here he is teaching me a lesson in heads-up tournament poker. I think I’m getting better at this version of the game, but I feel like a UFC fighter that has the tools but doesn’t know how to finish fights. Josh seems to be a fairly deadly finisher, and that was about as one-sided of a heads-up match as you’ll get. It had some shades of Fedor vs. Sylvia, really. Heh.
Anyway, I profited almost as much with this as I did in my 90-minute session at .10/.20 last night, so it’s not all bad. Until next time!
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