The gentleman who runs the Fish Food blog at Poker News (linky linky over there on the right) expressed his surprise a few days ago (in response to a comment I left there) that I was playing at a level where I only had 4 buy-ins. I didn’t really listen at the time, but I think I may have to drop down a level to .5/.10, even though I’ve done poorly there for the most part.
I have practically never sat a table like this – loose, insane, raises and re-raises flying in from all over the place. I lost a few cents here and there in the early action, but I didn’t have the kind of hands to play in the face of this insanity going on. There was this one guy who basically saw every flop that he could, and he ended up going from $20 to $60 or so very quickly when he won two consecutive pots that ended up with all the chips in the middle – he flopped a straight on the first hand with A-J, and got someone who had flopped two pair with K-10…the second, he called a 3X BB raise with 7-6o, and flopped a straight again. I’ve seen shit like this with this guy before too, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s a Sportsbook employee or something…I’ll put it that way (“trucker4u”, in case anyone reading plays at that room). Anyway, the other guy had J-9o, and couldn’t suck out for the higher straight.
I lost more than $10 on one hand, and that stressed me the fuck out (again, 4 buy-ins…I think that’s the problem). I got Qh-Jh in the SB…there were 5 callers in front of me, so I probably should have just folded the fucking thing. I ended up raising to .60 to get some of them out, and got three customers…including that trucker guy. The flop was K-6-2 with one heart. I don’t know why I did this with 3 people in there, but I made a continuation bet of $1.60. Two callers, one folder (hint: not the trucker guy). The turn is the 4h, and now I semi-bluff $4 with the flush draw. Shithead trucker guy re-raises to $8. With what he’s been playing (any two cards), I’m 99.9% sure that I beat him if my flush draw gets there. I’m of course 4:1 to get my flush, and a further $4 into a pot of $18.80 is 4.7:1, so I have to call. Of course, the river is a 5d. I had to check…if he was calling down this far, there was nothing about the 5 of diamonds that was going to make him go away…and with the GDP of Botswana in his stack, he’d call me if he had nothing, either. So, of course he bets $6.80 (.10 more than is in my stack), and I have to go away. Cynically, I wonder if he would have made that bet if my flush had gotten there. At this point, I’m wondering if he can see hole cards.
There was a time where I’d be so upset that I’d just leave the room immediately…I think that was a major contributor to a lot of the $200 I lost on Party a few years back. Don’t get me wrong, I was steaming and confused and doubting my ability to play at this table. Two hands later though, I got most of it back. In late position, I got Jd-10d. At this point, just about the whole table was limping on every hand and, at least 3-4 of them would call any raise out there. So, I limped in to see what happened. The flop came Jh-8d-3d. A good, solid player bet $1.20, and I immediately had her on 10-10 or Q-J or something. I call, and one guy I knew nothing about called. Stunningly, when I had top pair and a flush draw, the trucker shithead couldn’t muck his cards fast enough. The turn was a 5c, and Miss Solid bet $3. I still figured I had a good chance of being ahead with the Jacks, so I went all-in for my last $5.30 Both players call. The river was a gorgeous 10h. Miss Solid checks, and Other Guy goes all-in for his last $6.50. Solid quickly folds, and it’s off to the show-down. My two pair was quite good, as luckily Other Guy had called with Ad-6d. Now, at the turn, that was correct as he had to put in another $2.30 into a pot of $10.80…and the river bet was just to get Solid out in case for some reason his Ace-high was good. What a crushing blow for my confidence that would have been though if his flush had gotten there.
Such a narrow escape didn’t do much to help my mentality…I’ll admit it – I was intimidated by this table, and that is a very new thing for me. Practically the whole table would re-raise any time I put a bet on the flop…or, they’d call the flop (and the turn if I bet again), and then just jam a huge re-raise on the river. I don’t think I had the nuts a single time for the rest of the session, so I’d pretty much immediately fold. They had a read on me, and they were right to do so. I played another 50 hands, and ended up leaving with $15.65 of the $20 I bought in with. Considering the circumstances and how new the concept was of people not respecting my continuation bets, I’ll chalk this up to a learning experience, and a lesson in the fact that I have to control my emotions and not take one lost pot so hard.
Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Hand Deconstruction
So, as promised, I collected some of the worst hands from my Excel project to deconstruct in front of an audience of...well...the 2 or 3 people who read this. Without further ado, I think I'll start with THAT FUCKING STARTING HAND...
(Keep in mind that for the interest of space, I've deleted any non-necessary action such as non-principals folding.)
Seat 2: taho*** (9.97 in chips)
Seat 10: Swift29 (10.55 in chips) - 2 past the big blind
Dealt to Swift29 [ Ac Jh ]
Swift29: raises to $0.40
taho***: calls
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ 7d 5c 6c ]
Swift29: bets $0.80
taho***: calls
# # # TURN # # # [ 8d ]
Swift29: checks
taho***: checks
&&& RIVER &&& [ Qh ]
Swift29: checks
taho***: bets $1.28
Swift29: folds
taho***: returns uncalled bet $1.28
*** SHOW DOWN ***
taho***: mucks
taho*** wins $2.45
I like to think that this was an intelligent check-fold, but with it being .5/.10 online, I just don't know. I figure a 4X BB pre-flop raise will at least get rid of the 8-5 type starting hands, but who knows? Part of my frustration with online play is that who the fuck knows what these idiots will call with? Anyway, as you can see, this was an awful flop for my hand. However, I am rarely afraid to make continuation bets, as it does pick me up my share of small pots. In this case, though, I don't know it was the right play...especially not for the pot-sized bet that I put out there. With three to a straight and two to a flush out there just on the flop, it's a minefield for my A-J offsuit. About the best I could hope for would be to see a free turn or pay minimally for the privilege and that another club comes out. At least in that case, I could hope to see a cheap/free river and catch the nut flush.
Worst of all, I could probably have gotten the same information for .30 or .40 that I did for .80. Even most super-donks would fold if they completely whiffed on that flop, but those same donks would likely call pretty much anything with even as low as third pair...a holding which, in this case, would have won the pot anyway. The turn was of course even worse for my cause, and at that point I was committed to the check-fold game plan. One thing I've noticed when these fuckers have a monster is that they don't bet out all that often...they check-call all the way down. While it's hilariously bad play, it does in a weird way obfuscate their hands a bit because they do the same thing whether they have third pair, a gutshot straight draw or even if they've flopped a full house.
That said, the river action makes me believe the guy had the monster - it's been my experience that someone hitting the "1/2 pot" button or even the "pot-size" button is usually a tell that they have something they like. It SCREAMS out "value bet" to me, and I'm always careful when they do it. I think he was praying that I had a Queen and that I'd call another 1.28 to see his straight. Well fuck you, buddy...you probably called my raise with 9-3 offsuit and got lucky. Bully for you.
Seat 5: choo*** (16.21 in chips)
Seat 10: Swift29 (9.35 in chips) Under the Gun
Dealt to Swift29 [ 3c 5c ]
Swift29: calls
taho***: calls
choo***: calls
Sens***: calls
vanl***: checks
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ 3h 4c Tc ]
vanl***: checks
Swift29: checks
taho***: checks
choo***: bets $0.28
Sens***: calls
vanl***: folds
Swift29: calls
taho***: folds
# # # TURN # # # [ 9h ]
Swift29: checks
choo***: bets $0.70
Sens***: folds
Swift29: calls
&&& RIVER &&& [ Ah ]
Swift29: checks
choo***: bets $1.40
Swift29: folds
choo***: returns uncalled bet $1.40
choo*** wins $2.69
OK, first of all, calling with 5-3 suited under the gun is a rookie fucking mistake and I'm embarrassed to even show you all this one. I love taking flops with those kinds of hands, but I have to get better at doing so when I at least have positional advantage...calling with it here is like bringing a dull scalpel to a rocket-launcher fight. Still, at least I lucked out and got a bunch of callers with no raises...these types of hands play well in multi-player pots, and you can usually get away from them cheaply if you whiff. The problem is, sometimes you hit just enough to keep you around. That's what happened here, and as you can see, I took a pretty good battering on this one.
Normally, this is the kind of flop you dream about with this hand - flush draw with a pair. There was 50 cents in the pot pre-flop, and the post-flop action (by the time it got to me) meant that I had to call 28 cents with a pot of 1.08. That works out to 3.9/1 for my money, so I figured I had to call there. The bettor went with a bet other than the 1/2 or pot buttons I was talking about above, so he may have been trying to steal. There seems to me in retrospect to be about an equal chance of that vs. something like 10-9, J-10, Q-10, K-10 or perhaps even 10-10. I don't think the set was all that likely because then he'd go to the check-call routine (most of these people aren't smart enough to see the danger when they have a set or two pair and there's four to a flush out there). I'll say that 10-9, J-10, Q-10 or total bluff are the two most likely options (though a bluff would beat me in a showdown cause, well, I'm sitting on five-high). In that case, there are 2 threes, 3 fives, and 9 clubs that can (in my mind) win it for me, for a total of 14 outs. In case you don't know the formula for converting outs to a ratio (with the turn and river still to go), here you go (where x = number of outs):
(46-x)/x = x:1
So, I had a 2.28:1 chance to win for 3.9:1 on my money. That's an insta-call, right? So far, so good. Even if the guy had two pair or a set, it wasn't the worst call of my poker career...I had a 4.1:1 chance to win.
The turn, to be quite frank, sucked a fucking dick. That was no help to me whatsoever, and keep in mind that in retrospect I had 10-9 as one of his likely holdings. Now, I had to call a 70-cent bet into a pot of 1.78 - that's 2.54:1 on my money. However, the number of outs I had could as easily now be 9 as it is 14. Let's look at both scenarios. The formula above would now change to (45-x)/x, as there is one less card in the deck. If he doesn't have a set or two pair, I'm now only 2.21:1 to win. If I need to catch the flush, it's even worse - it's a 4:1 shot exactly. Either way, this was the mistake of the hand - I should have cut my losses and chalked it up to yet another monster drawing hand that didn't pan out when the other guy had something he liked and would have fucking paid me off. *sigh*
Of course, the river was a total blank as far as I was concerned, and at that point there was no way I was calling any bet, let alone that big of one. While I played this OK until halfway through, I still lost 70 cents that I shouldn't have by calling on the turn.
Last one for this post:
Hand #1584012214000021: Paris 12214
Seat 1: nsho*** (5.90 in chips)
Seat 10: Swift29 (9.12 in chips) Under the Gun
Dealt to Swift29 [ Jh Qd ]
Swift29: raises to $0.50
nsho***: calls
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ Td 7h 7d ]
Swift29: bets $0.60
nsho***: calls
# # # TURN # # # [ 9d ]
Swift29: checks
nsho***: bets $1.18
Swift29: calls
&&& RIVER &&& [ 8d ]
Swift29: checks
nsho***: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
nsho***: shows [ Kc Kd ] (Flush, King high)
Swift29: mucks
nsho*** wins $4.51 with Flush, King high
Swift29: mucks [ Jh, Qd ] (Flush)
This, on the other hand, was just fucking stupid all the way around on my part. It's funny how I spent the whole last post trying to convince you all that I'm not a total donkey, then I post this to completely circumvent that argument. Heh.
Anyway, let's count the mistakes, shall we?
1. That idiot Swift29 raised 5X the BB under the gun with a marginal hand like Q-J. Oh, dear.
2. Immediately after someone calls that high of a raise (which should at least have been a warning sign), I then bet out 60 cents on the flop. It's another case where 30 or 40 cents probably would have gotten me the same information - if he whiffed on the flop or thought I had the third 7 (which I think I was trying to represent there), he would have went away. If he had something he liked (or even four to a flush, as these people will call down to the ends of the earth with a flush or straight draw), he would have called and I'd have gotten the information that I needed to know. Still, I suppose the 60 cents is somewhat defensible as a continuation bet.
3. The turn ended up being the bait that turned this from a battering into a bloodbath. The 9d gave me an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw...enticing, right? However, this is where...you know...thinking and stuff about what the other guy has just maybe could be beneficial. The fact that he called the big bets pre-flop and post-flop meant he had to have something he really, really liked. Let's look at some of the reasonable holdings he could have had (including what he did, the K-K with a diamond) and see what my chances of winning were...and whether it was anywhere close to proper to call with a 1.18 bet into a 2.20 pot (1.86:1).
A-A, K-K, Q-Q, J-J (no diamond): This would actually have been the best scenario, as I'd have the most outs possible while being in no danger of facing a higher flush. Not only that, as an micro-stakes online player, he'd call down to the gates of hell with them, even with four to a different suit out there. Anyway, I'm looking at 3 non-diamond Kings, 3 non-diamond eights, and 9 diamonds to hit a hand that can beat this. If he had one King or two Kings, it'd be 1-2 less outs. The best case scenario would be, with all 15 outs, an exact 2:1 chance to win. Even then, for 1.86:1 on my money, it technically wouldn't be correct to call. If he had one King it would drop down to 2.21:1 to win, and K-K would mean it was 2.46:1. If he had A-A, you can take away the 3 non-diamond Kings as outs, as those would give him a higher straight. You can drop those winning chances even further down to 2.75:1 there. Terrible, terrible, terrible...and this is the BEST-case scenario. Sean, you are a fucking nimrod sometimes.
A-K (no diamond): A-K with no diamond would eliminate the six outs to hit a straight, as he would already have a higher one. A flush is all that will do, so with 9 outs, it's back to the 4:1 chance to hit your flush on the river. A call in that situation is just horrendous.
A-10, K-10, Q-10 (no diamonds): K-10 would be the same 2.21:1 chance as above, while A-10 and Q-10 would be the same 2:1 chance as above.
10-10: A set would definitely explain both his calls, and I'd have the same 2:1 chance as above.
A-x, K-x, including big hands like A-A, K-K, A-10, K-Q, etc (with a diamond): Any big hand with an A or K diamond or even any A-Rag/K-Rag hand with the Ace or King of diamonds means I'm drawing to just a few outs. How few? Well, you can forget hitting the flush, because my Q-high flush is useless in the face of that. There are a few sub-scenarios here, and none of them are pretty:
Ad-Q/Ad-J/Kd-Q/K-d-J: In this case, three of my outs are gone because I hit a pair with the Q or the J depending on which he had, then with the pair of 7s on the board, we'd both have two pair and his kicker would play. In this case, I'm down to the 3 of the one that he doesn't have, and 3 eights for the straight. Here, I'm a distant 6.5:1 to win.
Ad-A/Kd-K: This is the one he ended up having, with the cowboys. The flush is out the window because of his higher diamond, so I have the 3 eights for the straight and the 3 (or 2) Kings left. With A-A it's the same 6.5:1 as above, and with K-K (again, what actually happened), I'm an appalling 8:1 to win. Can you see why I'm beating myself up so badly over this one?
Finally, the worst case scenario: If he had Ad-xd or Kd-xd, I was drawing ABSOLUTELY STONE FUCKING DEAD.
Now, of course I didn't know exactly what he had, and any of the above seems just as reasonable a holding to me as the others, given that this is online micro-stakes and all. If you take the average ratio to win out of all of these, you end up with a final tally of 3.64:1 for a chance at 1.86:1 on my money.
I'm not usually this bad of a player, but this hand was brutally, brutally bad on my part.
More hands coming up soon...
(Keep in mind that for the interest of space, I've deleted any non-necessary action such as non-principals folding.)
Seat 2: taho*** (9.97 in chips)
Seat 10: Swift29 (10.55 in chips) - 2 past the big blind
Dealt to Swift29 [ Ac Jh ]
Swift29: raises to $0.40
taho***: calls
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ 7d 5c 6c ]
Swift29: bets $0.80
taho***: calls
# # # TURN # # # [ 8d ]
Swift29: checks
taho***: checks
&&& RIVER &&& [ Qh ]
Swift29: checks
taho***: bets $1.28
Swift29: folds
taho***: returns uncalled bet $1.28
*** SHOW DOWN ***
taho***: mucks
taho*** wins $2.45
I like to think that this was an intelligent check-fold, but with it being .5/.10 online, I just don't know. I figure a 4X BB pre-flop raise will at least get rid of the 8-5 type starting hands, but who knows? Part of my frustration with online play is that who the fuck knows what these idiots will call with? Anyway, as you can see, this was an awful flop for my hand. However, I am rarely afraid to make continuation bets, as it does pick me up my share of small pots. In this case, though, I don't know it was the right play...especially not for the pot-sized bet that I put out there. With three to a straight and two to a flush out there just on the flop, it's a minefield for my A-J offsuit. About the best I could hope for would be to see a free turn or pay minimally for the privilege and that another club comes out. At least in that case, I could hope to see a cheap/free river and catch the nut flush.
Worst of all, I could probably have gotten the same information for .30 or .40 that I did for .80. Even most super-donks would fold if they completely whiffed on that flop, but those same donks would likely call pretty much anything with even as low as third pair...a holding which, in this case, would have won the pot anyway. The turn was of course even worse for my cause, and at that point I was committed to the check-fold game plan. One thing I've noticed when these fuckers have a monster is that they don't bet out all that often...they check-call all the way down. While it's hilariously bad play, it does in a weird way obfuscate their hands a bit because they do the same thing whether they have third pair, a gutshot straight draw or even if they've flopped a full house.
That said, the river action makes me believe the guy had the monster - it's been my experience that someone hitting the "1/2 pot" button or even the "pot-size" button is usually a tell that they have something they like. It SCREAMS out "value bet" to me, and I'm always careful when they do it. I think he was praying that I had a Queen and that I'd call another 1.28 to see his straight. Well fuck you, buddy...you probably called my raise with 9-3 offsuit and got lucky. Bully for you.
Seat 5: choo*** (16.21 in chips)
Seat 10: Swift29 (9.35 in chips) Under the Gun
Dealt to Swift29 [ 3c 5c ]
Swift29: calls
taho***: calls
choo***: calls
Sens***: calls
vanl***: checks
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ 3h 4c Tc ]
vanl***: checks
Swift29: checks
taho***: checks
choo***: bets $0.28
Sens***: calls
vanl***: folds
Swift29: calls
taho***: folds
# # # TURN # # # [ 9h ]
Swift29: checks
choo***: bets $0.70
Sens***: folds
Swift29: calls
&&& RIVER &&& [ Ah ]
Swift29: checks
choo***: bets $1.40
Swift29: folds
choo***: returns uncalled bet $1.40
choo*** wins $2.69
OK, first of all, calling with 5-3 suited under the gun is a rookie fucking mistake and I'm embarrassed to even show you all this one. I love taking flops with those kinds of hands, but I have to get better at doing so when I at least have positional advantage...calling with it here is like bringing a dull scalpel to a rocket-launcher fight. Still, at least I lucked out and got a bunch of callers with no raises...these types of hands play well in multi-player pots, and you can usually get away from them cheaply if you whiff. The problem is, sometimes you hit just enough to keep you around. That's what happened here, and as you can see, I took a pretty good battering on this one.
Normally, this is the kind of flop you dream about with this hand - flush draw with a pair. There was 50 cents in the pot pre-flop, and the post-flop action (by the time it got to me) meant that I had to call 28 cents with a pot of 1.08. That works out to 3.9/1 for my money, so I figured I had to call there. The bettor went with a bet other than the 1/2 or pot buttons I was talking about above, so he may have been trying to steal. There seems to me in retrospect to be about an equal chance of that vs. something like 10-9, J-10, Q-10, K-10 or perhaps even 10-10. I don't think the set was all that likely because then he'd go to the check-call routine (most of these people aren't smart enough to see the danger when they have a set or two pair and there's four to a flush out there). I'll say that 10-9, J-10, Q-10 or total bluff are the two most likely options (though a bluff would beat me in a showdown cause, well, I'm sitting on five-high). In that case, there are 2 threes, 3 fives, and 9 clubs that can (in my mind) win it for me, for a total of 14 outs. In case you don't know the formula for converting outs to a ratio (with the turn and river still to go), here you go (where x = number of outs):
(46-x)/x = x:1
So, I had a 2.28:1 chance to win for 3.9:1 on my money. That's an insta-call, right? So far, so good. Even if the guy had two pair or a set, it wasn't the worst call of my poker career...I had a 4.1:1 chance to win.
The turn, to be quite frank, sucked a fucking dick. That was no help to me whatsoever, and keep in mind that in retrospect I had 10-9 as one of his likely holdings. Now, I had to call a 70-cent bet into a pot of 1.78 - that's 2.54:1 on my money. However, the number of outs I had could as easily now be 9 as it is 14. Let's look at both scenarios. The formula above would now change to (45-x)/x, as there is one less card in the deck. If he doesn't have a set or two pair, I'm now only 2.21:1 to win. If I need to catch the flush, it's even worse - it's a 4:1 shot exactly. Either way, this was the mistake of the hand - I should have cut my losses and chalked it up to yet another monster drawing hand that didn't pan out when the other guy had something he liked and would have fucking paid me off. *sigh*
Of course, the river was a total blank as far as I was concerned, and at that point there was no way I was calling any bet, let alone that big of one. While I played this OK until halfway through, I still lost 70 cents that I shouldn't have by calling on the turn.
Last one for this post:
Hand #1584012214000021: Paris 12214
Seat 1: nsho*** (5.90 in chips)
Seat 10: Swift29 (9.12 in chips) Under the Gun
Dealt to Swift29 [ Jh Qd ]
Swift29: raises to $0.50
nsho***: calls
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ Td 7h 7d ]
Swift29: bets $0.60
nsho***: calls
# # # TURN # # # [ 9d ]
Swift29: checks
nsho***: bets $1.18
Swift29: calls
&&& RIVER &&& [ 8d ]
Swift29: checks
nsho***: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
nsho***: shows [ Kc Kd ] (Flush, King high)
Swift29: mucks
nsho*** wins $4.51 with Flush, King high
Swift29: mucks [ Jh, Qd ] (Flush)
This, on the other hand, was just fucking stupid all the way around on my part. It's funny how I spent the whole last post trying to convince you all that I'm not a total donkey, then I post this to completely circumvent that argument. Heh.
Anyway, let's count the mistakes, shall we?
1. That idiot Swift29 raised 5X the BB under the gun with a marginal hand like Q-J. Oh, dear.
2. Immediately after someone calls that high of a raise (which should at least have been a warning sign), I then bet out 60 cents on the flop. It's another case where 30 or 40 cents probably would have gotten me the same information - if he whiffed on the flop or thought I had the third 7 (which I think I was trying to represent there), he would have went away. If he had something he liked (or even four to a flush, as these people will call down to the ends of the earth with a flush or straight draw), he would have called and I'd have gotten the information that I needed to know. Still, I suppose the 60 cents is somewhat defensible as a continuation bet.
3. The turn ended up being the bait that turned this from a battering into a bloodbath. The 9d gave me an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw...enticing, right? However, this is where...you know...thinking and stuff about what the other guy has just maybe could be beneficial. The fact that he called the big bets pre-flop and post-flop meant he had to have something he really, really liked. Let's look at some of the reasonable holdings he could have had (including what he did, the K-K with a diamond) and see what my chances of winning were...and whether it was anywhere close to proper to call with a 1.18 bet into a 2.20 pot (1.86:1).
A-A, K-K, Q-Q, J-J (no diamond): This would actually have been the best scenario, as I'd have the most outs possible while being in no danger of facing a higher flush. Not only that, as an micro-stakes online player, he'd call down to the gates of hell with them, even with four to a different suit out there. Anyway, I'm looking at 3 non-diamond Kings, 3 non-diamond eights, and 9 diamonds to hit a hand that can beat this. If he had one King or two Kings, it'd be 1-2 less outs. The best case scenario would be, with all 15 outs, an exact 2:1 chance to win. Even then, for 1.86:1 on my money, it technically wouldn't be correct to call. If he had one King it would drop down to 2.21:1 to win, and K-K would mean it was 2.46:1. If he had A-A, you can take away the 3 non-diamond Kings as outs, as those would give him a higher straight. You can drop those winning chances even further down to 2.75:1 there. Terrible, terrible, terrible...and this is the BEST-case scenario. Sean, you are a fucking nimrod sometimes.
A-K (no diamond): A-K with no diamond would eliminate the six outs to hit a straight, as he would already have a higher one. A flush is all that will do, so with 9 outs, it's back to the 4:1 chance to hit your flush on the river. A call in that situation is just horrendous.
A-10, K-10, Q-10 (no diamonds): K-10 would be the same 2.21:1 chance as above, while A-10 and Q-10 would be the same 2:1 chance as above.
10-10: A set would definitely explain both his calls, and I'd have the same 2:1 chance as above.
A-x, K-x, including big hands like A-A, K-K, A-10, K-Q, etc (with a diamond): Any big hand with an A or K diamond or even any A-Rag/K-Rag hand with the Ace or King of diamonds means I'm drawing to just a few outs. How few? Well, you can forget hitting the flush, because my Q-high flush is useless in the face of that. There are a few sub-scenarios here, and none of them are pretty:
Ad-Q/Ad-J/Kd-Q/K-d-J: In this case, three of my outs are gone because I hit a pair with the Q or the J depending on which he had, then with the pair of 7s on the board, we'd both have two pair and his kicker would play. In this case, I'm down to the 3 of the one that he doesn't have, and 3 eights for the straight. Here, I'm a distant 6.5:1 to win.
Ad-A/Kd-K: This is the one he ended up having, with the cowboys. The flush is out the window because of his higher diamond, so I have the 3 eights for the straight and the 3 (or 2) Kings left. With A-A it's the same 6.5:1 as above, and with K-K (again, what actually happened), I'm an appalling 8:1 to win. Can you see why I'm beating myself up so badly over this one?
Finally, the worst case scenario: If he had Ad-xd or Kd-xd, I was drawing ABSOLUTELY STONE FUCKING DEAD.
Now, of course I didn't know exactly what he had, and any of the above seems just as reasonable a holding to me as the others, given that this is online micro-stakes and all. If you take the average ratio to win out of all of these, you end up with a final tally of 3.64:1 for a chance at 1.86:1 on my money.
I'm not usually this bad of a player, but this hand was brutally, brutally bad on my part.
More hands coming up soon...
Frustration
I suppose this is as good of a way to begin this blog as anything, especially as it encapsulates a lot of what is going wrong with my game right now. Tonight we had our semi-regular home game which serves as the main entertainment for the evening, usually with a UFC show in the background (as was the case tonight, and it's a good thing...my main man Georges St.Pierre retaining his title was the only good thing to happen today).
Over the last week or so, I've been taking the hand histories from Sportsbook and slowly slogging my way through entering them into an Excel sheet I created (Poker Tracker doesn't work with SB, and I don't have the spare 55 bucks right now anyway). During this process, a few patterns immediately jumped out at me. First, I've done very well at the highest limit I've been playing at (.10/.20, +$40), horrendous at the one below it (.05/.10, -$41), and not so great at the smallest limit either (.02/.04, -$7.50 or so). I attribute this to some extent to the fact that continuation bets and the like actually WORK sometimes at .10/.20, whereas the other two limits are always no-fold 'em hold 'em. Two other things - my play from the blinds isn't all that great, and I lose a TON of money on marginal high hands (which I will define as anything from A-J suited on down to 10-10). When I win with them, it's always a small pot...I make a small raise and opposing hands go into the muck at the speed of fucking light. When I lose with them though, I hemorrhage money like my chip stack got ventilated by an Uzi. Nothing really changed with any of this tonight (keep in mind that the home game is .5/.10 as well).
Anyone reading this who doesn't know me would probably think I was no better than any other online micro-stakes donkey playing in the various card rooms on teh intarwebz. But, I went down to Atlantic City and profited over $200 in a couple of long sessions at the $1/$3 tables at Bally's. In these home games, I usually do very well for myself. Maybe it sounds like I'm trying to convince myself (shit, maybe I am), but I'm not a bad player...I really, really am not. It just feels like it lately, though. One thing I do need improvement on though is my focus - when I play online, I always have to fight the urge to check my e-mail or fuck around on Facebook...when I play the home games or even at AC, I'm not watching the other players and the hands I'm not in enough. While I'm not usually prone to go on tilt, when I do, it's 0-to-Berserker Rage in about 2 seconds. Tonight, I was on tilt even before the game started due to some bullshit that went down at my soccer game last night. If this weren't a game with friends, I would never have played at all...so I suppose it isn't surprising that I wasn't paying a lot of attention, wasn't playing smart and definitely wasn't basing calls or folds based on reading the other player's hand. Still, in a just world I would only have ended up a buck or two down instead of 7.
I've started taking down hands in a notebook now, so I can actually give specifics. I opened up the game by stealing a few blinds and getting out of the way when it wasn't worth trying. I'm usually aggressive in that manner, and I like to set my table image early. On the 7th or 8th hand though, I got myself a nice holding of A-10, and raised it up. One caller and one terrible flop later, I had to fold...said caller informed me he held Q-Q. Trust me, it wouldn't be the last time I had a nice hand end up second best in the course of the evening.
One orbit later, I picked up .90 with Q-10, only to lose all of that in the next hand with 4-3 (I believe I had an open-ender that whiffed). A few hands after that, my K-K ran up against A-A for a -1.90 loss, and on the VERY NEXT FUCKING HAND, my A-J with the ace paired ran up against A-K for a -2.75 loss. I can't fucking REMEMBER the last time where I actually had someone dominated and they actually paid me off for it. Two orbits later, it happened again. My K-Q suited profited a whole 10 cents, then I picked up A-J again and lost 1.15 with them (all told, I had them 7 times in 181 hands, and lost 5 of them for a -7.35 total). I mean, it's not like I'm playing super-tight and everyone knows when I have a hand - out of the 181 hands, I had some part in 114 of them! I mean, a decent amount of those involved folding my blinds to a pre-flop raise, but it's not like I was the Rock of Gibraltar! Furthermore, I have the reputation in this game as kind of a loose and wild maniac, so I just don't get why my good hands aren't getting paid off.
I did recover at that point and won a few pots. I got .35 with A-J, 70 with K-K and .35 with K-10. Still, that hardly made up for the losses before, and I soon lost another .60 with A-J again. A few orbits later, another .40 was gone with Q-6 suited when my flush draw swung and missed like, well, anyone on my favorite baseball team. F-r-u-s-t-r-a-t-i-o-n.
So it went for another two hours or so, until I finally won one good pot (1.25) with A-10 where I may have raised someone off of the best hand. I think I had the 10 paired, and someone had their Jack paired or something. A solid win with A-Q was mostly neutralized by a 30-cent loss with Q-10. I won a total of 90 cents with K-8, 2-2 and 6-5, only to lose 1.50 with K-2 suited where my opponent kept making the bets enticing enough where I had to call with my four-flush draw. It whiffed, of fucking course. I've been playing for three years now, and I think the last flush I hit that paid me anything significant may have occurred at the Outer Banks in 2005 when I first played this fucking game. Ugh.
As it got towards the end of the session (well, when I bailed anyway), I had lost ANOTHER 90 cents with A-J, but then I went on a bit of a hot streak. I picked up 1.50 in total with A-6 suited, 9-8 and 10-10, a dollar with J-8, .35 for stealing with 7-2 (everyone pays a nickel if 7-2 wins in our game) and another .30 with 7-5. I folded the SB for just the 5 cents, and at that point I was only 4.25 down...not so bad considering the horrendous luck I had been having to that point.
Then, THAT hand happened. Like I said, I usually keep a lid on my anger pretty well, but Tilty McTilterson showed up after this one.
I had...no, really, GUESS WHICH FUCKING HAND. The flop came something like J-8-x, and my opponent was first to act. He put in a .30 raise or so, which I of course called as my Jack was paired with top kicker. The turn was I believe a Queen, which I didn't think my opponent had. Still, he raised a pretty significant amount, I think 1.50 or somewhere close. If memory serves, the river was a 10. With a board of Q-J-10-8-x, I should have realized the danger at some point, although in my defense, this opponent had raised me off the best hand a few times and had shown total bluffs afterward. In retrospect, I should have trusted my instincts and went all in on the turn. Still, I figured that he didn't have A-K, and I didn't think he had a set either. Honestly, I couldn't really put him on anything, but I felt like I had the best hand the whole way. He bet less on the river than he did the turn, .75 or thereabouts. I had to call with those pot odds, and I felt I had the best hand anyway. He turns over 9-9, and a nanosecond later my sunglasses where hurled across the room. I immediately got up and left the room to clear my head, because holy SHIT, was I steaming. I mean, I was ready to explode. I wish I knew what he thought I had the whole way, you know?
However, that's no excuse for the cavalier way I played the hand. There was enough danger on that board where he could have had a lot that beat me - J-J, Q-J, 10-10, 8-8, Q-10, a set of whatever the blank was, A-K, K-K, even A-A. At some point, I should have given some consideration to the fact that if he was betting at it, he had to have SOMETHING. While betting at it with 9-9 was fucking insane and he only won with the runner-runner turn and river, I don't know what I was beating other than a total bluff or some holding like J-7 or something (which he was capable of having based on how he was playing). On the flop, I should have re-raised all-in right there, or at least something significant. I could have done it on the turn too...if he had called at that point, I probably would have had a lot more right to be as mad as I was.
It's not a mistake that I probably would have made in Atlantic City, but it irks me all the same because I KNOW better. I'm a better player than this, and I probably shouldn't play when I'm in this mental state next time, even if friends are over.
Ugh. What a fucking weekend. In the next post, I'll show some hands from those histories on SB I was referring to before, and I'll try and deconstruct some more of my mistakes for you. Until then...
Over the last week or so, I've been taking the hand histories from Sportsbook and slowly slogging my way through entering them into an Excel sheet I created (Poker Tracker doesn't work with SB, and I don't have the spare 55 bucks right now anyway). During this process, a few patterns immediately jumped out at me. First, I've done very well at the highest limit I've been playing at (.10/.20, +$40), horrendous at the one below it (.05/.10, -$41), and not so great at the smallest limit either (.02/.04, -$7.50 or so). I attribute this to some extent to the fact that continuation bets and the like actually WORK sometimes at .10/.20, whereas the other two limits are always no-fold 'em hold 'em. Two other things - my play from the blinds isn't all that great, and I lose a TON of money on marginal high hands (which I will define as anything from A-J suited on down to 10-10). When I win with them, it's always a small pot...I make a small raise and opposing hands go into the muck at the speed of fucking light. When I lose with them though, I hemorrhage money like my chip stack got ventilated by an Uzi. Nothing really changed with any of this tonight (keep in mind that the home game is .5/.10 as well).
Anyone reading this who doesn't know me would probably think I was no better than any other online micro-stakes donkey playing in the various card rooms on teh intarwebz. But, I went down to Atlantic City and profited over $200 in a couple of long sessions at the $1/$3 tables at Bally's. In these home games, I usually do very well for myself. Maybe it sounds like I'm trying to convince myself (shit, maybe I am), but I'm not a bad player...I really, really am not. It just feels like it lately, though. One thing I do need improvement on though is my focus - when I play online, I always have to fight the urge to check my e-mail or fuck around on Facebook...when I play the home games or even at AC, I'm not watching the other players and the hands I'm not in enough. While I'm not usually prone to go on tilt, when I do, it's 0-to-Berserker Rage in about 2 seconds. Tonight, I was on tilt even before the game started due to some bullshit that went down at my soccer game last night. If this weren't a game with friends, I would never have played at all...so I suppose it isn't surprising that I wasn't paying a lot of attention, wasn't playing smart and definitely wasn't basing calls or folds based on reading the other player's hand. Still, in a just world I would only have ended up a buck or two down instead of 7.
I've started taking down hands in a notebook now, so I can actually give specifics. I opened up the game by stealing a few blinds and getting out of the way when it wasn't worth trying. I'm usually aggressive in that manner, and I like to set my table image early. On the 7th or 8th hand though, I got myself a nice holding of A-10, and raised it up. One caller and one terrible flop later, I had to fold...said caller informed me he held Q-Q. Trust me, it wouldn't be the last time I had a nice hand end up second best in the course of the evening.
One orbit later, I picked up .90 with Q-10, only to lose all of that in the next hand with 4-3 (I believe I had an open-ender that whiffed). A few hands after that, my K-K ran up against A-A for a -1.90 loss, and on the VERY NEXT FUCKING HAND, my A-J with the ace paired ran up against A-K for a -2.75 loss. I can't fucking REMEMBER the last time where I actually had someone dominated and they actually paid me off for it. Two orbits later, it happened again. My K-Q suited profited a whole 10 cents, then I picked up A-J again and lost 1.15 with them (all told, I had them 7 times in 181 hands, and lost 5 of them for a -7.35 total). I mean, it's not like I'm playing super-tight and everyone knows when I have a hand - out of the 181 hands, I had some part in 114 of them! I mean, a decent amount of those involved folding my blinds to a pre-flop raise, but it's not like I was the Rock of Gibraltar! Furthermore, I have the reputation in this game as kind of a loose and wild maniac, so I just don't get why my good hands aren't getting paid off.
I did recover at that point and won a few pots. I got .35 with A-J, 70 with K-K and .35 with K-10. Still, that hardly made up for the losses before, and I soon lost another .60 with A-J again. A few orbits later, another .40 was gone with Q-6 suited when my flush draw swung and missed like, well, anyone on my favorite baseball team. F-r-u-s-t-r-a-t-i-o-n.
So it went for another two hours or so, until I finally won one good pot (1.25) with A-10 where I may have raised someone off of the best hand. I think I had the 10 paired, and someone had their Jack paired or something. A solid win with A-Q was mostly neutralized by a 30-cent loss with Q-10. I won a total of 90 cents with K-8, 2-2 and 6-5, only to lose 1.50 with K-2 suited where my opponent kept making the bets enticing enough where I had to call with my four-flush draw. It whiffed, of fucking course. I've been playing for three years now, and I think the last flush I hit that paid me anything significant may have occurred at the Outer Banks in 2005 when I first played this fucking game. Ugh.
As it got towards the end of the session (well, when I bailed anyway), I had lost ANOTHER 90 cents with A-J, but then I went on a bit of a hot streak. I picked up 1.50 in total with A-6 suited, 9-8 and 10-10, a dollar with J-8, .35 for stealing with 7-2 (everyone pays a nickel if 7-2 wins in our game) and another .30 with 7-5. I folded the SB for just the 5 cents, and at that point I was only 4.25 down...not so bad considering the horrendous luck I had been having to that point.
Then, THAT hand happened. Like I said, I usually keep a lid on my anger pretty well, but Tilty McTilterson showed up after this one.
I had...no, really, GUESS WHICH FUCKING HAND. The flop came something like J-8-x, and my opponent was first to act. He put in a .30 raise or so, which I of course called as my Jack was paired with top kicker. The turn was I believe a Queen, which I didn't think my opponent had. Still, he raised a pretty significant amount, I think 1.50 or somewhere close. If memory serves, the river was a 10. With a board of Q-J-10-8-x, I should have realized the danger at some point, although in my defense, this opponent had raised me off the best hand a few times and had shown total bluffs afterward. In retrospect, I should have trusted my instincts and went all in on the turn. Still, I figured that he didn't have A-K, and I didn't think he had a set either. Honestly, I couldn't really put him on anything, but I felt like I had the best hand the whole way. He bet less on the river than he did the turn, .75 or thereabouts. I had to call with those pot odds, and I felt I had the best hand anyway. He turns over 9-9, and a nanosecond later my sunglasses where hurled across the room. I immediately got up and left the room to clear my head, because holy SHIT, was I steaming. I mean, I was ready to explode. I wish I knew what he thought I had the whole way, you know?
However, that's no excuse for the cavalier way I played the hand. There was enough danger on that board where he could have had a lot that beat me - J-J, Q-J, 10-10, 8-8, Q-10, a set of whatever the blank was, A-K, K-K, even A-A. At some point, I should have given some consideration to the fact that if he was betting at it, he had to have SOMETHING. While betting at it with 9-9 was fucking insane and he only won with the runner-runner turn and river, I don't know what I was beating other than a total bluff or some holding like J-7 or something (which he was capable of having based on how he was playing). On the flop, I should have re-raised all-in right there, or at least something significant. I could have done it on the turn too...if he had called at that point, I probably would have had a lot more right to be as mad as I was.
It's not a mistake that I probably would have made in Atlantic City, but it irks me all the same because I KNOW better. I'm a better player than this, and I probably shouldn't play when I'm in this mental state next time, even if friends are over.
Ugh. What a fucking weekend. In the next post, I'll show some hands from those histories on SB I was referring to before, and I'll try and deconstruct some more of my mistakes for you. Until then...
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