Lots of Poker that I Didn't Play

Let's see what's happened in the past couple weeks.

Mag has come in 3rd in the UBOC, wins the Stars $100, the next day wins the Stars $55 rebuy, then the next day wins the $100 rebuy. Hate to see the guy leave the cash game arena to be a tourney donk, but you can't argue with all of that money. Sick stuff.

A few days after all this, lucko21 wins the very next $100 rebuy for $25k! Mag went pretty deep, coming in about twentieth.

Then, the very NEXT $100 rebuy, sprstoner makes the final table.

AND on UB, mag and tdizz made the very same final table in the $30 rebuy, finishing fourth and second, respectively. Sick, sick stuff. It makes me want to start playing tourneys again. Maybe once I get a new laptop (soon... soon...)

Also congrats to gleeful for winning the TPOAPC main event, and vman and aces (julio the fat mexican queer) for being the player of the year point leaders. I went a long way down from where I was after the first two tourneys (first) but I think I played well in most of the tourneys. I missed HORSE and the main event (I thought it was tonight, not this afternoon), and got pretty unlucky in razz. But I played fucking god-awful in the stud high and in the second no limit event.

Mathematics of Poker continues to be an incredible book. I'd recommend it (or an attempt at it) to anyone who plays this game even remotely seriously.

No real non-poker news. Arielle comes home soon, that's about it.

TPOAPC

Three tourneys in the plus one annual poker championships.

First one I skilled my way into an early chip lead when my AKo beat Troys AKo. Lost some of it back to him when my JJ lost the coinflip to his JTo (pokerstars...).

Came into the FT with a great stack, with cbal in second. I was playing pretty fast, but chris had recently reraised a couple raises of mine. So I went to steal with 69o and he flat called,w hich really confused me. I put him on something like KQ or AT. The flop came 762 and we both checked. The turn paired the deuce and he led out for 1K. I jammed for somethin like 5 or 6k more and he called with his T7s. He made an awesome call there and I had no idea where he was in the hand. He took those chips and ended up winning the tourney, leaving me in a weak sixth.

Next day we played omaha hilo. I had to be one of the worst omaha split players in the field. So naturally I came in third after semi-cold decking lucko for a huge pot and scooping a couple big pots early on. I really played like shit in the middle rounds though.

After this tourney, i was the +1 POTY points leader with 13, one more than drome (who wont he O8 tourney) and chris.

Last night was stud high, easily my worst game. I was lost the entire night and finished 13th for no more points. I'm still in second to drome who picked up another four points. Lucko finally got some points by winning the fucker.

Tonight is razz, a game I think I play decently. Hopefully I can finish this one off and get myself a win.

random poker shit

First, congrats to Kevin (lucko21) who took down the $50 rebuy on Stars for just shy of nine dimes. Jesus.

I didn't play too much online this week, but am showing a decent profit considering all of the mistakes I think I've been making (overplaying big pairs, playing too often OOP).

Live has gone well, although it's been for smaller stakes. Turned t120 (down from t200) into about ten times that within an hour and a half in a 7-man rebuy. We ended up chopping when heads up because I had to work the next morning, which sucked because I'd have crushed him.

Only one semi-interesting hand happened. We were playing NL Omaha High, 3 handed with 1/2 blinds. I was the button and open-limped. The SB (Justin) called with ~250 behind and the BB checked with ~450 behind. I have them both covered. I had 77xx (AsTs if I remember right). Flop comes 7h9h3c. Justin leads for 10, BB flat calls and I raise to 45 total. They both call. Turn is a 2s (I think) and they check to me. I bet out 100 and Justin thinks for about three minutes and jams for ~100 more. BB mucks and I call. Justin shows 6hThxx and bricks off, busting out.

I think that given his hand (gutshot straight flush draw), Justin shoulda reraised all in on the flop. A few reasons for this:
1) He knows I don't want to play against him as much as I do the BB, who was far more live.
2) If he bricks off on turn, he's gonna be put in a tough spot to either jam right away or be forced to call if I give him a good price.
3) Even if he knows I very likely have a set, he's not a big dog.
4) None of his outs are nut outs.

Of course, given my hand, I'd have called him anyway so in a results oriented way of thinking it didn't make a difference.

We played Friday at a frat house. .25/.50 game with a $10 buy in (I bought in for $20, which got me weird looks) but when we got there, most people had busted enough times that stacks were deep enough for a little bit of play.

One of the worst games I've ever seen. I could play in that game for a living, but the people there annoyed the fuck out of me, including 1) ugly, trashy drunk girls and 2) dudes trying to fight me for telling them 311 sucked.

I played like a rock, making only one bluff in about 3 hours, and it was versus Justin. No one else was even remotely bluffable. Playing tight (ugh, I hate it so much) resulted in very few hands that were even the slighest bit interesting. It was mostly one person overplaying top pair, but being fortunate that their opponents would be overplaying bottom pair or second pair or some shit like that. Boring, but easy money.

TPOAPC starts tonight. Probably gonna play, but may not if the laptop fucks up on me.

Nanowrimo done, I river quads

Ding! Took me only 23 days. 50,070 words long (I found a word I needed to add right after I posted on +1 taht I'd finished, so my count of 50,069 was wrong), or 85 pages in Times New Roman, size 12, single spaced. I also won another $18 from Nate Kellogg by doing this unless he manages to write 50K words within the next five days.

Been playing a decent amount of live poker lately, but not for huge money. The past half-week has been bigger in comparison-- ten or twenty dollar buy-in cash games as opposed to two dollar tournaments to kill time. I was up a pathetic 15 on the week until today, when Truax played an overpair in omaha like a huge donkey and somehow managed to get there.

Came home and played online. Found myself stuck prety early after taking a couple beats and then paying off a couple made draws like an idiot. Most of the hands weren't that interesting, but I really like this hand, if for no other reason that I won it:

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
6 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: $21
UTG+1: $58.25
CO: $61.60
Button: $22.80
SB: $13.20
Hero: $49.25


Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is BB with
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, CO folds, Button calls, SB calls, Hero checks.


Flop: ($2.5, 5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 bets $1, Button calls, SB folds, Hero raises to $4, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, Button folds.


Turn: ($11.5, 2 players)
Hero bets $5, UTG+1 calls.


River: ($21.5, 2 players)
Hero is all-in $39.75, UTG+1 calls.


Results:
Final pot: $101
Hero showed 5d Qh
UTG+1 mucks 9s Ts


Not bad. I dunno how I feel about the flop play. I think maybe in the long run, I might be better served to lead out. That way, if the 9's decide to raise (to gain information) I can just call, and hopefully check-raise the turn. Plus, check-raising the flop puts me in a funny spot if a K or 8 comes on the turn. Since I'm not worried about a 9 and want to avoid JT, I think I might've been better served to raise a little bit more, if I decide to take that line at all.

Anyways, the turn play I think is pretty standard.

The river is the part of the hand I really like. I know I have the best hand, and that my opponent has one of the following hands: 1) a nine 2) JT. I didn't even consider the possibility of him having other hands. So what do I do?

If he has a nine:
-It's gonna be hard for him to get away from this hand. Even though I was representing the queen with my play, it's way harder for me to have it now. Since I didn't raise PF, he's gonna be hard-pressed to put me on TT/JJ/KK/AA. So he might put me on either a nine or a missed draw. If he puts me on those two hands, by jamming-- even for twice the pot size, he's always gonna call. The only hand he can really fear here is quads, and since it's so rare, he's unlikely to give me credit.

If he has JT:
-No bet will get him to call. I only have two options for him to put more money in the pot.
1) Bet a tiny amount, and hope he senses weakness and raises.
2) Check, hoping to induce a bluff.
But I think I'd showed enough strength in the hand that he'd be unlikely to make a move. Additionally, since there was trips on the board, most people are unlikely to make a move since there are so many hands that people are going to pay-off with (basically any pair, at least if your opp. is a bad player, and I was new to the table and have a cowgirl avatar on FT, so people might assume I'm a total donkey).

So out of those possibilities, I figured I should jam, and he called almost isntantly. NH me.

I don't have work for another week, so I'll have a lot more time to play, hopefully. The laptops been acting like a bitch lately, so I may be getting a new one soon.

Okay, that's all for tonight.

Short Session

This Nanowrimo thing has taken up almost all of my time, so I've only had time to play twice this month. A week ago I played an awful, awful session to drop a buy-in and a half (I actually took a pretty sick beat with AK when a guy called my reraise PF and then big flop bet with his 69s that flopped a gutshot and hit).

I think today I played a little better. I got a set paid off v. kings, which was basically my entire profit for the session, so it wasn't like I played brilliantly.

I think I misplayed a set of queens in one hand, leading out in a non-descript board instead of letting him catch up, because there was no way the guy had any semblance of a hand in that spot.

I played another hand terribly, where I checked behind the two blinds with TPWK, and let them catch up. I didn't pay it off, but if I bet the flop I'm pretty sure I win the pot uncontentested. At the time, I was thinking I was checking the flop because I didn't want to play a big pot with a marginal hand, but it was a dumb, dumb move.

Almost halfway done with nanowrimo. Might be going up to Connecticut this weekend to see Arielle.

Lucko's Question

Lucko asked me an interesting question about the ATo hand where I flopped the gutshot, bet a dollar and got smooth-called, and turned the straight.

He asked: The $1 bet is def interesting. What % of times do you think you get a call\fold\raise?

Hmm. Well if I assume his range is 88+,ATs+,AJo+ and that he'll only raise with AA, KK or AQ (which is overly simplified, but close enough, I think), then on the flop he can have:

AA (3 ways)
KK (6 ways)
QQ (3 ways)
JJ (3 ways)
TT (6 ways)
99 (6 ways)
88 (6 ways)
AK (12 ways)
AQ (9 ways)
AJ (9 ways)
ATs (2 ways)

So if my assumptions on him are correct, then I get raised 18 times, and called 47 times. So I think 28% of the time, I'm gonna end up losing a dollar, which is actually more than I was expecting. However, with his stack size being deep enough at this point, I think that the 72% of the time he does call and I hit the turn (about 10%-- making it about 7% of the time I bet a dollar) I get win a big pot, given his likely holdings. I need something like 13.5-1 implied odds (if I did the math right, I'm rushing throuhg this) in order to make the times he raises me or the times I miss make up for all the dollar's I've bet. Actually, since enough of the time he'll have re-draw potential (when he has a set) I might need considerable more implied odds... but there are already $13 in the pot, plus his 14th dollar, and I think unless he has 99 or 88, I can be able to squeeze another bet out of him to make up for this, especially if I take the line that I took (check w/ intent of CR-ing the turn, because if he bets, I usually already make up for it, and if he doesn't he's much more likely to call a decent sized bet on the river if he assumes that I missed a flush draw or just decides to make a fuck-you call.

Nanowrimo Word Counter

Nanowrimo Begins

I have a little over 2.6K words done, or a little over 5%. Not bad, given that you need to average about a thousand less than that per day, but I wanted to get a big headstart on it.

I've played less poker this week, but there's a hand I wanted to write about, because I love the way I played it. In fact, I think that I played the hand so badly that (given my opponent) it was genius.

Hand #35086003-3538 at Virginia Beach (No Limit Hold'em)
Started at 27/Oct/06 17:50:15

AAPONYAA is at seat 0 with $21.
themffulton is at seat 1 with $126.80.
CobberABC is at seat 2 with $97.75.
Harpoon is at seat 3 with $53.95.
aar0nh is at seat 4 with $62.80.
jiff1014 is at seat 5 with $43.15.
The button is at seat 4.

jiff1014 posts the small blind of $.50.
AAPONYAA posts the big blind of $1.

AAPONYAA: -- --
themffulton: Ac Th
CobberABC: -- --
Harpoon: -- --
aar0nh: -- --
jiff1014: -- --

Pre-flop:

themffulton raises to $3.50. CobberABC folds.
Harpoon folds. aar0nh re-raises to $6. jiff1014
folds. AAPONYAA folds. themffulton calls.

Flop (board: 4s Qs Jh):

themffulton bets $1. aar0nh calls.

Turn (board: 4s Qs Jh Kh):

themffulton checks. aar0nh bets $5. themffulton
raises to $15. aar0nh calls.

River (board: 4s Qs Jh Kh 2h):

themffulton bets $45.50. aar0nh goes all-in for
$40.80. themffulton is returned $4.70 (uncalled).



Showdown:

themffulton shows Ac Th.
themffulton has Ac Th Qs Jh Kh: straight, ace high.
aar0nh shows As Kc.
aar0nh has As Kc Qs Jh Kh: a pair of kings.


Hand #35086003-3538 Summary:

$3 is raked from a pot of $127.10.
themffulton wins $124.10 with straight, ace high.
----------------------------------------------------------------

The PF raise is standard. After his reraise, I'm aware that I most likely don't have the best hand, but his raise was so small (the minimum) I feel bad just letting him have it.

The flop is the most interesting part of the hand. I flop a gutshot. If I check it to him, I know for a fact that he's gonna bet something like ten dollars at the pot as a continuation bet. I'm out of position, and don't feel like guessing if that's a bet with 99, AK, AQ, or a set. So I lead out the minimum, what would normally be a terrible play, because if I had a big hand like a set, I'd want to build a big pot and protect my hand because the board has a lot of straight draws available, as well as the flush draw.

I also figure that unless he's got AQ, KK or AA, he's probably gonna smooth call here. AK will call because of the price he's being given, and it's unlikely for him to assume he has the best hand at the moment, so he's not likely going to raise here. A hand like QQ or JJ is likely to play it slow, because... well, I think that's clearly the wrong move, but I see it all the time. And AJ is probably going to want to play a small pot.

The turn is my gin card. I planned on him betting pretty large when I checked to him. Besides an underpair, any hand that reraised me preflop is going to have hit that flop pretty decently. I was hoping that he'd bet big, and I could check-raise him all-in and that he'd feel committed and call. So I really didn't like his small bet. I raised him to 15, so that when the river came, there would be more in the pot than in his stack, which increases the chance I get a call.

The river comes, and I move in. Something not shown in the HH is the chat box. He thought for a pretty long time about this. I thought it was actually pretty likely he'd fold, and I also thought that a lot of the time he was spending was trying to put me on a hand, which would be difficult given the weird way I played it. So I gave him a hand to put me on. In the chatbox, I typed "missed spades?" as if I were asking him what he was thinking about, but in reality, I think that my saying this made him think "THAT'S what he's got" because as soon as I said that, he called almost right away.

Alright, that's all for now. More updates on poker and the novel soon.

oh yea

Forgot to write that since the last update, +1 has welcomed its newest member Truax, aka Truschool, to the group.

Erie, PA

I've been running pretty shitty lately. Phelps and I drove out to Erie, PA yesterday to play in a home tournament. Even on the way there, I was pretty angry about the way I've been playing. The phrase "I fucking hate this game" was spoken numerous times.

The tournament was $35: $25 for the prize pool, a $5 bounty chip you got from any poor sap you bust out, and $5 for food and drinks. We got there at about 2 and cards were in the air by 2:30. The structure was really good, considering 1) I hate tournaments and 2) it was a homegame. You started with T600 with blinds at 2/4. I told Phelps on the way that if I could double my chip stack, I'd win the tournament. However, by the end of the first break, I'd won only three pots (JJ, TT, and 27o) which were all small and was down to T295.

A couple hands in after the break, I open raised with A7s. The guy on my left, a loose-aggressive player, min-raised me and I called. The flop came 478 and I checked to him. He bet small and I jammed. He insta-called me which had me pretty worried, but when he flipped over his AJ (yes, AJ) I felt better. Now I had like 600, which dwindled down to somewhere in the 500 range.

The key hand in this tournament was the following: at 5/10 blinds, a player in EP raises to 40 and I call with 7d8d. The blinds also call and the flop comes Ac4d5d. Not bad. The blinds check and the PF raiser bets out 35. I immediately make it 135 to go. Blinds fold and he calls. Turn is an offsuit 9. He checks and I jam for about 300. He thinks for a while, and says "I think you flopped the straight [huh?!] or a set [eh]... it's obvious I'm on a draw [oh fuck]." He thinks for another minute and then mucks AdQd face up. I told him I had a set of fives.

From there, I put on a clinic and ended the hour with 1800. By the next break, I had built up to 4000 and had the CL by the time we made the final table. Of course, I ended up doubled up an Ac6c with my AK right off the bat, and then doubled up AQ with QT when I was priced in to call his jam because I limped under the gun, thinking that the chips I put out were the BB I thought I had to post. I managed to bust that guy later, and two others to get three handed. A guy named Kyle who was playing pretty solid busted the guy in third place, and we were heads up, with me having a slight CL.

At this point the blinds were pretty high. I won the first three hands uncontested heads up, and figured it was time to rip him to shreds. Then he started betting into me on flops that I had raised and I had to fold my 7 highs. Then the blinds increased again, and I raised with Ks7s and he jammed. I was getting a little less than 2-1, and nearly called, but decided to muck after about three minutes of thinking. The next hand we got all in with KQ (him) and KT (me)... as I said, the blinds were really high. His KQ held and he won. I walked away with $170, but I was really mad about folding that K7 (he had A5, so the call would've been right). I thought that tournament was mine once I built up to 1800, but couldn't finish it off.

On a side note, I'm probably (hopefully) participating in the National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) with my friend Justin Cantoni. It should be pretty stressful and a pain in the ass, but I'm excited as hell for it anyway.

I've been running pretty shitty lately. Phelps and I drove out to Erie, PA yesterday to play in a home tournament. Even on the way there, I was pretty angry about the way I've been playing. The phrase "I fucking hate this game" was spoken numerous times.

The tournament was $35: $25 for the prize pool, a $5 bounty chip you got from any poor sap you bust out, and $5 for food and drinks. We got there at about 2 and cards were in the air by 2:30. The structure was really good, considering 1) I hate tournaments and 2) it was a homegame. You started with T600 with blinds at 2/4. I told Phelps on the way that if I could double my chip stack, I'd win the tournament. However, by the end of the first break, I'd won only three pots (JJ, TT, and 27o) which were all small and was down to T295.

A couple hands in after the break, I open raised with A7s. The guy on my left, a loose-aggressive player, min-raised me and I called. The flop came 478 and I checked to him. He bet small and I jammed. He insta-called me which had me pretty worried, but when he flipped over his AJ (yes, AJ) I felt better. Now I had like 600, which dwindled down to somewhere in the 500 range.

The key hand in this tournament was the following: at 5/10 blinds, a player in EP raises to 40 and I call with 7d8d. The blinds also call and the flop comes Ac4d5d. Not bad. The blinds check and the PF raiser bets out 35. I immediately make it 135 to go. Blinds fold and he calls. Turn is an offsuit 9. He checks and I jam for about 300. He thinks for a while, and says "I think you flopped the straight [huh?!] or a set [eh]... it's obvious I'm on a draw [oh fuck]." He thinks for another minute and then mucks AdQd face up. I told him I had a set of fives.

From there, I put on a clinic and ended the hour with 1800. By the next break, I had built up to 4000 and had the CL by the time we made the final table. Of course, I ended up doubled up an Ac6c with my AK right off the bat, and then doubled up AQ with QT when I was priced in to call his jam because I limped under the gun, thinking that the chips I put out were the BB I thought I had to post. I managed to bust that guy later, and two others to get three handed. A guy named Kyle who was playing pretty solid busted the guy in third place, and we were heads up, with me having a slight CL.

At this point the blinds were pretty high. I won the first three hands uncontested heads up, and figured it was time to rip him to shreds. Then he started betting into me on flops that I had raised and I had to fold my 7 highs. Then the blinds increased again, and I raised with Ks7s and he jammed. I was getting a little less than 2-1, and nearly called, but decided to muck after about three minutes of thinking. The next hand we got all in with KQ (him) and KT (me)... as I said, the blinds were really high. His KQ held and he won. I walked away with $170, but I was really mad about folding that K7 (he had A5, so the call would've been right). I thought that tournament was mine once I built up to 1800, but couldn't finish it off.

On a side note, I'm probably (hopefully) participating in the National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) with my friend Justin Cantoni. It should be pretty stressful and a pain in the ass, but I'm excited as hell for it anyway.

AC Trip

I just got back yesterday from the +1 AC meet. I lost, but had a fucking blast. I also feel like I learned a lot, especially watching people like Kevin (lucko) and Josh (mag) play no limit. It’s scary how much better they are than me and it’s a good reminder that I have a ton to learn.

One thing that struck me immediately playing in the casino was that the average 1/ 2 NL player in the casino would be absolutely destroyed by the average .25/.5 or even .1/.25 player online. I guess the fact that they’re leaving their homes to go all the way to a casino to gamble makes them play every hand- and every hand like shit- but it was (for the most part) atrocious. Granted, there were a couple very, very good players there, but the average player… not so much.

I feel like I played awesome all trip, but made one huge mistake, slightly misplayed top set which I let get cracked, and got ridiculously outplayed by Kevin in heads up pot-limit Omaha. The set I got cracked, along with a big pot I lost to pocket aces (against a truly awful player) when I had TPTK was another reminder of how sometimes his game, there’s just nothing you can do. I heard Josh and Kevin mentioning this a lot, and Josh even sweated my cards in both of those cold decks and said that given the hands and the caliber of play in the game, I was basically destined to lose big pots there. Hearing that from him made me feel better about my play, because he’d let me know if I fucked up.

The best play I saw on the trip: in a big pot, Kevin check-raised me on the river with quads. I paid him off, because I figured there was no way in hell he’d check a hand like that on the river. He did, and it won him a lot more money.

I’ll probably think of a ton more I want to talk about later, but it’s late and I’m tired.

First Entry

Alright, I had a really bad session a few days ago, so in an effort to help my game out, I figured writing out everything a blog would be helpful. Since that session, I’ve really rethought my entire game and stripped it down to the bare bones. I spent an entire day at work ignoring psychiatric patients and instead going over how to play different hands from different positions. Specifically, I spent a ton of time thinking about playing out of position (and decided I really need to knock that off) and playing hands with very bad reverse implied odds. Since that session, I’ve been playing well again and have been winning decently.

In poker news, it’s possible that pretty soon we’re all fucked. Great.

In my own personal news, I’m going to AC with a bunch of the +1 guys on Friday for Ryan’s bachelor party/excuse to drink and gamble. I’ll no doubt be giving a lot of stories from that, hopefully about big scores I made.

Personal news: congrats to one of my best friends Cir L’Bert and Jackie Masters on the birth of their baby, Eva Grace. Thank God she came out cute.

Hand of the day:
This was one of the worst calls I think I have ever seen in my poker life. Normally, I never go for a check-raise on the flop as the preflop raiser, but this guy was so damn aggressive that it was worth waiting him out forever waiting for this spot.

Hand #35084999-45276 at Schenectady (No Limit Hold'em)
Started at 04/Oct/06 21:32:28

Blaznfosho is at seat 0 with $40.50.
themffulton is at seat 1 with $122.05.
EBESTER is at seat 3 with $123.70.
RumbleSalvage is at seat 4 with $39.50.
notim4luvdrjn is at seat 5 with $46.55.
The button is at seat 0.

themffulton posts the small blind of $.25.
EBESTER posts the big blind of $.50.

Blaznfosho: -- --
themffulton: Kc Ks
EBESTER: -- --
RumbleSalvage: -- --
notim4luvdrjn: -- --

Pre-flop:

RumbleSalvage folds. notim4luvdrjn raises to $1.75.
Blaznfosho folds. themffulton re-raises to $5.75.
EBESTER folds. notim4luvdrjn calls.

Flop (board: 2h 6s Th):

themffulton checks. notim4luvdrjn bets $12.
themffulton raises to $114. notim4luvdrjn goes all-in
for $40.80. themffulton is returned $73.20
(uncalled).

Turn (board: 2h 6s Th 8c):

(no action in this round)


River (board: 2h 6s Th 8c 2d):

(no action in this round)




Showdown:

themffulton shows Kc Ks.
themffulton has Kc Ks 2h Th 2d: two pair, kings and deuces.
notim4luvdrjn shows 8d 7d.
notim4luvdrjn has 8d 2h Th 8c 2d: two pair, eights and deuces.


Hand #35084999-45276 Summary:

$2 is raked from a pot of $93.60.
themffulton wins $91.60 with two pair, kings and deuces.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, that’s all for now. Updates from AC coming soon.