I’ve been playing a lot of poker recently now that school is over, because of that I will be updating my blog a lot more often. In this blog I’m going to cover my less recent sessions (as best as I can) up to my most recent. I was lazy/busy and didn’t post them when they actually happened.
- March 14 -
I went to The Poker Room with my friend Don with the intent of playing the nightly $100 tournament that had a “good structure” according to their internet page (although it wasn’t posted there). We got there early and decided to play some 2/2 NL ($100 max buy-in). I sat down 5 off the BB and chose not to post. During the 5 hands I watched before being the BB, I noticed that the older Asian man in Seat 10 was not only in every pot but was getting large sums of money in with super-marginal hands. In the biggest pot he played he 3-bet an UTG raise with Ac-Tc, it folded back around and UTG 4 bet all-in, the Asian guy didn’t take long to call. UTG had K-K. Flop came A-x-x, brick, brick.
So I post $2 for my first hand. UTG raises to $6, folds to said Asian guy who just flats in MP, 3 other people called behind, and I looked down at Q-Q. I made it $30 total, UTG snap-called, Asian guy flatted, and other 3 fold.
Flop: 9-4-2, rainbow.
I’ve got $70 left behind with over $100 in the pot vs. players with enormous ranges; also with their lines in the hand AA & KK are unlikely so I make the standard shove. UTG tanks and then folds, then the Asian guy thinks for about 2 full minutes before calling. I table my Q-Q; he looks at them and mumbles something still keeping his cards face down. Turn blank, river blank; he turns over K-K… slow rolled! Ah, the first live slow roll of my life.
I re-buy another $100; float around/above even for about 30 minutes. Our tournament starts soon so I decide I’ll play one more rotation. I get 5-5 and limp up front, a few others limp behind for $2 to the BB who puts in a pointless raise to $5 after 6 people just limped for $2. Everyone calls obviously.
Flop: K-T-5, rainbow.
BB leads out for $15, I raise to $40, active MP player moves all-in, BB calls. With the stacks as shallow as they are this isn’t one of the times where you try and make the genius set under set lay down as their ranges include many 1 pair and 2 pair hands. I call.
BB = 6-6
MP = K-T
Me = 5-5
Turn: T
River: 6, from 1st to worst. L
So I get up to go play in the tournament stuck 2 BIs, and obviously I don’t have much confidence going into this tournament. The structure was horrible. 2k starting stacks, you start 25/50 but the blinds nearly double every 18 minutes. I didn’t play any hands the first level of importance. I had about 1700 during 50-100 when I get A-J in the CO, I open to 300 because 2.5x live is pointless. BB calls.
Flop: A-K-2, rainbow.
He leads for 200 into 650; I min-raise to 400 for info & value, and he just calls. I’m now fairly certain I have the best hand.
Turn: 6
He checks, I moved in for just under the size of the pot and he called me very quickly. He tabled… A-6. ARGH!!! I run so bad!!!
River: K, ship! Phew.
My table broke when that guy busted the next hand for his last 50.
My next table draw was beautiful, they were all incredibly tight from all positions and I pretty much just ran over them for 1hr building my stack up to 6-7k without ever showing a hand. At 200-400 I raised A-K to 1200 UTG full ring, it folded to the only guy who had played back at me the whole time I’d been playing LAG. He counted out a possible raise but then just called. A fat guy in MP shipped for 3k total, it folded back to me and I obviously moved in. The other guy folded A-Q face up. MP had J-J.
Flop: J-x-x, no sweat at all. Nh.
I think the A-Q is supposed to 3-bet me given how many pots I was opening. In which case we all probably get it in 3 ways and I make a profit on the hand in the side pot.
I shipped Ac-7c for my last 5 BBs during 300-600, got called by K-J and A-Q. I flop a 7 – zing! Have to fade any paint for the triple up back above average. Turn – blank, river – Queen. Don final tabled but went out on the bubble (7th out of 60). 1st was just over $1700.
- June 4 -
This was the day after I graduated high school. Thomas came up from Tampa and we (Corey, Thomas and I) went to The Poker Room for Corey’s first time. We got there just in time for the daily $45 30 max so we all jumped in. The biggest joke was that the structure in these is the same as the $100 & $200 tournaments. The floor managers find no problem with this. I drew Thomas two to my left (terrible draw). I lost a small pot with K-K early on vs. a guy who flopped the joint with T-8os. He instantly sat up in his chair and quickly looked down at his chips when the flop rolled out causing me to check it down right behind him. He bet 3BBs on the river and I just flatted.
I folded down to like 1300 at 50-100, then I lost 300 when I raised 3x in LP with 9d-8d and Thomas shipped on me from the blinds (he had A-K). A couple hands later I shipped Ac-9c from LP and Thomas snapped Ad-Jd. I missed a flush draw and the 9 to go out early on.
Thomas got moved, he didn’t play many hands there. Then it folded to the button who limped and Thomas checked 7-4 from the BB.
Flop: K-7-5; check, check.
Turn: 7; bet, raise, all-in, call.
Button has Q-7, GG Thomas. Sick.
So now the least experienced player of the bunch is left in Corey. He went into the final table really short, but doubled on the first hand with Ad-Qd vs. 7-7. He won a few sizable pots early on as well to build his stack up to about 13k at 400-800 w/ 100. Which was probably good enough for the chip lead (god those structures are bad). The other players at that table wouldn’t put a chip in the pot without the nuts, it was gross to see Corey nit-it-up like he did. They were at the designated final table that has rails around it so Thomas and I could sweat from very close. There was one player in particular whose hand we saw many of times and he mucking A-8, K-Ts, etc with a 5-6M stack (WOW!).
They didn’t have a break, so we couldn’t talk to Corey, although it was clearly something he should have recognized whether or not he knew the cards they were folding. Rather than pick up the aggression and run away with the tournament he anted off 8k just like everyone else and ended up bubbling in 4th (what is it with my friends bubbling?).
- June 5 -
The next night we were having a home game since Corey’s cousins were in town because of our graduation. We had 7 people and we played a $20 buy-in tourney, paying top 2 ($100 & $40). Corey’s cousin Vincent who has been in previous blogs was playing amazingly bad at the beginning but making hands left and right. Vincent thinks he’s the greatest at any form of competition, from video games to poker. So combine his ego with winning a few pots and he was getting really full of himself.
At 50-100 with about the 5000 starting stack still left, it folded to me in the SB and I made it 3.5x with A-J (big I know. But he was playing EVERY hand, not a lot of hands, but EVERY hand) so I figured it would take that much just to win the blinds, and even if he did call at least I’d be getting full value out of the best hand.
Flop: J-3-2, two diamonds (Pot: 700)
I lead for 450, he raised to 1450, I insta-shipped for another 3350, and he tanked and then finally called. I was hoping to see a misplayed J-Tos or something, but he turned up the worst hand for my hand – 72dd. He’s a slight favorite, but I faded the draws to double through to almost 10k.
I literally had no other showdowns until we were heads up! I just raised a lot in position, built my stack up. Mike (the other cousin) played well but a little too tight. He just went to Vegas where he played nothing but tourneys at his hotel, not sure how he made as much as he said he did playing such an exploitable style, I guess the daily tourneys in Vegas are as juicy as they say. The other guy who got heads up busted all the other people at the table, but still did not have the chip lead going into heads up play. We traded blinds for a while until…
He limps the button, I check Q-T.
Flop: Q-T-7; I check, he checks.
Turn: T; I check, he bets, I call.
River: 7; I lead for about half pot, he moves in, I call. (He had a naked 7).
I win the 100.
- June 17 -
I played my first Chip Talk tourney online. Only 6 people entered, but 6 max is definitely my best game so that was actually really nice. I ended up winning, but the only important hands happened heads up in my opinion. I was short and my opponent was shipping more than liberally. I woke up with 6-6 in the BB and called, he had A-K and I faded the overs. Two hands later he shipped the button again but this time for only the 3BBs he was crippled to, I called with K-9s vs. his 2-2 and he won the race. So we were back near even. Blinds went up, he shipped the button again, and I called with As-Js vs. his 6-6 and flopped the Ace. GG.
- June 18 -
I played my second Chip Talk tourney. There were 13 people this time, so we started out short-handed. From my experience most of the players on that site are super-passive. Flatting raises with hands that are definite 3-bets, rarely making c-bets, and not raising nearly enough short-handed (they prefer open limping marginal holdings with improper odds). I played well early on and then won a really big, but weird, pot with J-J.
TAG player makes it 3x UTG at 15-30, a short stack flats in MP, and it folds to me. I re-raise to 400 (I was already up to about 2800 winning a few small-medium sized pots with only one showdown). UTG makes a weird, and scary at the time, play of just flatting another 310 with only like 900-1000 behind. Then MP made a horrendous all-in for another 430. It was back to me and obviously I’m not folding. I’m not worried about MP, period. I just don’t see UTG flatting me with another behind with AA, KK, or QQ. He more than likely has like A-Q or T-T. I made what I thought to be a kid of easy move in and he called quickly.
UTG = A-K, the flat call of my 3-bet is pretty poor for ¼ of his stack. It is a clear shove.
MP = 7-7, no fold equity at all – definitely getting called in two spots.
Flop: K-4-3
Turn: 4
River: J
Busted both players and moved up to over 5k still at 15-30.
Played really tight after that since we were playing full ring at the final table. I took a few pots in LP. Then I picked up Q-Q, raised 2.5x from MP, LP player shipped for about 15BBs more, I call he has A-Q and misses. Very next hand (lol), I get Q-Q raise to 2.5x from MP, one of the blinds moves in, I call, he has Ah-8h and I flop Quads. TEN hands later (lol), I get Q-Q raise to 2.5x from UTG+1, both blinds call, flop comes 6-5-3 (two clubs). SB open ships for 3x the pot, BB folds. He was really LAG from what I had seen during the whole tourney. He kept putting it in REALLY bad, so I called. He had "THE GREAT" Tc-8c and I faded the flush draw (you can't beat me with MY hand, pfff). So got Q-Q 3 times in a very short span and stacked 3 different people, I was running good obviously. We got down to 3-handed with me having a pretty solid chip lead. The two shorter stacks got it in a race and I only went into HU play with a 2-1 chip lead as opposed to the commanding lead.
I made what turned out to be a bad fold, but without knowing the results I think it was right. My opponent had played about 5 hands during the whole FT and they were all really passive check-calls or check-folds. I made it 400 (during 100-200) OTB with Q-8, he called.
Flop: Q-3-2
He lead for 400, I raised to 900, he over ships for 5300 more. Ugh, wow.
With the information that I had at the time, its hard to believe his range is wide. I think QJ, QT, Q9, 33, 22 are played closely to this line (by him that is; its obviously not the most valuable way to play some of the said hands). Whatever, so I mucked feeling okay about it at the time. It turns out he had Q-4os.
Blinds 200-400 w/50, I've got 10k and he's got 8k.
I raised Ac-Kc to 2x. He just calls.
Flop: Jc-Js-6c (Pot: 900)
He checks I bet 450, he min-raises to 900 (he had been playing super LAG HU for a complete 180 from his other FT play), I 4-bet to 3000 with a hand I wasn't ever folding against someone playing that LAG. He moved in for like another 4000 with no fold equity at all, claiming he wanted to put me to a decision to make me muck 88 or 99 (LOL @ a complete lapse in understanding of pot odds and fold equity). He had Q-6os, I was 52% when it went in, but bricked out.
I was knocked down to 2000. I shipped A-3 OTB for 5BBs and he made a bit of a light call with 8c-7c, although it wasn't anything too bad. He turned the flush and I went out in 2nd. It stung not to win, but I didn't blow a huge lead to him or anything. He stacked the guys in 4th and 3rd and went into HU only 2-1 in chips. He moved me off the best hand with a very agressive play and then won a huge race. GG.
- June 19 -
Won the nightly Chip Talk tourney... but only 4 people entered (lol). Still a win. Everyone else is boycotting them because I'm playing them. It is really mature of them. [giant eye roll]
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