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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Passive Aggressive Poker

Passive Aggressive - "An adjective used to describe hiding aggressive intentions and actions with seemingly non aggressive intentions and actions."

In my previous post, there was a comment posted by TK, who's one of my home game buddies from Cleveland. "I'm sure I don't understand why you limped in. Raise or fold. Why put yourself in that position? Why unnecessarily risk chip in with a hero call?"

Normally, I would just make a small comment with an explanation. But this time, I decided to make an entire post about the subject.

This is more about style than anything else. Certainly, shoving with 98o is perfectly fine, and would probably be considered the A-B-C play.

One of the gears I occasionally use could be called Passive Aggressive Poker. (I think I've used the term Stealthy Aggression before.) It's when I act passive preflop by limping or checking my option in the BB, with the intention of stealing the pot on the Flop or Turn when it seems the other player(s) doesn't have anything.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Hand Of The Day #89

Atlantis ~ 01.11.12 ~ 7:00 $45 Tournament Level 9 (2k/4k/400)

19 players for this one, and four are left, which is the Bubble. The play is rather calm, as everyone is waiting for AA to get their money in. It folds to me, and I have 9c 8h in the SB. I just limp in. I could raise, and just take it down, but I'm choosing to play small ball with this pot. I'm not super shortstacked compared to everyone else, but I'm in the middle of the pack.

The other reason for limping is the BB, who's a 60's Asian gentleman. He and his wife are tourney regulars around Reno. He's not the typical 60's Super Nit. My perception of him is that he's on the loose, passive side. He likes to call, but he will also make the occasionally move on a pot. If I shove All-In to steal the blinds and antes, then his calling range is wider than average.

Anyways, he checks his option, and the Flop is Tc Td 6s. We both check.

The Turn is [Tc Td 6s] Kh. Once again, we both check.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Local Poker News Flash

(Updated 01/28)

As I'm sitting here eating breakfast, I checked out the websites for the local poker rooms. I'll do this occasionally to see if anything changed on the site, or any new promotions. There usually isn't anything new.

I say "usually" because something happened this morning. The page for the Harrah's poker room couldn't be found. This could be something simple like Caesars making some changes to their websites.

But it wasn't. I clicked on the "Reno/Tahoe" link, which usually takes me to a page listing all three casinos: Harvey's, Harrah's Tahoe, and Harrah's Reno. However, it only listed the two in Tahoe, and not in Reno.

After digging through the Caesars site, I finally got to the Harrah's Reno site. Now for the news... All mention of the poker room has been removed from their site.

In my Harrah's Review page, I mentioned that the poker room was closed on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and that I wouldn't be surprised if they closed up by the end of 2012. It may have happened much sooner than I thought.

I'll have to investigate after work tonight.

UPDATE: (10pm)

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Good Thing About A Tournament Series Is...

there's always another tourney to sign-up for.

Since I busted out early from the $450 Main Event, I signed up the 4pm $130 Limit Omaha-8 tourney. And I already did one Running Log today, so why not do another one?

"Shuffle Up & Deal" - It looks like five tables for this one, but we are next to the $450 Main Event, so it's hard to say. The tables have ten stacks, and mine has nine players. I'm the youngest by 20+ years, and I recognize the two ladies on my direct Left from the $4/$8 games. I'm really glad they are at this table, because they love to call.

The levels are 20 minutes long, and we start with 6000 chips.

Level 1 (50/100) - The table is playing as you would expect, which is loose and passive. I'm playing tight because the early pots mean nothing in a Limit tournament. The only hand I played was raising (100) from the Cutoff with Ad Ks 9d 3h. A few players called, and the Flop was Jd Js 4c. There was a bet and a raise before it got to me, and I couldn't fold fast enough. I have 5800 chips. 

Level 2 (100/200) - The pace of play is insanely slow, as we saw just seven hands in 20 minutes. Reasons for this included no shuffler, dealing four cards, a Dealer change, and lots of players to the Flop. In the last hand of the level, I was the BB and eight players saw the Flop. Surprisingly, I didn't win.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Peppermill's $450 NLHE Tourney

The Peppermill is having a small tournament series this weekend. Due to some strange anomalies at work, I was able to get a Saturday off so I could play in the $450 Main Event. Here is a Running Log of the tournament.

"Shuffle Up & Deal" - There are six tables with nine stacks each. My table has seven players. I recognize a few other them. The most notable was one I played with at the WSOP-C Event. I'm really glad he's on my Right+1, because he's very active and loose. We're gonna call him Billy.

The levels are 30 minutes long, and we start with 12k chips. This is also a Re-Entry event through Level 6, which is the first time the 'Mill has tried this out.

Level 1 (25/50) - The cards were quiet for me at the table. Towards the end of the level, they opened up a 7th table, and I got moved to it. This sucked for me, because I really liked my table draw. Besides one of favorite players from Tahoe, there was a gentleman from Northern California who declared that he had about $10k on various NFL Playoff bets. I'm sure he would not play tight in a $450 tourney. I have 10825 chips.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Rants & Raves: The Future Of Online Poker

With all of the drama-bombs in the online poker world this year, nobody knows what will the future of online poker will be. Here's my opinion on various aspects of the I-Poker topic.

On the Federal level, there are various "experts", including the PPA, who think there is a better than 50% chance of an online poker bill being passed in 2012. Well, I think that number is much closer to 0% for this year due to two reasons. First, the big 2012 Election is looking like it will be rather bloody for many incumbents, so they will want to stay away from anything controversial. Also, Congress is bogged down in the worst gridlock I've ever seen, and aren't capable of passing anything.

So 2013 looks to be the most promising year for federal legislation, but a lot of that depends on what happens in the election. If we get a super conservative President, then you can kiss goodbye any chance of I-Poker passing. It will also depend on which party controls which House of Congress, and who is a leadership position.

Monday, January 2, 2012

January News & Notes

- It's January, and that means the start of a new year. It's a time when people look back at the old year, and look ahead to the new year.

I keep track of my results in a database, and have been doing so for years. But with things going so badly this year, I decided to add a spreadsheet with detailed results on a monthly basis. I figured maybe I could see what things I'm winning at, and where I need to make some changes for this year. It was helpful, as I did notice some things. But the most import thing I noticed was that I'm up for the year, and that includes cash games, tournaments, pit action, and promo / freeplay money. And the amount I finished up for the year is ...

(Insert drum roll here)