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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Hand Of The Day #94

Peppermill 6:30 $55 Level 3 (100/200/25) ~ 03.25.12

Limp pot, including me with Q9o in the BB. Four players see a Flop of Ad Qs 4d. SB bet 400. He's a 40's guy I've never seen before, and has played very few hands so far. I call with 2nd Pair. The Cutoff also calls. He a 60's guy who looks like he was in ZZ Top, or he just climbed down from the mountain.

Turn [Ad Qs 4d] 9d. SB bet 400 again. Even though the Flush got there, I still called with Two Pair. The Cutoff also calls.

River [Ad Qs 4d 9d] 6d. SB bet 400 again. I don't call this time, as I raise to 1500. This is what they call a Bluff. I have no clue what the SB has, as his little bets could be anything. But if I just call the 400 again, then the Cutoff will probably call, and someone could win this with the 8d or 5d in their hand. By raising, those small Flush cards are much more likely to fold. And if someone pushes All-In, then I can make the easy fold.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Hand Of The Day #93

$4/$8 Omaha-8 ~ Peppermill ~ 03.19.12

Full table of nine players. Naturally, it's a limp-fest, including me on the Hyjack with Ac Jh 9h 4c. Seven players see the Flop As Jd 2s. The SB bets ($4), and two players call in front of me. I just call, since I have Top Two but no other draws. The Button also calls.

Turn [As Jd 2s] 8h. SB bet ($8). UTG+1 raised ($16). He's an 70's guy who just sat down, and his raise screams 43 for Nut Low. The Mid player cold-calls. He's another 70's guy who is a regular in this game, and is a Super-Nit. He's either got a very strong High hand, or a good Low with some other draws.

My turn now, and I hate this spot.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Chip & A Chair (Sort Of)

This is a mini "LOL Donkaments", as I played in the Wednesday night $55 at the Peppermill. It had 22 players, and things went well for me.

We pick up the action with four players left, and it's the 2k/4k/400 level. We are all relatively close in chips, as nobody is super shortstacked or has a Tower Of Power. This tourney is paying three spots. Naturally, someone brought up saving some money for the bubble, and I immediately shot it down by saying, "Paying three spots is fine for this tourney."

Now to the action...

It folded to me in the SB. I raised to 9100 with A9o. The BB shipped All-In for 36700. It's a 30's Lady who seems kinda of new to the game. She played almost no hands before the Final Table. She has been much more active at the Final Table, but I haven't seen her turn over any bad hands.

This is a really close decision. I have her covered, but barely. A9o is a pretty good at a four-handed table, especially Blind vs Blind. But she doesn't seem like someone would just shove to steal. It finally came down to this being a turbo structure, and me having under 10 Big Blinds.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

LOL Donkaments #9

Grand Sierra 6:30 $80 Bounty ~ 03.17.12

I haven't played a Daily Donkament at GSR in a long time. But since this is now the biggest buy-in donkament in Reno, I will playing this one most Saturday nights. They give us 20k chips, but the levels start at 100/200. At least the levels are 20 minutes long. There is a $20 bounty, and we have 15 players.

Only two Reno Regulars that I recognize in this field. One at my table is an old Super-Nit with a cowboy hat. At the other table is a very loose, active player named Allen. There are a couple of others who seem to have a poker brain, but the rest of the field seems rather clueless. There is also a charity tourney outside the poker room. Not sure what it's for, or why it's on St Patty's Day, but they are very loud.

Things started very slowly for me, as I was in Observer mode. In Level 2 (200/400), I got moved to the other table. I won two sweet pots in consecutive hands. Both pots were limped preflop by a few players. I was the BB and then SB with a baby Ace, and just limped. I flopped Top Pair with the Ace, and then hit my kicker on the Turn for Two Pair.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Practicing Patience

"Shuffle Up & Deal" - It's Sunday, March 4, and this is the $240 tournament from the Grand Sierra's World Poker Challenge. Instead of having the tables on the casino floor, they have taken over the Xtreme Sports Bar across from the poker room. We have 10 tables crammed in the bar. The tables are 10-handed, but we are starting with 8 stacks and 6 players. This tourney has a $15k guarantee, which means they need 75 players. I'm assuming that means there are re-entries. Levels are 30 minutes long, and we start with 10k chips.

End of Level 1 (25/50) - 9 handed now. Table has been rather aggressive so far. There has been a raise almost every hand, mostly by three different players. I have played almost no pots. I would rather not get involved in trying to be the Alpha Male at the table, and it helps establish a good table image I can use later. I have 9400 chips.

Level 2 (50/100) -  Full table now. I finally raised preflop to 225 with KQo from the Cutoff. Three players saw a Flop Kd Qh 9d. It checked to me, so I bet 525. BB check-raised to 1500. I just called, as that was a very wet board. Turn [Kd Qh 9d] Ts. He bet just 1000, and I called. River [Kd Qh 9d Ts] 2h. He bet 1500 again. I can't see him betting anything that my Top Two Pair can beat, so I fold face up. He said I didn't want to hit the Qd, so I assume that he had JTd. I have 7525 chips

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Stepping Back Into The Arena

In case you haven't noticed, I have not played any NL cash games since Christmas Day. The reason for this is because last year sucked badly at the $1/$2 and $2/$3 games (-$4381 in 90 sessions), and that last session was me hitting bottom. A lot of the problem was Lady Luck having some fun with me, as you've read in many posts. But I also know that some of it was me, as I've already written.

So after taking two months off from the NL cash games, it's time for me to jump back in to the arena. On Thursday night, I went up to the Peppermill to play some $1/$2. Since it's a weeknight, I decided to shortstack. I bought $100 Red and $100 Green chips. I put $50 on the table, and the rest in my pocket. If I need to rebuy, or there's a big stack throwing money around the table, then I can pull out more chips.

Here's a Running Log of the session:

7:45 $50 - It's a new table at the Peppermill, which is the third $1/$2 table. We start seven handed. Most of the stacks are in the $100 - $200 range, with me having shortest stack. The largest stack is $300, who is on my direct Left. He's a Prop Player in this room, and is a decent player.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

March News & Notes

~ Last month, I said that I had a good January. I was feeling good about my game, and wondered why I had to bother working so many hours when I could be making money playing poker. But in February, not so much.

I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of stats like I did last month. Instead, I will just give you one stat, 2/22. In the 22 donkaments I played in February, I cash in two of them. I also finished the month of January going zero for my last five donkaments, so I'm actually 2 for my last 27.

Most of it has been normal tourney variance. Things like coolers, lost coin flips, the BB waking up with a big hand at the wrong time, doing a high variance play at the wrong time, doing everything else at the wrong time. The problem with a bad run in tournaments is that it's really difficult to determine how much is bad luck and how much is bad play. I'm not gonna say that I've done everything perfectly, but this run has been much more lack of luck rather than lack of skill.

On other poker fronts, February was still a lousy month. The few cash games I played (mostly Omaha-8) didn't go well. Overall, I lost almost as much as I won in January, but a chunk of that was due to tilting off $500 in the Pit one Saturday night.