Thursday, June 24, 2010

Streakin Still

Well the streak continues. One more bust out of the tournament and one more good cash in the cash game. I started a new job this week so my desire to do extra work is low so I appologize to my one reader (who only likes to cuss me and call me names) for the late post. I bubbled out Monday. One before the chop. I don't care since I'm on a cash streak. I know its not gonna last forever. I know one time I will get it in good all night and lose my ass. Like last week when I had AA against 3 players and won, this week I flopped a straight and against two all ins on the flop I held up. The board didn't pair. I was more happy with my marginal hand play. I made some prudent laydowns and also some well timed bluffs. The regulars were giving me shit about being tight and saying saying since I was up that my chips weren't in play. I let em. It makes it easier to steal later. Not that stealing is a great idea in that game but there are go spots sometimes. My favorite hand was when I raised a guy on the flop because I read him as weak and then another guy went all in behind me and I had nothin but a weak ace but I rivered the Ace and got to advertise and win. I also had a had where I floated the flop bet and another guy behind me called so when iraised the leader on the turn I got got called by the draw chaser and the guy with the best hand folded. I've been plying really well and I can't think of many mistakes I made other than getting a little to frisky raising preflop a coupla times. I am itching to go to Harrahs soon but I just haven't seen a good spot at a good time. So for now I will ride my Monday night streak of 9 winning sessions and counting. I did fluff of some Monday when we switched to half n half. I should really never play Omaha. I'm just not comfortable or knowledgable enough about it. I hope my friends in Vegas do so well that they stay and the Monday night game sucks because of it. Good luck dudes.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Grindin

Well crap I forgot to blog last week. I guess I have played twice. Last monday night and Saturday night. Last monday I played the tournament and got to the top ten with a short stack. I had A10 in the big blind and the super short stack moved in for 2k and the chip leader just called him and seemed iffy about it. I had 7k and I decided I was ahead of both of them. Well Mr. Chip Leader hemmed and hawed and called me with QJ. I dont rememeber what the short stack had but the Flop comes A,10, rag. Im almost about to get happy until the K hits the turn. I havent cashed in that tournament in the last 6 tries. Oh well who cares. Im doing well in the cash game anyway. I dont remember a whole lot about the cash game. I rememeber having bought in for $160 and still having about $130 when I get AA. I limp in early position. I do this because if I make a standard raise Im just gonna be up against 5 players. I pretty much grind with top hands so they arent gonna play back at me. Actually they rarely play back at anybody. So I limp and luckily a guy two to my left makes it $16. 3 people call and it gets to me. I make it $50 on top of the $16. I only lose 1 players. Seriously. And they know Im tight. Sometimes I think about mixing up my game but then I think why would I ever stop playing nut poker when I get all the action I want when I have my monster hands. If they dont change Im not gonna change. So the flop comes J,10, rag and I put the rest of my stack in. I dont love the flop but Ive only got $70 more and there $220 in the pot already. Guy to my left calls. I hate it. Im sure he has JJ or Tens. I also get called by both of the other players. I think they actually checked out from there. My Aces held. I was up against AK, Q10, and I think a low pocket pair. What a buncha degenerates. I cant believe I won that freakin hand. I tripple up and didnt lose much or win much after that. I hit quad 6's at some point and didnt get paid huge but maybe won $70 but that just paid for my $12 calls trying to hit flops. Fit or fold is so lame but against half a table of maniac calling stations what elese can ya do.

On Saturday night I showed up late. The game was small and I think I made 7 since they had just lost one. I saw him sitting in his car. I wondered if he was thinking about coming back or not. Maybe he was crying. I know that the previous Saturday night was a huge game and a real blood bath. Oh well I dont mind the table. Pretty quickly I won a pot off a guy when I raised the button with A10 suited and flopped the flush and he bet into me twice and I just called. I was representing the flush draw but I shoulda raised the turn. He says he wasnt gonna call. He checked the river because it paired queens and counterfeitted him if I had a big pocket pair and I bet and he folded. Oh well. Too many scare cards can hit the river. I need to raise the turn. Maybe even the flop. He might have stacked of the flop with two pair thinking I trying to end the hand with Aces. I didnt put him on a big hand though. I hadnt played with the dude a lot so I didnt assume he would put me on a big hand just cause I raised like some of the other playeers might have. So I won and he went broke a few hands later and I proposed a mandatory $5 straddle which was accepted. I dont really remeber much about the hands. I played a lot more aggressive and wwith a wider range because we were short handed and there was only one real aggressive guy at the table and he was on my right. I picked up decent amount of orphan pots and I made a lot of value calls against my player to my right. I did ok. I played my $200 up to $500 and then the cards kinda went south and I was back down to $260 eventually. And at some point my friend jumped to the open seat on my left which I hated because he loves to push me off hands. I would eventually win a good pot off him though. I had 10,9 and the flop is 8,7,3 with two hearts. I think I checked and he bet smallish. A ten hit the turn and I checked. He bets like $70 which isnt inline with his first bet for sure and he probably had $50 more behind. Its a big bet. He had been rebuying a lot and I figured he was pushing with any piece there. I decide that he probably has hearts and wants to take it away from me. I push him all in and he does and doesnt get there. I might not have played it like that if I didnt have the open end straight draw to go with my pair. The only other hand I remember was a hand where I had Ace, 6 and raised and got called and the flop is like 4,4,3 with two spades. I cbet and got called behind and a King hits the turn and I check and he checks and the river is another 3 and I check and he bets about pot. I guess he is repping a 3 here. That makes sense but there arent to many hands he is gonna call $20 preflop with that make sense. And if he had a three and thought he was good on the flop wouldnt he have repped something on the turn when I checked anyway? I really think he was flush or straight drawing. Anything else he is checking behind I think. I call and win with my Ace. He was flush and gutshot drawing. He had also bluffed a lot all night so it wasnt too hard to figure I had to call. I dont remember any big losing pots for me. Mostly my losses were chasing draws and cbets with nothing that got called or raised. But since the straddle was on it hurt to make any unsuccessful plays or calls. So after it was all said and done I won a little more than my buyin. Im going back tonight to play. I expect a huge action game which sucks cause Im a working stiff who always leaves before the real action starts. But Im not complaining. For now Id rather have a job and a girl to go see and grind out little wins. For now.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Jackpots and Regular Pots and My Leather Ass

As I had suspected there was a chip dump tard fest last week after I left. I guess I should be glad I have a life that sometimes cuts into my already limited poker hobby. Last night was Love Shack night and before I get going I wanna say yipee for getting a table share of the bad beat jackpot. The BBJP is paid anytime Aces full gets beat with all hole cards playing. Last night my old buddy who I started playing no limit with back in like 2002 won the big part of the jackpot which was I think $900 and it was his birthday. The jackpot goes back to $500 and will stay there until the actual jackpot goes above that. They also pay I think $50 (maybe $40) for Aces cracked after midnight and that comes out of the jackpot too. Plus cash players get fed pretty well. At least pizza and sometimes BBQ and sometimes steak night. Ok now to the poker.

We had 3 tables run for the $40 tournament. I wasnt making any head way and was down to 3500ish from the starting 4000 when I picked up KK. UTG raised to 400 with blinds at 50/100. Made it 1500 to go. UTG calls. Ace Jack rag flops and UTG (who is a great guy and fun to play with) asks a player to move so he can see me and then insta shoves like he could tell I hated the flop. I doubt that was the case but who knows. I frikin hate it and I muck saving 2200. He shows QJ and has a good time razzing me until later when I started taking chips from him in the cash game. Then he turn around and loses all those chips I just gave him to another crazy cash gamer. He says oh well there goes *****'s chips. I said well at least I know they are in the right hands with you two. A little while later blinds are at 100/200 and I ship my 1800 in over the UTG raiser and we race my AQ vs his 10s. Out. The two wackos would join us shortly in the cash game. It looks like they both went felt in the same hand.

Before the cash game I went to buy cigs and got a new big chipotle burger from Backyard Burgers and man was it a tasty burger. The drive thru chick gave me a free Diet Dr. Pepper no one wanted too. Quit a contrast from the McDonalds a-holes who without going into the story too much I had a tug of war with a bag of food with. I wanted the food for free since they had me sit through the line and dont inform me the the card machine was down till I get to the window. I drove up to the second window and they started handing me my food and I really wanted to just act like I paid but I didnt but I did get my drinks in the car and a hand on the food bag before I came clean. Then me as I wont relinquish the bag he calls over the manager who wont budge. I did get to keep my 3 cokes though. One time I chased a little MickeyDs burger punk back into the freezer. I was wearing flip flops and almost busted my ass running past the deep fryer. I cant wait until they automate fast food places. Anyhoo.

I bought in for $160. I had a series of crap starting with the first hand flopping top pair from the button and playing to weak by not raising the preflop raiser. The turn makes a 4 card straight and now both players check to me so I fire $25 and one calls and the original raiser pops to $75. Shit. Fold. He shows the straight. Another hand I dont exactly remember but I was good and getting chased and the runner runner 4 card flush comes and I have to fold. Well I didnt have to but I did. So anyway somehow I end up down to like $70 when I pick up JJ and I limped and reraised all in over 3 guys who had put $8 in. For some reason this guy who apparently loves to win with the worst hand decides to gamble with me with K9. No bad beat. Courtesy double up. I also remember another hand where like 6 people called $16 preflop me included with my A8 of clubs and I flopped nut flush draw and I opened for basically pot with not much behind and everyone folded. Anyway I guess I was around $140 when I completed the small blind with 6,5 in a big virtual family pot and I flopped the nuts 7,4,3. I check and early position bets and a few call and I repop it pretty healthy cause there a flush draw. I get pushed all in my Mr. Courtesy Double Up from before and I tell the dealer not to deal after I call. I call and he shows top set and I show the nuts and ask him if he wants to run it twice. Instant no. Fuck. The next card is Ace of spades giving him a spade flush draw and the last card is K of spades crushing my soul. Apparently I had him covered and was getting chips back but I stormed out to smoke prompting someone to run out to tell me I had chips still. I wasnt leaving anyway. I came back in and was commended with my good handling of the beat. I tell em no big deal but damn I really wanted to run it twice. I then proceed to fold a shit ton looking ship my $55 remaining chips in but the opportunity never comes and I eventually buy $100 more in chips so as not to miss out on the multitude of players at this table willing to go broke in a limp pot. my buddy is still razzing me about the KK fold in the tournament so I took a shot at him to say ha ha real funny mfer but Im glad Im not stuck hard as you right now Mr. Poker Genius. I want so bad to take some chips from him even though he was stuck a few buyins. My big break came a good while later after endless folds and being down to $130 when I limped with AQ and many other limped and I flop top two. Small blind bets out $8 gets two callers and I pop it to $25 and my crazy friend on my left who bluffed me in the tournament makes it $125 to go. The original bettor who was obviously tilting before the hand started called. Well Im not folding although I know my buddy either has a flush draw or a nd big hand and I was certainly more worried about a set of 8s than a flush draw but I know he would raised preflop with 88 there so I guess Im good and Im not to worried about small blind. I think he has Ace King or J,10 double gut shot. I never saw his cards. My buddy had top and bottom pair and I triple up. The rest of the night was almost uneventful except for the jackpot and what was supposed to be my last hand. I played way too conservative and it probably cost me at least $200 in retrospect but oh well. The jack pot was QQ vs KK and 3 Aces hit the board. Weeeeee. My supposed to be last hand I was UTG and get QQ. I limp to the inevitable raise and just call. Im trying to get outta there. Well The flop is KQ8. We are 3 handed I think. I check and a pretty tight player bets out $35 and my buddy calls. I raise to $90 and they both call the $55. Im putting Mr. Tight on AK or KQ. Im putting my psycho friend on J10. Well the damn 9 hits the turn and Im first to act. SOB. I cant check and let them check behind me and some gut shot hit. I bet out $150 and they both make crying folds. As Im stacking my decent pot I get dealt in for my big blind. I play round to the cut off and quit only 30 minutes past my intended and announced at the beginning of the night leaving time. So an up and down night helped out with a jackpot nets me $320. I didnt mind leaving too much. It didnt seem like the game was too good and there wasnt a shit load of bad players left that were gonna be staying late. I gotta have them bad players in to pay me off when Im nut peddlin. Else I might have to put my money in marginal situations and actually think some. Fuck that.