So I head into the bike today to play because the game has still been ok and I just am not willing to give in to going to commerce yet. I was supposed to maybe take the day off, but honestly I didn't have much else to do and it just didn't seem like I REALLY needed it and I am not playing Saturday Sunday or Tuesday so I figured it'd be a good idea to play. So we get the cards in the air around 10:20 and that's all well and good, and the game is pretty much fun but then eventually my phone starts blowing up and it's Kimmy, first telling me there is a great short 60 that I should go play, then a few minutes later letting me know that Eagle will be landing briefly and wants to play simply the 1 and the 2, not something absurd like the 4 and the 8. So these two reports are enough for me to race over to Commerce only to find myself shut out of the Eagle game. That's not so bad, the 40s look good and the (now lone) 60 is also amazing so I wait it out and get a seat in the 40 and take my blind and...get called for the 60 literally 4 seconds too late. So I play the lap, blah blah blah, and sit down in what can only be described as magically unicorn and pixie dust fairytale poker game. I mean really, if I could sit in that game all day for the rest of the year I'd make a quarter of a million dollars this year and everything would be right with the world. Zero chance I was less than $100/hour winner, just zero, even though I had already played like shit three or four times at the bike (I fell for Annie's reverse tell and tried a bluff, I gave Randy some free cards, blah blah blah) and was clearly not at my absolute best.
So of course I get myself buried so fast I don't even know what fucking hit me. DHL is on a rampage (he always delivers). I'm quickly into the game for a cool $10k (that's the trick with the zoo...you need at least 3 racks on the table to make it reasonably zoo-like so if you're stuck a couple racks all of a sudden you get in SUPER deep) and just stone cold cannot win a pot. The jack and the ten in a button vs big blind hand with the J57ss-J board? Cannot beat the jack and the eight. The King and the king, both red, on the 432ddd flop? Drawing dead to the running full HOW. Blah blah blah I get buried, then I win some hand because holy fucking shit these people are terrible (the pot is capped 4 ways, by me, and the board reads J53J and FOUR OF THEM call me on the turn.....this would be less exceptional if I didn't have the deck crippled with quad jacks) and eventually though it comes apart...the centre? It cannot hold. DHL racks up his $6k win and Mr. Lee decides he's going to take his seat. It'll be the third time he's moved, and I challenged him on the first one and then just let him have the second one (shouldn't have done that) even though it kind of hurt me a little. So this time I tell him no I want it and he basically tells me I never challenged him (which is true regarding his most recent change...but I did challenge the one before that) and eventually he calls me a liar to my face and it's everything I can do not to just attack him violently. He is perhaps the biggest piece of shit going in an environment that is just full of world class specimens, and to boot if I hit him I'll get barred and won't ever have to come to Commerce again! What could be better?!!? But somehow some way I just take the seat, don't hit the man, and eventually realize I need to get the fuck out of there.
To the real rage now. The 5 is stone cold fucked, but I decide I can take surface streets to get around it. LOL yeah, great idea Jesse. As I'm parked on Telegraph and eventually make the right on garfield and am checking traffic on my phone I remember the last time I tried to do this and swearing to the lord almighty I would never attempt it again. But it's too late now, I'm committed, like you read about, and well to make a long story short 40 minutes after I left the building I am literally 4 miles away stopped at subway eating a sandwich. My plan is to browse the web on my fancy chromebook, but there are two problems. First of all, it's 60 degrees inside the subway, too cold for even my taste, and second of all, and this is truly one of the most unbelievably coincidences of all time....aside....
I probably put this story up here but in case I did not.....the fish who got me barred from the bike (he's back, btw, and selectively chopping as usual) makes a big deal about someone buying him coffee. So one day I'm playing 20/40 and this porter walks up to me and tells me I'm buying his coffee. I look at him and respond "no, I don't want to buy his coffee" and hand the man $3. He then proceeds to go directly to the fish and complain that I only tipped him 65 cents, and that was no doubt part of the unintelligible gibberish said fish spewed at me at some point or another. So...
THAT PORTER IS EATING A SANDWICH AT SUBWAY. I swear to you, he's there, eating a sandwich, and he sees me and I see him and I just turn away and walk out of the building with my sandwich. Every man has his breaking point; that was mine. Eventually I got back on the freeway and got him in the licketty split time of 100 minutes (curiously the same length of time I was shut out of a game earlier this week). Seriously, have you ever been driving home and decided you needed to stop for dinner, on just a regular commute? Has that every happened
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Light On My Feet
Here is the post on 2p2. And for those of you who can't follow that link because you work for a place that frowns upon reading about gambling at work (but somehow hasn't figured out that my blog is exactly that), here is the content of the hand, and some of my ensuing commentary:
Midstakes game in LA. I open two kings in early position, and the player on my immediate left 3-bets. We will call him EP. It folds around to the big blind who opts to cap it. I obviously call and we see a flop three ways.
EP is pretty average preflop. His three betting range in this spot should be rather strong. If I had to guess, I'd say something like 99+ and AQ, maybe KQs. He could go a little lower, but I see him cold call raises quite a bit, and I'd imagine he's doing that with the next tier of hands (things like 77, QTs, etc), and as you'll see none of those hands matter on the board we get.
The big blind is an old white guy I've never seen before. I've been playing with him for about 30 minutes and I don't think I've even seen him 3-bet yet (although I have seen him cold call). The only hands I'm sure he can have are QQ, KK, and AA. AK and JJ need to be discounted, and TT and AQ seem very far-fetched. And again, once you see the flop action you'll be able to discount anything but premiums even further.
So in short...we have very, very narrow ranges already.
933r
The big blind leads and EP sends me a telegram that he's raising, so I just call. EP raises, and the big blind three bets. I again just call, now because honestly I no longer like my hand. EP caps it, and we both call.
At this point things are looking pretty grim. There is no flush draw on the flop, so I can discount either player having UI high cards almost down to zero. For EP that's a pretty devastating thing to say, since he chose to cap the flop. At this point I'd be shocked if he didn't have QQ+. It's also worth noting that there is a pretty good chance he'd slow play the 99; while he may have raised with it once, there is almost zero chance he'd cap with it. As for the big blind...he's pretty much got what he started with, which is QQ+. I mean sure, he might have JJ, but that needs to be discounted pretty heavily by now, and 99 is also far-fetched for him (both because of the preflop action and my guess that he'd slow play at least a little with it). To the turn, which is meaningless:
933-4
The big blind checks, I check, EP bets, the big blind calls, and I push call for the 5th time in a row.
EP still has a big mitt, obviously. BB is now less likely to actually have the AA, since there is some chance he'd just "donk" the turn with that strong of a hand. I'd say he's more than 50% at this point to have exactly two queens. I'm just planning to call one more river bet and occasionally get shown all four queens, or get half the pot, or have a gross misread. But then the river comes.
933-4-A
The big blind checks and I...donk!
========================================
I'm donking for a few reasons. On the river I trust EP to play perfectly against my hand if I check. He will certainly check back QQ-, he'll bet 99 and AA, and I'd assume he'll even check back that one niggling combo of KK. So in theory I should do what captain R says, and probably check and not over call except that the BB's hand and call would be close to meaningless and in reality I'm probably not going to fold the river getting 17:1 here. So if I bet and fold to a raise, it doesn't cost me very much, if anything.
But if I bet...what does my hand look like? Remember, I've pushed the call button five times in a row. It looks like exactly AK, so much so that I think there is a chance the other two kings will fold! It's only a single combo, but the ranges have gotten SO narrow that it might be enough. We literally have 3 combos of AA that I lose to, 1 combo of KK, and then 6 combos of QQ. If something else shows up I have a misread, and if I do it's got to be a bank error in my favor because of how many combos of JJ and TT there are.
=========================================
This kind of gets at the reason I posted the hand; it's not super interesting, as Mr John champion of the deuce to seven Locke has already stated (well done btw). The point of the hand was to illustrate the concept I mentioned in a thread a little while ago, the idea of staying light on your feet during a hand. The question "was my river play premeditated" was a good one also, and I have to admit it was not. During the course of a hand as players drop out, ranges narrow, and the board grows drastic u-turns of strategy can be required. In a sense this is probably the only part of "many way, exploitative, big pot" poker that is actually more difficult than "heads up three bet pots vs experts" poker.
I have seen live players who seem to have had amazing results for a long time (MikeL comes to mind, obviously, but there are others included) do stuff like this rather frequently. It's very, very hard, and I felt like I took a (perhaps misguided) crack at doing it in this hand. The next time you play, try to stay light on you feet during every hand you play; look for spots where drastic u-turns could show big profits, and don't be afraid to try them out.
We're all here to make money, but if you stop learning and the game isn't fun anymore, you won't last long
Midstakes game in LA. I open two kings in early position, and the player on my immediate left 3-bets. We will call him EP. It folds around to the big blind who opts to cap it. I obviously call and we see a flop three ways.
EP is pretty average preflop. His three betting range in this spot should be rather strong. If I had to guess, I'd say something like 99+ and AQ, maybe KQs. He could go a little lower, but I see him cold call raises quite a bit, and I'd imagine he's doing that with the next tier of hands (things like 77, QTs, etc), and as you'll see none of those hands matter on the board we get.
The big blind is an old white guy I've never seen before. I've been playing with him for about 30 minutes and I don't think I've even seen him 3-bet yet (although I have seen him cold call). The only hands I'm sure he can have are QQ, KK, and AA. AK and JJ need to be discounted, and TT and AQ seem very far-fetched. And again, once you see the flop action you'll be able to discount anything but premiums even further.
So in short...we have very, very narrow ranges already.
933r
The big blind leads and EP sends me a telegram that he's raising, so I just call. EP raises, and the big blind three bets. I again just call, now because honestly I no longer like my hand. EP caps it, and we both call.
At this point things are looking pretty grim. There is no flush draw on the flop, so I can discount either player having UI high cards almost down to zero. For EP that's a pretty devastating thing to say, since he chose to cap the flop. At this point I'd be shocked if he didn't have QQ+. It's also worth noting that there is a pretty good chance he'd slow play the 99; while he may have raised with it once, there is almost zero chance he'd cap with it. As for the big blind...he's pretty much got what he started with, which is QQ+. I mean sure, he might have JJ, but that needs to be discounted pretty heavily by now, and 99 is also far-fetched for him (both because of the preflop action and my guess that he'd slow play at least a little with it). To the turn, which is meaningless:
933-4
The big blind checks, I check, EP bets, the big blind calls, and I push call for the 5th time in a row.
EP still has a big mitt, obviously. BB is now less likely to actually have the AA, since there is some chance he'd just "donk" the turn with that strong of a hand. I'd say he's more than 50% at this point to have exactly two queens. I'm just planning to call one more river bet and occasionally get shown all four queens, or get half the pot, or have a gross misread. But then the river comes.
933-4-A
The big blind checks and I...donk!
========================================
I'm donking for a few reasons. On the river I trust EP to play perfectly against my hand if I check. He will certainly check back QQ-, he'll bet 99 and AA, and I'd assume he'll even check back that one niggling combo of KK. So in theory I should do what captain R says, and probably check and not over call except that the BB's hand and call would be close to meaningless and in reality I'm probably not going to fold the river getting 17:1 here. So if I bet and fold to a raise, it doesn't cost me very much, if anything.
But if I bet...what does my hand look like? Remember, I've pushed the call button five times in a row. It looks like exactly AK, so much so that I think there is a chance the other two kings will fold! It's only a single combo, but the ranges have gotten SO narrow that it might be enough. We literally have 3 combos of AA that I lose to, 1 combo of KK, and then 6 combos of QQ. If something else shows up I have a misread, and if I do it's got to be a bank error in my favor because of how many combos of JJ and TT there are.
=========================================
This kind of gets at the reason I posted the hand; it's not super interesting, as Mr John champion of the deuce to seven Locke has already stated (well done btw). The point of the hand was to illustrate the concept I mentioned in a thread a little while ago, the idea of staying light on your feet during a hand. The question "was my river play premeditated" was a good one also, and I have to admit it was not. During the course of a hand as players drop out, ranges narrow, and the board grows drastic u-turns of strategy can be required. In a sense this is probably the only part of "many way, exploitative, big pot" poker that is actually more difficult than "heads up three bet pots vs experts" poker.
I have seen live players who seem to have had amazing results for a long time (MikeL comes to mind, obviously, but there are others included) do stuff like this rather frequently. It's very, very hard, and I felt like I took a (perhaps misguided) crack at doing it in this hand. The next time you play, try to stay light on you feet during every hand you play; look for spots where drastic u-turns could show big profits, and don't be afraid to try them out.
We're all here to make money, but if you stop learning and the game isn't fun anymore, you won't last long
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
General Update
I played 1/2 all day Sunday and I think doing so was a pretty big mistake. Not because I lost (although I did get murdered) necessarily, but more because I could tell I just wasn't comfortable in the game. I've been focusing on playing in full ring games with very weak opposition, where my win rate (in terms of bets) should be very high. So walking into Commerce at 9:30am and sitting down in a 3 handed 1/2 game with one fish and two super laggy professionals probably wasn't the best idea. It was part ego ("I can beat these guys") and part group think ("most pros would think this is an awesome game") but honestly I just ended up playing 7 hours in a game where my edge was pretty nebulous (it didn't fill well), or at least not large enough to justify the emotional and financial peril I was putting myself though. Like, I dunno, I just never have gotten super comfortably in short handed aggressive games, and I need to remember that next time I want to put $20k in play sitting on Kim's left pushing the cold-cap button with A8s.
So then yesterday turned into a giant fuckaroo. I went to the Bike, and of course there was no game. The host blew myself and a prop off after we drew cards to start the promotion ("Deuce to Seven triple draw with The Host lol"), so I got frustrated and drove off, even though I knew the most lovable regular of all time was likely coming at 11. Sure enough at 11 on the dot my phone buzzed that he was there so what did I do? I drove back. Stupid, right? Right. So I get back there and what has happened? They're all playing...20/40. So to make a long story short I left the house at 8:30am, went to the gym, and played 3.5 hours of 20/40 by 3:30pm and then got frustrated and simply went home.
Today, however, was better. I had better information on the bike game, went in at 10am and started 3 handed with two players I knew would be there and knew would start with me, won a few racks, made my cross town transfer and won 30 more bets before calling it a day at 6:30pm. So that was good...
So then yesterday turned into a giant fuckaroo. I went to the Bike, and of course there was no game. The host blew myself and a prop off after we drew cards to start the promotion ("Deuce to Seven triple draw with The Host lol"), so I got frustrated and drove off, even though I knew the most lovable regular of all time was likely coming at 11. Sure enough at 11 on the dot my phone buzzed that he was there so what did I do? I drove back. Stupid, right? Right. So I get back there and what has happened? They're all playing...20/40. So to make a long story short I left the house at 8:30am, went to the gym, and played 3.5 hours of 20/40 by 3:30pm and then got frustrated and simply went home.
Today, however, was better. I had better information on the bike game, went in at 10am and started 3 handed with two players I knew would be there and knew would start with me, won a few racks, made my cross town transfer and won 30 more bets before calling it a day at 6:30pm. So that was good...
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Maybe it's Working
This new positive attitude thing is tough, but it may be working. As I drove home from commerce today (it's too nice to stay inside all day....84 and sunny) I suddenly found myself in park on the 5. Not parked; in park. I was stopped so long I shifted gears and waited it out. Usually this would infuriate me; some asshole wrecked his shit and now I have to camp in my car. But today....
Maybe it was the $2000 I won at Commerce. Maybe it was the sunshine. Or maybe, just maybe, I really am changing my world view. As I creeped towards the accident 10 minutes later my rage did not bubble up. It didn't even present itself at all! Instead of cursing at all the lookie lous (rubber neckers if you prefer), wishing hopelessly that I could beat them, I did the only truly sensible thing. I joined them! I slowed down, intentionally, and gawked. I viewed it like an amusement park ride that I'd patiently waited my turn to experience. I didn't do any of this intentionally, either, and that's the super duper important part. It just happened. I cruised past the Mexican guy sitting on the guard rail, busted ass Tacoma UPSIDE DOWN AND BACKWARDS on the ice plant carpeted embankment on the side of the freeway, with TWO refrigerators sprayed out in various directions, and you know what I did? I smiled. I actually smiled. He was OK; there was no ambulance. Sure he was maybe about to get his illegal ass shipped back to TJ, but that's a minor thing given his UPSIDE DOWN AND BACKWARDS tacoma. He's alive and that's a fucking miracle; he can sneak back in I've seen border wars. And so I smiled, taking in the absurdity of it all on a beautiful 85 degree day in mid-February. I felt no anger, no pain, no rage. I just took it all in and drove past, and for me that could be considered a huge step in the right direction.
Maybe it was the $2000 I won at Commerce. Maybe it was the sunshine. Or maybe, just maybe, I really am changing my world view. As I creeped towards the accident 10 minutes later my rage did not bubble up. It didn't even present itself at all! Instead of cursing at all the lookie lous (rubber neckers if you prefer), wishing hopelessly that I could beat them, I did the only truly sensible thing. I joined them! I slowed down, intentionally, and gawked. I viewed it like an amusement park ride that I'd patiently waited my turn to experience. I didn't do any of this intentionally, either, and that's the super duper important part. It just happened. I cruised past the Mexican guy sitting on the guard rail, busted ass Tacoma UPSIDE DOWN AND BACKWARDS on the ice plant carpeted embankment on the side of the freeway, with TWO refrigerators sprayed out in various directions, and you know what I did? I smiled. I actually smiled. He was OK; there was no ambulance. Sure he was maybe about to get his illegal ass shipped back to TJ, but that's a minor thing given his UPSIDE DOWN AND BACKWARDS tacoma. He's alive and that's a fucking miracle; he can sneak back in I've seen border wars. And so I smiled, taking in the absurdity of it all on a beautiful 85 degree day in mid-February. I felt no anger, no pain, no rage. I just took it all in and drove past, and for me that could be considered a huge step in the right direction.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Things Are Good
Things have been going pretty well the last week (I was going to say or two, but it's really just been this one apparently). I've been on quite the tear, to the tune of $10k and 150 bets in the last 40 or so hours I've played across a wide variety of stakes. I took today off to catch up on some stuff that just was getting away from me (I got all my stuff to my tax guy, for example) and have lunch with Danielle at Google and deliver the flowers and candy. Valentine's day is pretty stupid, and you can lump me in with the rest of the male species that doesn't enjoy it in the slightest, but at least my lady basically agrees with me. Flowers? She likes them, but doesn't want me to spend too much (which means I go to Trader Joe's and get a dozen red roses on the cheap). Candy? We already have a bunch from Christmas (no wonder I can't lose the 10 pounds I've gained since the bottom of the bet) and she just wanted a little more. Fancy dinner reservations tonight? Why on Earth would we go out on one of the busiest nights of the year and over pay to sit in a crowded restaurant? So she's on board and it's been pretty easy for me, and for that I'm very thankful.
The bike game is very close to dead, and that saddens me. I've taken 6 figures out of that game (lol you're god damned right), and have been paid something resembling half that for showing up to do it (between prop wages and the now dried up promotion money). Now that I've put that on the screen and am planning to push "Publish" in a little while I'm not sure how good I feel about it but I suppose it doesn't matter. It's public information that I cannot win at Commerce, and it's also public information that I've been doing pretty well the last two years and that I play a lot at the bike. So honestly it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. But now the game is dying because they never got a group of regulars to play at night. For the last 6 months (heck longer than that) the whole game has been built around a group of people who specifically play something like 10 or 11 am to something like 3 or 4 pm. I can think of 3 important regulars who play that schedule, and a host who has a sweet ass gig where he basically just plays the exact hours the casino doesn't need him there who does as well. And with all those people doing that it only was a matter of time before everyone realized that's just what you do if you want to play at the bike. We've had lots of other regulars who have realized that if they get up and the witching hour of 2:30pm rolls around they should probably just duck tail and run. And that's what they do. Hell even I have been doing it lately, and that speaks volumes to the level of fail that has ensued. $15/hour for 14 months, with as many as 6 props working the game at one point and even now I think they have 5, and the game runs 5 days a week from 10:15am until about 3:30 in the afternoon. Fucking disaster.
Could I have done more? Yeah I suppose maybe I could have, but let's remember the host BARRED ME immediately after I clocked back to back 180 hour months in the game for telling a mentally unstable 85 year old that I did not respect him. So whatever, I may play there a little this month, but I'm not going out of my to help save the game. If they couldn't get it done paying $15/hour with the best stable of props perhaps ever assembled for a limit hold 'em game (people who have worked there in the last 2 years: Joe Tall, MikeL, Sailboats, DosEquis, Snowball, Juice, Me, Dragon), they sure as fuck aren't going to get it done now.
The bike game is very close to dead, and that saddens me. I've taken 6 figures out of that game (lol you're god damned right), and have been paid something resembling half that for showing up to do it (between prop wages and the now dried up promotion money). Now that I've put that on the screen and am planning to push "Publish" in a little while I'm not sure how good I feel about it but I suppose it doesn't matter. It's public information that I cannot win at Commerce, and it's also public information that I've been doing pretty well the last two years and that I play a lot at the bike. So honestly it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. But now the game is dying because they never got a group of regulars to play at night. For the last 6 months (heck longer than that) the whole game has been built around a group of people who specifically play something like 10 or 11 am to something like 3 or 4 pm. I can think of 3 important regulars who play that schedule, and a host who has a sweet ass gig where he basically just plays the exact hours the casino doesn't need him there who does as well. And with all those people doing that it only was a matter of time before everyone realized that's just what you do if you want to play at the bike. We've had lots of other regulars who have realized that if they get up and the witching hour of 2:30pm rolls around they should probably just duck tail and run. And that's what they do. Hell even I have been doing it lately, and that speaks volumes to the level of fail that has ensued. $15/hour for 14 months, with as many as 6 props working the game at one point and even now I think they have 5, and the game runs 5 days a week from 10:15am until about 3:30 in the afternoon. Fucking disaster.
Could I have done more? Yeah I suppose maybe I could have, but let's remember the host BARRED ME immediately after I clocked back to back 180 hour months in the game for telling a mentally unstable 85 year old that I did not respect him. So whatever, I may play there a little this month, but I'm not going out of my to help save the game. If they couldn't get it done paying $15/hour with the best stable of props perhaps ever assembled for a limit hold 'em game (people who have worked there in the last 2 years: Joe Tall, MikeL, Sailboats, DosEquis, Snowball, Juice, Me, Dragon), they sure as fuck aren't going to get it done now.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Hand of the Day
Or rather the hand of last Wednesday. I'll keep it brief because there isn't much to the story, and we'll just pick up right on the river action of a hand between a day in day out regular fish and a guy I have seen before who doesn't seem to play that much (and was part of the reason I was still at the bike after 4pm to witness this boondoggle). The board reads:
AA3-A-6
I have not been paying attention, but I assume that there was some action preflop and on previous streets because there is a healthy stack of chips in the middle of the table. The remaining two players proceed to go ballistic, raising back and forth in fluid motion, with the whole table assuming we have just hit the jackpot (this was the day before it actually got hit, with the player who won this hand getting the big end obviously). Something doesn't make sense to me; why would a guy with TT-KK give away 3, now 5, now 7, 8 bets all in just because he THINKS he is hitting the jackpot? I mean his opponent could just show him the ace and the five for quads no kicker. And it doesn't matter, even if you're about to win $35k why would you just light a bonus $500 on fire? It makes no sense, but it's so weird I decide it must be happening and then it comes time to show the goods and we see behind door number one
Ace. Jack.
That's good. That plays, that's what he's supposed to have. But then things get ugly. Just like the time I had the AK on the AAJ-A-X board and my opponent raised me on the flop, bet the turn for me, and then called the river all the while shaking his head yes yes when asked "jackpot? jackpot" with the queen ten high, the secondary villain in our story suddenly looks like he's eaten a rotten avocado. Behind door number two we see
Three. Three.
That's right. The guy has pocking 3s, which on this board not only is not a jackpot, but cannot defeat such hands as "pocket 4s" or "six deuce off". He got confused, misread the board/his hand/the planet he was on, and fired off most of a rack on the river for no reason other to let us all say that yes, we were witness.
AA3-A-6
I have not been paying attention, but I assume that there was some action preflop and on previous streets because there is a healthy stack of chips in the middle of the table. The remaining two players proceed to go ballistic, raising back and forth in fluid motion, with the whole table assuming we have just hit the jackpot (this was the day before it actually got hit, with the player who won this hand getting the big end obviously). Something doesn't make sense to me; why would a guy with TT-KK give away 3, now 5, now 7, 8 bets all in just because he THINKS he is hitting the jackpot? I mean his opponent could just show him the ace and the five for quads no kicker. And it doesn't matter, even if you're about to win $35k why would you just light a bonus $500 on fire? It makes no sense, but it's so weird I decide it must be happening and then it comes time to show the goods and we see behind door number one
Ace. Jack.
That's good. That plays, that's what he's supposed to have. But then things get ugly. Just like the time I had the AK on the AAJ-A-X board and my opponent raised me on the flop, bet the turn for me, and then called the river all the while shaking his head yes yes when asked "jackpot? jackpot" with the queen ten high, the secondary villain in our story suddenly looks like he's eaten a rotten avocado. Behind door number two we see
Three. Three.
That's right. The guy has pocking 3s, which on this board not only is not a jackpot, but cannot defeat such hands as "pocket 4s" or "six deuce off". He got confused, misread the board/his hand/the planet he was on, and fired off most of a rack on the river for no reason other to let us all say that yes, we were witness.
Crossing the Line
I have a confession to make. I crossed a pretty serious ethical poker line today, and I'm not very proud of it. For the first time in my career I took an action that I knew was against the rules, assuming that my opponent wouldn't realize what was happening and no one else would speak up. I got away with it cleanly, which was all the worse. The net effect was that nothing happened, but still....here's what I did.
5 people see the flop, I have 97dd in the SB. The board comes out
Q85dd
Some action happens, and we're still many ways when the turn peels off
6r
I have the stone nuts, with the flush redraw, and lead out into the field. I get raised, everyone else clears out except the button, who hems and haws and then calls 2 cold. I 3-bet, the raiser 4 bets and...you can see where this is going, right? The action is capped right there because we are still 3 handed when the 4-bet goes in. That's how a cap works. But a lot of players don't know that (in fact, I'm not 100% sure that the bike does it this way now that I think of it...I'm 99% sure). Anyway as the button is tanking I decide I'm going to go for it because the opponent I have right now could just put 9 or 11 bets into this pot before he realizes he's getting free rolled and is a well versed angle shooter himself. And the button...folds.
I illegally 5-bet. That's all it was, an 5-bet that I know I'm not allowed to make, that if someone tried on me I would speak up and prevent. I did it swiftly, and he 6-bet me, so I swiftly 7-bet. I'm pretty sure he just called this bet, but there is a chance we put 9 bets into the pot (I don't remember). The river paired the 5 and wasn't a diamond and we chopped up the pot anyway, but I immediately felt horrible about it and resolved never to do something like that again. Even if everyone else is angling for every inch, I can't sink to their level and can't let that happen again....I feel awful about it and I didn't even hit the free-roll, so I can't imagine how badly I'd be feeling if I had bonked him for the extra 3 or 5 bets. In actuality that doesn't matter one iota, but I'm sure I'd feel worse. Or heck maybe I wouldn't because at least thing I'd have something to show for my transgression. As it is right now I compromised my integrity and gained nothing for it, which is obviously a losing proposition.
So anyway yeah that was pretty awful; I wasn't going to put it up here, but honesty is the best policy and I'm trying to better myself and the pressure of the crowd has helped me in that regard before.
5 people see the flop, I have 97dd in the SB. The board comes out
Q85dd
Some action happens, and we're still many ways when the turn peels off
6r
I have the stone nuts, with the flush redraw, and lead out into the field. I get raised, everyone else clears out except the button, who hems and haws and then calls 2 cold. I 3-bet, the raiser 4 bets and...you can see where this is going, right? The action is capped right there because we are still 3 handed when the 4-bet goes in. That's how a cap works. But a lot of players don't know that (in fact, I'm not 100% sure that the bike does it this way now that I think of it...I'm 99% sure). Anyway as the button is tanking I decide I'm going to go for it because the opponent I have right now could just put 9 or 11 bets into this pot before he realizes he's getting free rolled and is a well versed angle shooter himself. And the button...folds.
I illegally 5-bet. That's all it was, an 5-bet that I know I'm not allowed to make, that if someone tried on me I would speak up and prevent. I did it swiftly, and he 6-bet me, so I swiftly 7-bet. I'm pretty sure he just called this bet, but there is a chance we put 9 bets into the pot (I don't remember). The river paired the 5 and wasn't a diamond and we chopped up the pot anyway, but I immediately felt horrible about it and resolved never to do something like that again. Even if everyone else is angling for every inch, I can't sink to their level and can't let that happen again....I feel awful about it and I didn't even hit the free-roll, so I can't imagine how badly I'd be feeling if I had bonked him for the extra 3 or 5 bets. In actuality that doesn't matter one iota, but I'm sure I'd feel worse. Or heck maybe I wouldn't because at least thing I'd have something to show for my transgression. As it is right now I compromised my integrity and gained nothing for it, which is obviously a losing proposition.
So anyway yeah that was pretty awful; I wasn't going to put it up here, but honesty is the best policy and I'm trying to better myself and the pressure of the crowd has helped me in that regard before.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Curious Case of jesse8888
Sometimes I think that I truly am some sort of psychotic pioneer. It's about time I rage vented all of you through a day in the life, so here we go.
I'm in a weird and uncomfortable place (at least for me) right now, because I don't currently have a home or even default casino. I have been logging hours at all three places pretty regularly, and that sort of uncertainty isn't something that I do particularly well with. Today I was planning to go to the bike, but I woke up feeling refreshed at 7:15am. That game doesn't go until 10:15 at the earliest, and without the promotion it's getting a head of steam later and later. A normal person would relax, maybe have breakfast, watch sports center, etc with the "extra" time. Not jesse8888, no sir ree bob. I was out the door 15 minutes later, done with my workout by 8:15, and in the commerce 40 promptly at 9:15am. Oh I almost forget there were cops with assault rifles lining the CA 1000 all the way to the OC/LA county line because some asshole decided to go on a rampage in the 909. But whatever, he's camped out at big bear for the night basically putting Rambo Part 7 on all the local channels, not nearly as fun as the bank robbers who threw the money out the car window last year. He's just gonna be dead tomorrow, and hopefully alone. Anyway so I get to commerce and the gang is ALL THERE. Earlier this week Eagle borrowed a big number from someone to start a massive game, and it was announced that he was paying back today. So what do we have? All the sharks are circling except...no fish! That's right, turns out he's not coming. Whatever the 40 games are still good so I sit and get skull fucked for 30 minutes, then switch to the 60, post into a time pot only to hear the two fish declare themselves out (meaning they are quitting in 4 hands), get skull fucked for 15 minutes, get back into the other 40/80 game and get just completely destroyed for 2 laps before giving up and going to the bike. The "coop de gracie" as bugs bunny would say was delivered thusly:
Someone opens I 3 bet jacks on the button, the small blind calls them all cold we see a flop of:
AK3hh
And I don't even have a heart. I actually check it back. This is probably bad (ok definitely) bad and is the real reason I end up quitting. I'm not playing well, I need to recover. Anyway, normally a check back like this isn't going to lead to such a violent brutalization, but today was not just a normal day.
Jh
Boink! They both check and this time I elect to wager. The small blind raises me and I make my second mistake of the hand by just calling after the other guy folds. He then smokes the river.
Tr
I call and he shows me...Q5dd. That's right, the queen and the five, all reds on the turn, smoke the river and BINGO. Skull fucked.
So I head to the bike and I'm actually in good spirits by the time I get there because Bohemian Rhapsody is playing as I pull into the parking lot and nothing bad has ever happened to me during that song so I figure I'm safe for another few minutes and the bike game should be good and hey I only lost $3400 (35 bets) in 70 minutes I can turn things around. I haven't done the math on how much I'm under water at commerce this year, but it has to be over $15k. It could be 20. In like 6 days. So anyway I get out of my car and am rushing to get into the building and dude checks my backpack and then way in the distance I see it. They're all standing up. The runners, the floor, the players, there are 25 people gathered around the table. Doing the backwards math I realize they hit the jackpot pretty much at the exact moment Bohemian Rhapsody began to play. The damage to the bike? $72k. A regular fish who runs hotter than the fucking sun got the big end (of course), and a nit who hasn't sat in the game in over six months got the other end. Mr. Lee got a table share....that pretty much cancels out the fact that the other three table shares (4 out buttons LOL you guys are great) went to stand up great guys. Of course now I'm afraid the game isn't even gonna continue (today or generally) but I stick around. This jackpot hadn't been hit since 2011 (for serious)....
Turns out sticking around was the right play. I won so much you wouldn't believe it. I took a 3 outter. I took a 5 outter. I folded the flop after calling 2 cold only to watch my bottom pair morph into a combo draw on the turn and bing trips on the river in a 17 bet pot (which I didn't win). And yet none of that mattered, I just won and won and won and won. And that's when I made another critical mistake.
I uncaged the zoo. I had won so much that I just had to count it, I had to see how many chips I had in front of me. The answer? $8100, off a light buy in of just $2000. I had taken a $3400 loss at commerce, gathered myself, seen MY JACKPOT (I must have $3000 down that hole) hit as I was walking to the table, and recovered to win SIX RACKS in about 2 hours. And this is where my pioneering spirit truly comes into play. For uncaging the zoo I was smoted swiftly and immediately; one hour later I left the casino up only a little over 4 racks. And did I go home? Of course not. I drove to the Hustler to play 25/50. I turned a $3400 loser into a $2700 winner by 1pm, and did I go home? Of course not. I went to to the Hustler to play 25/50 and got myself buried three racks, that's what I did. Why wouldn't I do that? I mean, deep down I KNOW these are good decisions, I know I need to pay attention to my stack less (but then why did I uncage the zoo?) and need to play good hours and blah blah blah. But seriously? A third casino after something like that? I took all manner of gross beats, and did manage to leave only stuck about 1 rack, but the best hand was this.
UTG has been requesting a setup for 3 minutes and it finally comes as he's raising UTG. He's pretty much a straight forward nit most of the time, and I've made some obviously big folds to him in the past. Anyway, I defend the QTo hu
Q73ddh
Against many players I'd c/c c/r, but this guy won't bet the turn and I'll end up getting owned against whatever hand he's holding with my particular hand. So I c/r he calls and the turn is
Jh
He raises me quickly. I call, not sure how I'll proceed on the river but probably the old vomit call cause it is the hustler....
Ar
I snap check/fold, he shows me K7hh and makes a huge speech about how he just owned my soul and now I have to pay him off forever.
I'm in a weird and uncomfortable place (at least for me) right now, because I don't currently have a home or even default casino. I have been logging hours at all three places pretty regularly, and that sort of uncertainty isn't something that I do particularly well with. Today I was planning to go to the bike, but I woke up feeling refreshed at 7:15am. That game doesn't go until 10:15 at the earliest, and without the promotion it's getting a head of steam later and later. A normal person would relax, maybe have breakfast, watch sports center, etc with the "extra" time. Not jesse8888, no sir ree bob. I was out the door 15 minutes later, done with my workout by 8:15, and in the commerce 40 promptly at 9:15am. Oh I almost forget there were cops with assault rifles lining the CA 1000 all the way to the OC/LA county line because some asshole decided to go on a rampage in the 909. But whatever, he's camped out at big bear for the night basically putting Rambo Part 7 on all the local channels, not nearly as fun as the bank robbers who threw the money out the car window last year. He's just gonna be dead tomorrow, and hopefully alone. Anyway so I get to commerce and the gang is ALL THERE. Earlier this week Eagle borrowed a big number from someone to start a massive game, and it was announced that he was paying back today. So what do we have? All the sharks are circling except...no fish! That's right, turns out he's not coming. Whatever the 40 games are still good so I sit and get skull fucked for 30 minutes, then switch to the 60, post into a time pot only to hear the two fish declare themselves out (meaning they are quitting in 4 hands), get skull fucked for 15 minutes, get back into the other 40/80 game and get just completely destroyed for 2 laps before giving up and going to the bike. The "coop de gracie" as bugs bunny would say was delivered thusly:
Someone opens I 3 bet jacks on the button, the small blind calls them all cold we see a flop of:
AK3hh
And I don't even have a heart. I actually check it back. This is probably bad (ok definitely) bad and is the real reason I end up quitting. I'm not playing well, I need to recover. Anyway, normally a check back like this isn't going to lead to such a violent brutalization, but today was not just a normal day.
Jh
Boink! They both check and this time I elect to wager. The small blind raises me and I make my second mistake of the hand by just calling after the other guy folds. He then smokes the river.
Tr
I call and he shows me...Q5dd. That's right, the queen and the five, all reds on the turn, smoke the river and BINGO. Skull fucked.
So I head to the bike and I'm actually in good spirits by the time I get there because Bohemian Rhapsody is playing as I pull into the parking lot and nothing bad has ever happened to me during that song so I figure I'm safe for another few minutes and the bike game should be good and hey I only lost $3400 (35 bets) in 70 minutes I can turn things around. I haven't done the math on how much I'm under water at commerce this year, but it has to be over $15k. It could be 20. In like 6 days. So anyway I get out of my car and am rushing to get into the building and dude checks my backpack and then way in the distance I see it. They're all standing up. The runners, the floor, the players, there are 25 people gathered around the table. Doing the backwards math I realize they hit the jackpot pretty much at the exact moment Bohemian Rhapsody began to play. The damage to the bike? $72k. A regular fish who runs hotter than the fucking sun got the big end (of course), and a nit who hasn't sat in the game in over six months got the other end. Mr. Lee got a table share....that pretty much cancels out the fact that the other three table shares (4 out buttons LOL you guys are great) went to stand up great guys. Of course now I'm afraid the game isn't even gonna continue (today or generally) but I stick around. This jackpot hadn't been hit since 2011 (for serious)....
Turns out sticking around was the right play. I won so much you wouldn't believe it. I took a 3 outter. I took a 5 outter. I folded the flop after calling 2 cold only to watch my bottom pair morph into a combo draw on the turn and bing trips on the river in a 17 bet pot (which I didn't win). And yet none of that mattered, I just won and won and won and won. And that's when I made another critical mistake.
I uncaged the zoo. I had won so much that I just had to count it, I had to see how many chips I had in front of me. The answer? $8100, off a light buy in of just $2000. I had taken a $3400 loss at commerce, gathered myself, seen MY JACKPOT (I must have $3000 down that hole) hit as I was walking to the table, and recovered to win SIX RACKS in about 2 hours. And this is where my pioneering spirit truly comes into play. For uncaging the zoo I was smoted swiftly and immediately; one hour later I left the casino up only a little over 4 racks. And did I go home? Of course not. I drove to the Hustler to play 25/50. I turned a $3400 loser into a $2700 winner by 1pm, and did I go home? Of course not. I went to to the Hustler to play 25/50 and got myself buried three racks, that's what I did. Why wouldn't I do that? I mean, deep down I KNOW these are good decisions, I know I need to pay attention to my stack less (but then why did I uncage the zoo?) and need to play good hours and blah blah blah. But seriously? A third casino after something like that? I took all manner of gross beats, and did manage to leave only stuck about 1 rack, but the best hand was this.
UTG has been requesting a setup for 3 minutes and it finally comes as he's raising UTG. He's pretty much a straight forward nit most of the time, and I've made some obviously big folds to him in the past. Anyway, I defend the QTo hu
Q73ddh
Against many players I'd c/c c/r, but this guy won't bet the turn and I'll end up getting owned against whatever hand he's holding with my particular hand. So I c/r he calls and the turn is
Jh
He raises me quickly. I call, not sure how I'll proceed on the river but probably the old vomit call cause it is the hustler....
Ar
I snap check/fold, he shows me K7hh and makes a huge speech about how he just owned my soul and now I have to pay him off forever.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Caesar Was Ambitious
I rolled in to Commerce today at 9:45am and found myself shut out of action because they had started, of all things, an 80/160 HOE game. That's right...80...160. H. O. E. Why wouldn't I sit in that game? I cannot think of a good reason; besides, how hard can E be? I have played it probably a dozen times or so, and I know how split pot games work. I also have lots of Omaha experience so what's the worst that can happen? Well, it can turn out that I'm just not very good at the E, that's what. I just stone cold aborted two hands, actually betting into a guy on 6th street who's board read 5432. Now in fairness I did have a pair of 6s and was currently winning half the pot, but seriously. I also attempted to value bet one pair on 7th street (I also had no low) heads up. Now again in fairness 6th had checked through AND my opponent had checked to me on 7th street AND my pair was the single pair of buried aces I started the hand with. But still, he just sheepishly called me with like 5s up or something and he got the pot shipped to him. In the first rotation playing mostly 6 handed I had the bring in SEVEN of the eight hands, and that was just a pain. So eventually I got myself out of there, sat in a mediocre 60, lost some more, then got a 40 seat which is where I should have been the whole time anyway, lost $2000 in 45 minutes (I swear to God that game is unbeatable) and ended up taking my 3rd early out in the last 6 days stuck a cool $5k for less than 4 hours of play. My 40 game also ground to a halt ONE HAND after I took the big blind (and I did really want to kill myself for that one...how could I be that stupid), and didn't resume until the man refusing to post demanded that the three new players be given free hands (not required to post) so we didn't have to play a hand 4 handed. What's funny is that this guy should do better in a shortish game, or should at least enjoy it, since he literally opens his button about 85%.
So that was my day yahoo for me.
So that was my day yahoo for me.
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