Final table, but disappointing result

Played some $2/$4 6-max today and won a decent amount. I also played in a $20+2 limit tourney on Party and took 9th out of 375 for $150. Woulda been nice to go deeper, but I just kept running into hands when I was stealing and I wasn't picking up enough hands. So it goes.

It's still going, but I already know which donk is going to win it. Why does a moron always have to win? Well, not always, but too often for me.

Let's look at the donk of the day for today. This was actually from a couple days ago in a hand I wasn't in, and I forgot about it until now. I don't have the HH due to the reasons listed yesterday. Enjoy and have a good weekend.

UTG limps for 800 leaving about 20K behind. Folds to SB, who was pretty passive preflop (maybe 1 or 2 raises in a couple hours) who makes it 4k to go. BB folds, UTG calls. Flop comes Ad9c7c, SB Jams for ~15k. UTG tanks, then calls with QdJh against the small blind's 5s5h. The turn, of course, is the Jc and the SB is out.

Good call for 2x the pot with the QJo on the A97 flop, buddy!

I'm gonna get hammered now, you should do the same.

Almost a seat in the Party $1M

I played a $10+1 satellite to the $1M Gtd. on Party last night and took 2nd for $180 (only 1 seat). Here is the donk of the day from this tournament. I don't have the HH -- for some reason it wasn't saved in its normal location on my HD and I'm unable to access the server to get it out of my email. It went something like this.

I have a little over 70K, CL has ~90K, 3rd place has something like 50K. 7 handed, blinds 600/1200, ante 75(?). UTG folds, Villian (~90K behind, total donkey CL who has been doing a ton of open-limping) limps UTG+1, Hero (~70K behind) limps with As2s, fold to blinds, SB and BB complete. Flop comes AQQ. Blinds check, Villan bets the minimum (1200). He had been min betting when checked to virtually every time so his range of hands was still, literally, any 2 cards. I raise to 2400, he makes it 3600 (not a good sign, but I'm not folding for the minimum when I'm almost certainly drawing live and we're pretty deep-stacked), I call. Turn comes an A for a board of AQQA, he jams for ~67K.

I go into the tank, thinking that he had to have either AK (which I split against most rivers and lose to the 3 Ks) or QQ (where I have one out) and he's hoping I have an A and can get me all in either chopping (but unable to win) or drawing almost totally dead. I determine that the most likely scenario is that he has an A and hopes that he will either 1) steal the pot from another A or 2) get me to call with a Q. It was so weird because he was doing this against the only guy at the table who could do serious damage to him, me.

So I call and he has Qh4h. WTF?!?!? This is seriously one of the worst plays I have seen in an incredibly long time.

Yea, and I ended up losing to this same guy heads up. This was incredibly frustrating because this guy moved in all his chips for massive overbets SO many times when we were heads up and when I finally had a hand I could call a 20x pot bet with he shows up with a full house against my trips w/top kicker (A8 vs. 33 on a 3488 board). I guess that is part of the element of luck in poker. This guy must've had the tournament of his life to win this thing. He had a VPIP of like 60% and it was all open-limping and flopping miracles. I hate losing to people that play so poorly. I guess it has to happen sometimes though. The worst part is that this guy was from Norcal.

Short update

2-tabled $2/$4 6-max for about an hour yesterday and won $40 and did about the same today. I'm going out to eat for a friend's birthday in a little while so I'll just give you the donk of the day before I go.

Hold'em Limit ($2/$4)
Table 'Apisaon III' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: ricestud ($217 in chips)
Seat 3: jimwrecked ($189.50 in chips)
Seat 4: Hero ($84 in chips)
Seat 5: adamsan ($78 in chips)
Seat 6: roadbomber ($60 in chips)
ricestud: posts small blind $1
jimwrecked: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ac Ad]
Hero: raises $2 to $4
adamsan: folds
roadbomber: raises $2 to $6
ricestud: folds
jimwrecked: folds
Hero: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [Ts 2d 7s]
Hero: bets $2
roadbomber: calls $2
*** TURN *** [Ts 2d 7s] [Jh]
Hero: bets $4
roadbomber: calls $4
*** RIVER *** [Ts 2d 7s Jh] [Kc]
Hero: bets $4
roadbomber: raises $4 to $8
Hero: calls $4
*** SHOW DOWN ***
roadbomber: shows [9h 9c] (a pair of Nines)
Hero: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
Hero collected $41 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $43 | Rake $2
Board [Ts 2d 7s Jh Kc]
Seat 1: ricestud (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: jimwrecked (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Hero showed [Ac Ad] and won ($41) with a pair of Aces
Seat 5: adamsan folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: roadbomber (button) showed [9h 9c] and lost with a pair of Nines

I like just calling the 3-bet preflop because I was fairly new to the table and most players only put in the 4th bet with really big hands like AA, KK, QQ and AKs. If I've played with the guy longer I will usually put a 4th bet with AA in because I'll usually do that against an aggressive player with a wide range, something like {88+, AJs+, AQo+}. I like to lead here because it's kind of a weird thing to do, like something I'd do with hands like XsXs, 89 or A7.

The guy probably puts me on a busted draw on the river (spade draw I guess), but wouldn't I almost have to be ahead of his 99 here unless I had exactly Qs9s, AsXs (where X is low) or 88? I can't think of a single hand that I can have that warrants a value raise or bluff raise here, because I'm either super weak or strong enough to call a raise. Perhaps some people will fold a hand like AT or QT in this spot... I typically don't. People show up with random shit (like 99) after raising the river here often enough so that you have to call.

To borrow another idea from Chris Fargis -- If you correctly value bet the river, you're probably incorrect to fold to a single raise. I always keep this in mind. There are times when you feel like you almost have to be beat on the river after you bet and get raised, but trust me on this -- keep calling and people will keep showing up with random crap often enough to make the call correct. Just make sure you're not betting the river too often :)

For the love of God, people. If you are trying to catch a bluff, call the river instead of raising!

Some drunken fun and a boring sunday

I played some $0.02/$0.04 last night on pokerstars when I was drunk and waiting for a DVD to burn. It was really entertaining to sit down with $1500 and talk shit to all the donkeys who were calling me a luck-box. I ended up winning $.40 or something, fun. Also, I played a $20, 4 man heads-up SNG and took 2nd. In the final match, I got knocked down to 160 with the blinds at 30/60 when my oponnent rivered a flush against my straight. Why can I never bring myself to fold when I'm pretty sure I've been drawn out on in a big pot? Anyway, I worked that 160 up to about 2500 (only had to go to one showdown), then I promptly lost it all with Kc6c vs. Ad5d on a 6hAcXc board. Wish I could have won that one... the guy was really pissing me off.

On to today. I played a few hundred hands of $2/$4 6-max and booked a good win of about $170. I also played one of those $16 WSOP double-shootouts on stars where I lost most of my chips to a rivered flush. I love it when a guy makes a horrendous call on the turn with a draw, you know, something like 2/3 of the pot and then fails to bet the river when they get there.

I also played a $20+2 multi on Stars. This one was fun. Built up my stack decently until the following hands occur --

(50/100) - 2006/03/27 - 00:52:41 (ET)
Seat 1: javaloco (5600 in chips)
Seat 2: dk2424 (1710 in chips)
Seat 3: YYYoink (3035 in chips)
Seat 4: Coco121 (1400 in chips)
Seat 5: Meanal (3450 in chips)
Seat 6: walk_away (6785 in chips)
Seat 7: LuckyRaven (420 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero (2200 in chips)
Seat 9: kdubmxer (3000 in chips)
Meanal: posts small blind 50
walk_away: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Td Tc]
LuckyRaven: calls 100
Hero: raises 160 to 260
kdubmxer: folds
javaloco: folds
dk2424: calls 260
YYYoink: folds
Coco121: folds
Meanal: folds
walk_away: folds
LuckyRaven: raises 160 to 420 and is all-in
Hero: raises 1780 to 2200 and is all-in
dk2424: folds
*** FLOP *** [6s Qd 8h]
*** TURN *** [6s Qd 8h] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [6s Qd 8h Qc] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuckyRaven: shows [8d 8s] (a full house, Eights full of Queens)
Hero: shows [Td Tc] (two pair, Queens and Tens)
LuckyRaven collected 1250 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1250 | Rake 0
Board [6s Qd 8h Qc 7s]
Seat 1: javaloco folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: dk2424 folded before Flop
Seat 3: YYYoink folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Coco121 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Meanal (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: walk_away (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: LuckyRaven showed [8d 8s] and won (1250) with a full house, Eights full of Queens
Seat 8: Hero showed [Td Tc] and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens
Seat 9: kdubmxer folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Notice that I raise exactly 1/2 the remaining chips of LuckyRaven. He basically has to jam, which will the re-open the pot and allow me to re-raise to get rid of any rabble that decided to come along. There are always some idiots who inevitably call my original raise without knowing what is going on. This type of opportunity doesn't come up all that often, but leaving the pot open for a re-raise is a must when the situation arises.

(50/100) - 2006/03/27 - 00:57:59 (ET)
Seat 1: javaloco (4300 in chips)
Seat 2: tilterino (3585 in chips)
Seat 3: YYYoink (1785 in chips)
Seat 4: Coco121 (1400 in chips)
Seat 5: Meanal (4000 in chips)
Seat 6: walk_away (7685 in chips)
Seat 7: LuckyRaven (1000 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero (1580 in chips)
Seat 9: kdubmxer (4800 in chips)
javaloco: posts small blind 50
tilterino: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ad 9c]
YYYoink: folds
Coco121 has timed out
Coco121: folds
Coco121 is sitting out
Meanal: folds
walk_away: folds
LuckyRaven: calls 100
Coco121 has returned
Hero: raises 1480 to 1580 and is all-in
kdubmxer: folds
javaloco: folds
tilterino: folds
LuckyRaven: calls 900 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [Ts Kc 7d]
*** TURN *** [Ts Kc 7d] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [Ts Kc 7d 6c] [Qs]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuckyRaven: shows [Tc Ks] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
Hero: shows [Ad 9c] (high card Ace)
LuckyRaven collected 2150 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2150 | Rake 0
Board [Ts Kc 7d 6c Qs]
Seat 1: javaloco (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: tilterino (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: YYYoink folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Coco121 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Meanal folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: walk_away folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: LuckyRaven showed [Tc Ks] and won (2150) with two pair, Kings and Tens
Seat 8: Hero showed [Ad 9c] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 9: kdubmxer (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Same guy from last hand. No surprises here. A guy who limps UTG for 1/4th of his chips with 88 is the same type who will limp for 1/10th of their chips with KTo and call the rest of them off when someone raises them. This is definitely the donk of the day hand.

- 2006/03/27 - 01:05:20 (ET)
Seat 1: javaloco (4250 in chips)
Seat 2: tilterino (3485 in chips)
Seat 3: YYYoink (1785 in chips)
Seat 4: Coco121 (1400 in chips)
Seat 5: Meanal (4000 in chips)
Seat 6: walk_away (7685 in chips)
Seat 7: LuckyRaven (2150 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero (580 in chips)
Seat 9: kdubmxer (4800 in chips)
tilterino: posts small blind 75
YYYoink: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ks Kh]
Coco121 has timed out
Coco121: folds
Coco121 is sitting out
Meanal: folds
walk_away: folds
Coco121 has returned
LuckyRaven: calls 150
Hero: raises 430 to 580 and is all-in
kdubmxer: folds
javaloco: folds
tilterino: folds
YYYoink: folds
LuckyRaven: calls 430
*** FLOP *** [Jd 4h 7c]
*** TURN *** [Jd 4h 7c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 4h 7c 4c] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LuckyRaven: shows [5d As] (a pair of Fours)
Hero: shows [Ks Kh] (two pair, Kings and Fours)
Hero collected 1385 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1385 | Rake 0
Board [Jd 4h 7c 4c 8c]
Seat 1: javaloco (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: tilterino (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: YYYoink (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Coco121 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Meanal folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: walk_away folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: LuckyRaven showed [5d As] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 8: Hero showed [Ks Kh] and won (1385) with two pair, Kings and Fours
Seat 9: kdubmxer folded before Flop (didn't bet)

The very next hand I get a little bit of revenge with KK. I then jam a few more times to pick up some blinds until this happens.

(75/150) - 2006/03/27 - 01:10:24 (ET)
Seat 1: javaloco (5580 in chips)
Seat 2: tilterino (3635 in chips)
Seat 3: YYYoink (1560 in chips)
Seat 4: amy_kc_2 (15291 in chips)
Seat 5: Meanal (3925 in chips)
Seat 6: walk_away (7460 in chips)
Seat 7: LuckyRaven (3590 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero (1385 in chips)
Seat 9: kdubmxer (3000 in chips)
kdubmxer: posts small blind 75
javaloco: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [6h 6c]
tilterino: folds
YYYoink: calls 150
amy_kc_2: folds
Meanal: folds
walk_away: folds
LuckyRaven: calls 150
Hero: raises 1235 to 1385 and is all-in
kdubmxer: folds
javaloco: calls 1235
YYYoink: folds
LuckyRaven: folds
*** FLOP *** [8h Td 4s]
*** TURN *** [8h Td 4s] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [8h Td 4s Ac] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
javaloco: shows [Kc Qh] (a pair of Kings)
Hero: shows [6h 6c] (a pair of Sixes)
javaloco collected 3145 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3145 | Rake 0
Board [8h Td 4s Ac Kd]
Seat 1: javaloco (big blind) showed [Kc Qh] and won (3145) with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: tilterino folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: YYYoink folded before Flop
Seat 4: amy_kc_2 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Meanal folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: walk_away folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: LuckyRaven folded before Flop
Seat 8: Hero (button) showed [6h 6c] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 9: kdubmxer (small blind) folded before Flop

Some live $3/$6

Today I played for about 2 1/2 hours at the local casino. The game was $3/$6 holdem with a kill. This was actually one of the most reasonable live B&M $3/$6 games I've ever played in -- usually only 2-5 people going to each flop and lots of pots being won without showdown. The only decent hands I picked up were TT (x5), 99, KK, and AQs. I never got any other pairs... how strange.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to have some of these big hands in kill pots (AsQs on a flop of QxKs5s and KsKh on a Qs9s8s4s board) so I was able to book a decent win.

I need to play in B&M's more. People in casinos are so easy to read, they're practically playing with their cards face up. Most of them won't even bet without top pair or better, and forget about raising with middle pairs, draws, etc. If you get raised on the flop, you're almost certainly facing at least an overpair.

This was true except for a donkey who came into the game (and sat to my immediate right) about an hour into the game. This guy would raise multiple limpers with things like A2o and bet the hand down in a multiway pot without a pair. I can't even begin to imagine how this guy thought this was a cogent strategy against a bunch of retarded calling stations who wouldn't fold top/middle pair if a nuclear bomb went off next to them (thanks for being quotable, Norman Chad). The funniest thing was that the table congratulated some lady who finally re-raised him from the SB. They both go ape shit on the flop until she's all in (3 bets I think), then we see 99 (her) vs. QQ (him) on a 89TxJ board and people were talking shit cause he "sucked out." It's funny how badly these people treat someone who raises every pot. Ok, let's move on.

Our donk of the day today was a fellow who was getting hit by the deck pretty good in my $3/$6 game. Here's the hand --

UTG limps, Hero folds, 3 or 4 more limpers, both blinds complete, and we see a flop of QJ6 rainbow. SB bets, BB calls, UTG raises, UTG+2 reraises, all fold to SB who calls, BB cold-calls 2, UTG calls. Turn is second 6. Checks to UTG, who bets. UTG+2 calls, SB calls, BB check-raises, all call. River bring another 6. SB checks, BB bets, all call. SB has Qx, UTG has AA (nice limp preflop buddy), UTG+2 has QJs for flopped top two, BB has 64o.

Introduction

Basically, I'm creating this blog so I can talk about poker. My wife hates when I talk about it and my friends don't care too much about it, so I thought I'd give myself an outlet here.

I didn't play too much poker today. Maybe something like 100 hands of $1/$2 6-Max over the last 45 minutes, which is a little below where I normally play ($2/$4 or $3/$6). The reason I played lower today was because I had a database final from 7-10 tonight (yea, are you fucking kidding me?) and my brain is not functioning properly because of it.

I'll get into some stuff about myself, my poker goals, and other random shit in the near future. But for now, I'd like to introduce a feature that I've stolen from Chris Fargis' blog called Donk of the Day. I used to really enjoy it when Chris presented a really poor play that he had encountered during a day of play. Since I miss this feature so much I've decided to resurrect it myself. I hope you enjoy it.

This is a hand from a 20/20 ($20 buyin, 20 table SNG) on Stars yesterday.

(50/100) - 2006/03/24 - 03:42:07 (ET)
Seat 1: cwinch (1230 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: Hero (2710 in chips)
Seat 3: Jewellsa (1530 in chips)
Seat 4: OzDownUnder (1075 in chips)
Seat 5: IPWNNICKMARS (3080 in chips)
Seat 6: Buffybot (4290 in chips)
Seat 7: bad6t7camaro (1870 in chips)
Seat 8: loolee (9140 in chips)
Seat 9: hardbargainr (4480 in chips)
Buffybot: posts small blind 50
bad6t7camaro: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [9h 9c]
loolee: calls 100
hardbargainr: folds
cwinch: folds
Hero: raises 400 to 500
Jewellsa: folds
OzDownUnder: folds
IPWNNICKMARS: folds
hardbargainr is sitting out
Buffybot: calls 450
bad6t7camaro: folds
loolee: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [Kc Jc Kd]
hardbargainr is connected
hardbargainr has returned
Buffybot: bets 700
loolee: folds
Hero: raises 1510 to 2210 and is all-in
Buffybot: calls 1510
*** TURN *** [Kc Jc Kd] [Tc]
Hero said, "gg"
*** RIVER *** [Kc Jc Kd Tc] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Buffybot: shows [Ac 7d] (a flush, Ace high)
Hero: shows [9h 9c] (a flush, King high)
Buffybot collected 6020 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6020 | Rake 0
Board [Kc Jc Kd Tc 8c]
Seat 1: cwinch folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Hero showed [9h 9c] and lost with a flush, King high
Seat 3: Jewellsa folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: OzDownUnder folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: IPWNNICKMARS (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Buffybot (small blind) showed [Ac 7d] and won (6020) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 7: bad6t7camaro (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: loolee folded on the Flop
Seat 9: hardbargainr folded before Flop (didn't bet)

You might be asking whether I'm a donk here for drastically overplaying my 99. I'm not -- at least I don't think I am. The villian here had been drawing out on people left and right and was a ridiculous, shit-eating donkey. Want proof? He (insta)called me with A7o on the KKJ flop. Also, the EP limper was coming in (and handling raises) with any two, so he was no problem.