A Poker Potpourri
As expected, I haven't been playing too much poker recently. Work keeps me pretty busy, and there is also the World Cup to take up any other time I have. I still play my home game every week, and I have played a couple of other things since my last post.
Two thursdays ago I played the home game and got 2nd to Clark. He played well and deserved to win. I played pretty well until we got heads up, but ended up running into hands every time I decided to make a move at a pot. For example, I got in preflop with A9 vs. AJ and ended up getting incredibly lucky to chop on a KQTxJ board (I rivered a 3-outer to split). On my final hand, I called a raise out of the BB with J7 and check-raised all-in on a KJx flop only to be inst-called by Clark's AJ.
I remember one interesting hand from when we were 3-handed. The blinds were (I think) 1K/2K. Clark opened from the button to 5500 or something. I had about 33K in my stack and decided to make it 14K with KK. Clark tanked for a while, showed AQo, and folded. I really think I should have just moved in here to give myself a much better chance of getting action. Re-raising 1/2 my stack there is just silly, and it looks like exactly what it is -- a monster. Shame on me.
I played a $20 MTT sometime during that following weekend and ended up going bust pretty quickly when I got about 40BBs in preflop with QQ vs. KcTc vs. AKo. Obviously the dude with the KcTc KO'ed both of us by making 2 pair.
Then I played the home game again last thursday. We were playing at Clark's, so we had starting stacks of about 1700. I got off to a pretty bad start with the following hand: blinds at 3/6. A couple of limpers, MP (who is loose and plays pretty poorly post-flop) raises to 18, I call in the CO with 6d7d, button calls, BB calls, limpers call. Flop comes 4d5hQd, which is a pretty huge flop for my hand. Everyone checks to the original raiser, who bets 100. I make it 375, all fold to one of the limpers, a girl who is very inexperienced and is very passive. She cold-calls the 375 and the original raiser calls 275 more. At this point I'm pretty sure the girl who cold-called has a monster and I have no idea what the original raiser has. The turn is an offsuit T and they both check to me, I don't think I can fold them so I check behind. The river is an offsuit K, the girl checks, the original raiser bets 500, I fold, the girl thinks for a while and folds 45 for flopped 2-pair. The original raiser shows 88 before mucking. I think I was the only person in this pot who shouldn't be shot in the nuts (or ovaries) for how badly they played the hand.
I then lost another pot for about 1/3 of my remaining chips where I bluffed off a bunch of chips with a small pair. I don't really remember the details of it. As a result of these two pots, I had lost about 1/2 my chips during the first two levels.
I ended up picking up a bunch of pots by re-raising the loose, bad player from the original hand a bunch of times. By the time we got down to 7 players, I was in 2nd chip position behind this same guy. I ended up holding my position until we got to 4-handed when the following hands went down.
4-handed, blinds at 80/160. I make it 475 UTG with AQo. The button moves in for about 2000. I have about 4200 in chips, I call, and I lose to his KdJd on a QTxQ9 board.
On the very next hand, the button raises to 600 and I wake up in the BB with AdKh. I moved in, got called by QdQh, got no help, and lost the rest of my chips. I think folding this hand may have been correct, since I have only seen the button make a preflop raise ~10 times in the 2 months or so that I've been playing with him. This guy limps with Jacks all the time, seriously.
I think the absolute loosest range I can give him is {JJ+, AKs, AKo} (and more realistically it's probably {QQ+, AKs}), and I don't think he'll fold anything when I move in. I'm a 3:2 dog against this weaker range (2:1 against the stronger range) and have no fold equity. As weird as it sounds, I really should be folding AKo to a button raise in this situation. I thought about it for a minute, but I ended up moving in anyway. I was just thinking "Folding AKo to a button raise is crazy talk, no matter how tight the button raiser is." It's really not that crazy, so shame on me again.
I also went on vacation this weekend and got to play $3/$6 for a couple of hours. I won exactly one pot, which was when I had 5dTd in the BB and made a flush. I picked up KK twice (and lost both times). The first time I had it, some guy defended his BB with Q6o in a multiway pot and hit a 2nd Q on the turn. A few hands later, I open-raised from 2 off the button and only the SB called. The flop came 345 two spades. He bet, I raised, he called. Turn was an offsuit A, he bet, I folded, he showed A3s. I was pretty much card-dead the rest of the time and never really picked up any other playable hands.
It's kind of sad when you can't even pick up a JTs to play, but that's how things have been going for me lately. I guess when you only play for 4 hours a week, a bad streak can last for months. My bankroll is still relatively healthy, but my confidence has taken a severe beating. I'd like to start getting back into playing online, but that almost certainly won't happen before the World Cup is over (and maybe not even then).
Two thursdays ago I played the home game and got 2nd to Clark. He played well and deserved to win. I played pretty well until we got heads up, but ended up running into hands every time I decided to make a move at a pot. For example, I got in preflop with A9 vs. AJ and ended up getting incredibly lucky to chop on a KQTxJ board (I rivered a 3-outer to split). On my final hand, I called a raise out of the BB with J7 and check-raised all-in on a KJx flop only to be inst-called by Clark's AJ.
I remember one interesting hand from when we were 3-handed. The blinds were (I think) 1K/2K. Clark opened from the button to 5500 or something. I had about 33K in my stack and decided to make it 14K with KK. Clark tanked for a while, showed AQo, and folded. I really think I should have just moved in here to give myself a much better chance of getting action. Re-raising 1/2 my stack there is just silly, and it looks like exactly what it is -- a monster. Shame on me.
I played a $20 MTT sometime during that following weekend and ended up going bust pretty quickly when I got about 40BBs in preflop with QQ vs. KcTc vs. AKo. Obviously the dude with the KcTc KO'ed both of us by making 2 pair.
Then I played the home game again last thursday. We were playing at Clark's, so we had starting stacks of about 1700. I got off to a pretty bad start with the following hand: blinds at 3/6. A couple of limpers, MP (who is loose and plays pretty poorly post-flop) raises to 18, I call in the CO with 6d7d, button calls, BB calls, limpers call. Flop comes 4d5hQd, which is a pretty huge flop for my hand. Everyone checks to the original raiser, who bets 100. I make it 375, all fold to one of the limpers, a girl who is very inexperienced and is very passive. She cold-calls the 375 and the original raiser calls 275 more. At this point I'm pretty sure the girl who cold-called has a monster and I have no idea what the original raiser has. The turn is an offsuit T and they both check to me, I don't think I can fold them so I check behind. The river is an offsuit K, the girl checks, the original raiser bets 500, I fold, the girl thinks for a while and folds 45 for flopped 2-pair. The original raiser shows 88 before mucking. I think I was the only person in this pot who shouldn't be shot in the nuts (or ovaries) for how badly they played the hand.
I then lost another pot for about 1/3 of my remaining chips where I bluffed off a bunch of chips with a small pair. I don't really remember the details of it. As a result of these two pots, I had lost about 1/2 my chips during the first two levels.
I ended up picking up a bunch of pots by re-raising the loose, bad player from the original hand a bunch of times. By the time we got down to 7 players, I was in 2nd chip position behind this same guy. I ended up holding my position until we got to 4-handed when the following hands went down.
4-handed, blinds at 80/160. I make it 475 UTG with AQo. The button moves in for about 2000. I have about 4200 in chips, I call, and I lose to his KdJd on a QTxQ9 board.
On the very next hand, the button raises to 600 and I wake up in the BB with AdKh. I moved in, got called by QdQh, got no help, and lost the rest of my chips. I think folding this hand may have been correct, since I have only seen the button make a preflop raise ~10 times in the 2 months or so that I've been playing with him. This guy limps with Jacks all the time, seriously.
I think the absolute loosest range I can give him is {JJ+, AKs, AKo} (and more realistically it's probably {QQ+, AKs}), and I don't think he'll fold anything when I move in. I'm a 3:2 dog against this weaker range (2:1 against the stronger range) and have no fold equity. As weird as it sounds, I really should be folding AKo to a button raise in this situation. I thought about it for a minute, but I ended up moving in anyway. I was just thinking "Folding AKo to a button raise is crazy talk, no matter how tight the button raiser is." It's really not that crazy, so shame on me again.
I also went on vacation this weekend and got to play $3/$6 for a couple of hours. I won exactly one pot, which was when I had 5dTd in the BB and made a flush. I picked up KK twice (and lost both times). The first time I had it, some guy defended his BB with Q6o in a multiway pot and hit a 2nd Q on the turn. A few hands later, I open-raised from 2 off the button and only the SB called. The flop came 345 two spades. He bet, I raised, he called. Turn was an offsuit A, he bet, I folded, he showed A3s. I was pretty much card-dead the rest of the time and never really picked up any other playable hands.
It's kind of sad when you can't even pick up a JTs to play, but that's how things have been going for me lately. I guess when you only play for 4 hours a week, a bad streak can last for months. My bankroll is still relatively healthy, but my confidence has taken a severe beating. I'd like to start getting back into playing online, but that almost certainly won't happen before the World Cup is over (and maybe not even then).
posted by the_real_zano at 1:09 PM
1 Comments:
no one told me that girls were playing now in the weekly game...is that what replaces me?
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