Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Wait for it...
You may need to sit down.
This post... is about poker.
There hasn't been a whole lot of it in my life lately, but last week I finally made it out to a weekly tournament series one of the local bars is hosting. Fifty six players get seated every week and the winner gets a prize. At the end the sixteen weekly winners and top forty point winners behind them get into a final freeroll and the winner gets a trip to AC and some spending money. Not too shabby for some free poker.
A few guys I play with also showed up but it was a pretty random gathering and I was unsure of what to expect. You start out with T950 and blinds at 25/50 for 45 minutes. I love the initial structure but it continued as follows: 50/100 (45 mins), 100/200 (45 mins), 200/400 (45 mins), 400/800 (30 mins), 800/1600 (30 mins), 1600/3200 (30 mins), etc. By the last few levels poker was over and it was a shoving match.
As seems to be the case in my tournament game as of late, good cards came early and awful cards came late. The first table I sat at, I didn't know anyone. I picked up 69 of spades in the big blind and saw the flop for "free", flopping an open end straight draw (OESD) and a flush draw. It checked around to me, I bet at it and got one caller. Same thing on the turn and I finally moved him off on the river after completely missing everything.
A couple hands later I picked up pocket fours in a four handed pot and flopped a four on a queen high board. I was first to act and led out, got raised and when the action moved back around to me, I reraised him. He moved all-in after thinking for a few minutes and when I called he turned over Q4 for top and bottom pair. Now I've basically doubled up in the first ten minutes. I picked up Kings the very next hand but only got action from a short stack who had just gotten demolished by pocket Kings a couple hands earlier, leaving her with only 200 in chips.
I have the big stack at the table but there's another player with enough chips for me to be wary of. I pick up K6 of spades in the cutoff and decide to try and bully the table a little when two people limp in in front of me, so I raise it up to T200. I get called by both limpers and the big blind, so I'm pretty much ready to pitch my hand after the flop when it comes down: 6... 6... K. Yahtzee! Big blind checks, first limper bets 300 and the second limper raises to 600. I try to decide what to do for a minute as I'm pretty sure I can get the raiser all-in with me but no clue what the other guys might do. I decide to reraise him all-in, they both fold and the raiser calls his final 800 in, turning over AK. He was none too pleased with my hand. He didn't get any miracle cards and went away on mega-tilt.
Little did I know how much he would help me because he basically went around the bar to all his friends still playing for the next thirty minutes telling everyone what a horrible player I was, staying in with a K6. Nothing important came my way for a while, but I was able to pick up pots here and there from players who I now know were thinking I was playing K6 every hand. In the middle levels I got my money in to knock shortstacks out three times, each time with the best hand, and each time I got rivered. So I basically stayed stagnant and all the money ended up on my table. The top four stacks out of about 26 remaining players were all at the same table. The last big hand of the night for me came with 10 people left when I got K6 of spades in the big blind. The small blind minimum raised to 3200, and with two other people in the pot also, I took a shot and called his raise, and they both did as well. The guy had been raising with some crazy hands all night trying to knock people out, so I certainly felt I could be ahead. The flop came out Q 10 6 with two spades and he immediately moved all-in for his remaining 2000 in chips. I called, the other two folded, and he turned over 45 offsuit... caught him in a stone cold bluff. K6 of spades was very, very good to me that night, and I took down my last big pot of the night.
I then went pretty much card dead as the blinds rocketed up. I managed my stack and made it to fourth before I finally got blinded into a bad situation and didn't get lucky. 4th out of 56 though, I'm not too disappointed. I felt like I played very well the entire night. I never made a single mistake which felt nice. I just didn't get cards when I needed them at the end, and the blind structure forced my hand in a couple situations where I probably wouldn't have played otherwise.
Hopefully tomorrow will go as well and I can post yet another poker related topic.
This post... is about poker.
There hasn't been a whole lot of it in my life lately, but last week I finally made it out to a weekly tournament series one of the local bars is hosting. Fifty six players get seated every week and the winner gets a prize. At the end the sixteen weekly winners and top forty point winners behind them get into a final freeroll and the winner gets a trip to AC and some spending money. Not too shabby for some free poker.
A few guys I play with also showed up but it was a pretty random gathering and I was unsure of what to expect. You start out with T950 and blinds at 25/50 for 45 minutes. I love the initial structure but it continued as follows: 50/100 (45 mins), 100/200 (45 mins), 200/400 (45 mins), 400/800 (30 mins), 800/1600 (30 mins), 1600/3200 (30 mins), etc. By the last few levels poker was over and it was a shoving match.
As seems to be the case in my tournament game as of late, good cards came early and awful cards came late. The first table I sat at, I didn't know anyone. I picked up 69 of spades in the big blind and saw the flop for "free", flopping an open end straight draw (OESD) and a flush draw. It checked around to me, I bet at it and got one caller. Same thing on the turn and I finally moved him off on the river after completely missing everything.
A couple hands later I picked up pocket fours in a four handed pot and flopped a four on a queen high board. I was first to act and led out, got raised and when the action moved back around to me, I reraised him. He moved all-in after thinking for a few minutes and when I called he turned over Q4 for top and bottom pair. Now I've basically doubled up in the first ten minutes. I picked up Kings the very next hand but only got action from a short stack who had just gotten demolished by pocket Kings a couple hands earlier, leaving her with only 200 in chips.
I have the big stack at the table but there's another player with enough chips for me to be wary of. I pick up K6 of spades in the cutoff and decide to try and bully the table a little when two people limp in in front of me, so I raise it up to T200. I get called by both limpers and the big blind, so I'm pretty much ready to pitch my hand after the flop when it comes down: 6... 6... K. Yahtzee! Big blind checks, first limper bets 300 and the second limper raises to 600. I try to decide what to do for a minute as I'm pretty sure I can get the raiser all-in with me but no clue what the other guys might do. I decide to reraise him all-in, they both fold and the raiser calls his final 800 in, turning over AK. He was none too pleased with my hand. He didn't get any miracle cards and went away on mega-tilt.
Little did I know how much he would help me because he basically went around the bar to all his friends still playing for the next thirty minutes telling everyone what a horrible player I was, staying in with a K6. Nothing important came my way for a while, but I was able to pick up pots here and there from players who I now know were thinking I was playing K6 every hand. In the middle levels I got my money in to knock shortstacks out three times, each time with the best hand, and each time I got rivered. So I basically stayed stagnant and all the money ended up on my table. The top four stacks out of about 26 remaining players were all at the same table. The last big hand of the night for me came with 10 people left when I got K6 of spades in the big blind. The small blind minimum raised to 3200, and with two other people in the pot also, I took a shot and called his raise, and they both did as well. The guy had been raising with some crazy hands all night trying to knock people out, so I certainly felt I could be ahead. The flop came out Q 10 6 with two spades and he immediately moved all-in for his remaining 2000 in chips. I called, the other two folded, and he turned over 45 offsuit... caught him in a stone cold bluff. K6 of spades was very, very good to me that night, and I took down my last big pot of the night.
I then went pretty much card dead as the blinds rocketed up. I managed my stack and made it to fourth before I finally got blinded into a bad situation and didn't get lucky. 4th out of 56 though, I'm not too disappointed. I felt like I played very well the entire night. I never made a single mistake which felt nice. I just didn't get cards when I needed them at the end, and the blind structure forced my hand in a couple situations where I probably wouldn't have played otherwise.
Hopefully tomorrow will go as well and I can post yet another poker related topic.
