Thursday, January 19, 2006
Borgata, here I come...
"Best hand I had all night was pocket deuces... and they got cracked." - Russell
The above quote was offered by the first man out of our Monday night tournament and it was a gem. As usual I came in one to two spots out of the money on both Sunday and Monday night. I think if I ever get a pair above nines I might actually have a shot at these things. But that does mean that I have been playing some pretty good poker. Other than one particular hand. And in the interest of poker discussion I'll give it a rundown for the masses. Things to keep in mind: this hand had me in the running for donkey of the week honors until someone else swept in and put themselves in the running and I was heavily drugged and sick for most of the last week. Okay, excuses made, here we go:
You are "Hero" sitting at the 10-handed final table with a stack around 450 with blinds at 4-8. The table is actually full of legitimate pros and aggressive players, not the usual push with anything clowns. You look down and believe you see KQ diamonds and from middle position you raise to 30 after one EP limper. It folds around to a guy you know to be a solid player from reputation, but you've never played together. With a stack of 360, he smooth calls after taking a moment and the rest of the table folds. Pot size is 80.
Flop is Ad 8d 5d.
Hero leads out for 40, Player takes a moment and reraises to 130, Hero instantly moves all-in, Player instantly calls.
Players turns over AhJc and I turn over KhQd... WTF?!?!?!?!
(Note to self: self, please look closer at cards next time.)
Now, even though I've made a pretty gigantic gaffe, I still like my hand here. It unfortunately bricked out, but I'm very surprised by the other player. He's putting his tournament life on the line with top pair, mediocre kicker and no diamond. He has committed about half of his stack after his reraise but it still leaves him with 200 in chips at the 4-8 level, so he would hardly be crippled by folding.
He's behind so many hands here and even in my error he's still only a 3-2 favorite after the flop. I'm definitely an aggressive player but I'm not sure even I would commit all my money to his hand. He's getting like 1.6-1 odds on his money and risking getting knocked out and he in almost no situation can be that far ahead. Basically he ran into the best hand he could have hoped with all the money in the middle and was still barely ahead. I'm curious to see some others' takes on this.
Other than that, I've been mostly getting kicked in the junk playing heads up limit poker. I'm apparently on the wrong side of two things: variance and poker karma. I've not been able to start out a single session this week on a rush, instead I've been playing out of some huge holes as my opponents have been making their runner runners and 5 outers every time or just pummelling me by hitting every draw. But I've been happy with my ability to stick with the gameplan and make it back or mostly back many of the times I've been stuck. I'm still down on the week and a shorthanded 5-max session of NL broke my back last night. Playing some 2-2, I ran my stack up $150 in the first six minutes on some aggressive play and catching some good flops. Then in back to back hands I got AA and KK cracked and was down $50.
What can you do?
I'm excited as all hell for this trip. A whole lot of the crew from around here is going up to play in the first event or at least play for the weekend at the Borgata Winter Poker Open. Also I see that a nice contingent of poker bloggers is also heading there, so I'm looking forward to meeting some of the more "esteemed" members of the community this weekend. And I mean esteemed in the loosest of moral connotations by some of the stories I've read. Perfect.
So here's to hoping I have a great story or five to tell you all when I get back, or if I get a chance, a mid-trip report live from Atlantic City.
The above quote was offered by the first man out of our Monday night tournament and it was a gem. As usual I came in one to two spots out of the money on both Sunday and Monday night. I think if I ever get a pair above nines I might actually have a shot at these things. But that does mean that I have been playing some pretty good poker. Other than one particular hand. And in the interest of poker discussion I'll give it a rundown for the masses. Things to keep in mind: this hand had me in the running for donkey of the week honors until someone else swept in and put themselves in the running and I was heavily drugged and sick for most of the last week. Okay, excuses made, here we go:
You are "Hero" sitting at the 10-handed final table with a stack around 450 with blinds at 4-8. The table is actually full of legitimate pros and aggressive players, not the usual push with anything clowns. You look down and believe you see KQ diamonds and from middle position you raise to 30 after one EP limper. It folds around to a guy you know to be a solid player from reputation, but you've never played together. With a stack of 360, he smooth calls after taking a moment and the rest of the table folds. Pot size is 80.
Flop is Ad 8d 5d.
Hero leads out for 40, Player takes a moment and reraises to 130, Hero instantly moves all-in, Player instantly calls.
Players turns over AhJc and I turn over KhQd... WTF?!?!?!?!
(Note to self: self, please look closer at cards next time.)
Now, even though I've made a pretty gigantic gaffe, I still like my hand here. It unfortunately bricked out, but I'm very surprised by the other player. He's putting his tournament life on the line with top pair, mediocre kicker and no diamond. He has committed about half of his stack after his reraise but it still leaves him with 200 in chips at the 4-8 level, so he would hardly be crippled by folding.
He's behind so many hands here and even in my error he's still only a 3-2 favorite after the flop. I'm definitely an aggressive player but I'm not sure even I would commit all my money to his hand. He's getting like 1.6-1 odds on his money and risking getting knocked out and he in almost no situation can be that far ahead. Basically he ran into the best hand he could have hoped with all the money in the middle and was still barely ahead. I'm curious to see some others' takes on this.
Other than that, I've been mostly getting kicked in the junk playing heads up limit poker. I'm apparently on the wrong side of two things: variance and poker karma. I've not been able to start out a single session this week on a rush, instead I've been playing out of some huge holes as my opponents have been making their runner runners and 5 outers every time or just pummelling me by hitting every draw. But I've been happy with my ability to stick with the gameplan and make it back or mostly back many of the times I've been stuck. I'm still down on the week and a shorthanded 5-max session of NL broke my back last night. Playing some 2-2, I ran my stack up $150 in the first six minutes on some aggressive play and catching some good flops. Then in back to back hands I got AA and KK cracked and was down $50.
What can you do?
I'm excited as all hell for this trip. A whole lot of the crew from around here is going up to play in the first event or at least play for the weekend at the Borgata Winter Poker Open. Also I see that a nice contingent of poker bloggers is also heading there, so I'm looking forward to meeting some of the more "esteemed" members of the community this weekend. And I mean esteemed in the loosest of moral connotations by some of the stories I've read. Perfect.
So here's to hoping I have a great story or five to tell you all when I get back, or if I get a chance, a mid-trip report live from Atlantic City.
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