i passed In 'N Out while i was in vegas. mmmmmmm..........double double. i didn't eat there though.
i did, however, play 2/5 NL cash at the venetian. was up $760 after a 5 hour session. i'm happy with how i played and i obviously hit some hands in there. i played 1/2 NL for about 20 minutes waiting for my 2/5 seat and lost about $100 there. a guy slow played aces when i hit top pair, he milked the whole way. sometimes it's harder to play well against bad players. there was a girl at the table who was very blatant in stating that it was her first time playing and that she was a donator. at least she wasn't lying. she kept getting another $100 from her boyfriend and losing it in about 15 minutes. she was a good sport though.
when i made it to 2/5, i used my initially tight image well and picked up some nice pots with marginal hands. one nice hand that has to make the blog cut is AQ. i raised a couple of limpers to $25 in late position and got 3 callers including one of the blinds. the flop was Q high and one of the limpers bet $80 into $100. i made it $185. he reluctantly called. i was sure i was good now, unless he was hollywooding me. the turn bricked. the only draw was a heart draw on the flop. i pushed all in having him covered and he called for about $150 more after some thought. sweet sweet words then came out of his mouth: "i need some help". what a beautiful phrase that is. the river was the Ad and his pair of Qs with a flush draw was no good.
i later flopped a full house with AA after i got 1 caller on my preflop re-raise from the small blind. i got 1 continuation bet out of him, but he was a pretty decent player and didn't double barrel it. he folded to my river value bet.
the last big hand i played was fairly brutal. i flopped bottom set of 4s on a 3 club board. i lead out from early position, a short stack went all in, and another guy called! i called being pretty sure i needed to improve. i checked the Kd on the turn and the other active player made a relatively small bet of $115. this screamed value bet from him, cuz i knew he played vulnerable hands very fast. i had outs and there was a chance i was good, so i called. the river was the Ac, putting 4 clubs on board and not pairing board. oh well, can't win them all. i folded to his value bet and he showed KcJc for the nuts. the other player had AA and had made a set of Aces on the river.
after my meeting, i had another chance to get in a short session and quickly was up $400. it helps to flop the nuts. i called a raise in late position with Ac4c and flopped the nut flush on a king high board. the initial raiser made a nice bet on the flop and i just called, hoping the other two in the pot would come along. they folded. on the turn, the raiser pushed all in, and i had to check my hole cards just to make sure i still had the nuts. "i have the nuts, i call." he missed his boat on the river after flopping a set of Ks for a nice pot for me.
soon thereafter i raised with AQ in late position and got 1 caller. i three barreled it making a pretty substantial bet on the river when he had check called every other street. he obviously had me beat with at least 1 pair, but the board was 10 high and i had represented pretty well. i made him feel good about the laydown though.
i lost a big hand in a re-raised heads up pot with JJ when the flop was K high. he check called the 2 spade flop. i didn't think he had a very strong hand. possibly a pair below Jacks. the turn was a third spade and he checked again. nice trap buddy. i pushed and he called with the nut flush, AsJs. he was such a dog preflop too. oh well, good catch buddy.
i won back just a little bit over the next hour before my i had to leave for my plane and left dead even on the session for the day. a bit frustrating after being up a buyin early, but overall the trip went well. i raced around trying to find the newly relocated rental car center (nice lack of signage Vegas!!) and ran into the airport, only to find my flight had been delayed.
PS they have a pretty talented HR manager for the poker room's cocktail staff. pretty talented indeed.
Friday, September 7, 2007
syndicate event #4
still awaiting my noise making for the syndicate series. it didn't happen this time.
i flopped a set of kings early on in a raised pot and bet about 5/6 of the pot on flop vs. 1 opponent. he check-called. the flop was AKJ with 2 spades. the turn was an offsuit Q. he checked, i bet for value and to protect against the flush draw and he raised. i had a strong feeling i was beat, but i had outs, so i called. maybe he had made 2 pair with AQ or had been slowplaying AJ or even pocket Js. now i had about half my chips in the pot.
the river was a brick and he checked. i checked behind and he showed down 9c10c for broadway. when you make a speculative call on the flop like that and then hit your hand, why not bet on the river with the nuts? anyway, i got off relatively cheap, but still expensive in that i lost about half my stack on the hand.
i chipped down with AK after folding to a raise on the flop following my continuation bet with air. damn that hand. i should have either checked or moved all in on the flop based on my stack size relative to the pot. that was a mistake. i think part of the problem was that i felt like a stick of butter in a frying pan. i think that day was the hottest day of the year and that living room is like a heat sink. at least 10-15 hotter inside than out.
i got eliminated when i had 22 on the button with 2 limpers in the pot ahead of me. i moved in as i still had some fold equity but was fairly short stacked and the blinds were about to go up. mark in the BB called my all-in then the cutoff, who had limped, immediately moved in himself. mark had very few chips left and ended up folding after i had completely melted in the pan. the cutoff had AA and mark showed JJ as he folded. he would have spiked his J, but i had no such luck and the AA held. with a limper in the pot, i have never seen anybody limp with AA in the cutoff seat. an invitation to disaster in my mind.
i actually was semi-relieved to get knocked out as i was in my board shorts and into the pool in about 30 seconds flat. wow -- that was about the most refreshing feeling i have ever had after being on a slow brain simmer all day.
i flopped a set of kings early on in a raised pot and bet about 5/6 of the pot on flop vs. 1 opponent. he check-called. the flop was AKJ with 2 spades. the turn was an offsuit Q. he checked, i bet for value and to protect against the flush draw and he raised. i had a strong feeling i was beat, but i had outs, so i called. maybe he had made 2 pair with AQ or had been slowplaying AJ or even pocket Js. now i had about half my chips in the pot.
the river was a brick and he checked. i checked behind and he showed down 9c10c for broadway. when you make a speculative call on the flop like that and then hit your hand, why not bet on the river with the nuts? anyway, i got off relatively cheap, but still expensive in that i lost about half my stack on the hand.
i chipped down with AK after folding to a raise on the flop following my continuation bet with air. damn that hand. i should have either checked or moved all in on the flop based on my stack size relative to the pot. that was a mistake. i think part of the problem was that i felt like a stick of butter in a frying pan. i think that day was the hottest day of the year and that living room is like a heat sink. at least 10-15 hotter inside than out.
i got eliminated when i had 22 on the button with 2 limpers in the pot ahead of me. i moved in as i still had some fold equity but was fairly short stacked and the blinds were about to go up. mark in the BB called my all-in then the cutoff, who had limped, immediately moved in himself. mark had very few chips left and ended up folding after i had completely melted in the pan. the cutoff had AA and mark showed JJ as he folded. he would have spiked his J, but i had no such luck and the AA held. with a limper in the pot, i have never seen anybody limp with AA in the cutoff seat. an invitation to disaster in my mind.
i actually was semi-relieved to get knocked out as i was in my board shorts and into the pool in about 30 seconds flat. wow -- that was about the most refreshing feeling i have ever had after being on a slow brain simmer all day.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
small loss to start sept
just a couple of hands tend to make the difference. i flopped top pair with an open end straight draw and got check raised all in by a short stack, i had to call, and bricked out. her top pair, better kicker won the pot.
i raised from the small blind to $22 with QQ and was called in 2 spots. the flop was 9 high and i bet the pot. the big blind went all in for only $26 more, then another player called his bet! wow, this seems like an easy laydown with 1 pair, but for the odds i was getting (call $26 more into a pot of almost $300), i couldn't bring myself to fold. maybe i hit my miracle Q, or running straight cards. anyway, the big blind had flopped 2 little pair and the caller had flopped an open end straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. his straight came on the turn and i was drawing dead. this kid that took down the pot was a serious moron too, which made losing the pot so much more painful. he just wouldn't shut his chatty kathy ass up about the hand and why he called pre-flop and why he called on the flop, and how he thought i had an overpair, blah blah blah. i thought to myself, next time in the blinds, i'm bumping to $30 or $35.
i then proceeded to pick up some nice pairs and get little to no action with JJ, JJ, and AA.
i flopped a set of 3s in an unraised pot and somehow got it all in on the flop. the flop was A-3-6 with 2 diamonds. the small blind led for $15, player b called, i made it $40. the small blind called my raise, then player b went all in for another $65 on top of my raise. i raised his bet to $150, and the small blind shipped them in over the top of me. if i was beat, so beit, but i can't fold a set here. the small blind must have thought i was raising with a diamond draw. the small blind had me covered, so i'm all in for the main pot and all in for the side pot as well. winning this pot outright puts me back even for the night. i guess player b thought it was a tournament, cuz he flipped his hand over immediately once we were all in. he held AdJd for top pair with the nut flush draw. ok, i'm still a big favorite as his trips and 2 pair cards are dead (barring some crazy runner runner), he has 9 clean outs twice, so i'm a 70% favorite or so. wasn't sure what the small blind held yet. the turn is a 7s, which isn't a complete brick as 4-5 got there, but i'm not too unhappy with it. and the river......4d. those several big hands in a night make the difference, but i knew i played it right.
the small blind showed AQ (both black cards) for pretty much dead money in the pot on the flop. my set won the side pot, which gave me a modest profit on the hand. okay, but not exactly what i was looking for.
so i was down 2/3 of a buyin on the session. not too terrible considering how my big hands played out.
i raised from the small blind to $22 with QQ and was called in 2 spots. the flop was 9 high and i bet the pot. the big blind went all in for only $26 more, then another player called his bet! wow, this seems like an easy laydown with 1 pair, but for the odds i was getting (call $26 more into a pot of almost $300), i couldn't bring myself to fold. maybe i hit my miracle Q, or running straight cards. anyway, the big blind had flopped 2 little pair and the caller had flopped an open end straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. his straight came on the turn and i was drawing dead. this kid that took down the pot was a serious moron too, which made losing the pot so much more painful. he just wouldn't shut his chatty kathy ass up about the hand and why he called pre-flop and why he called on the flop, and how he thought i had an overpair, blah blah blah. i thought to myself, next time in the blinds, i'm bumping to $30 or $35.
i then proceeded to pick up some nice pairs and get little to no action with JJ, JJ, and AA.
i flopped a set of 3s in an unraised pot and somehow got it all in on the flop. the flop was A-3-6 with 2 diamonds. the small blind led for $15, player b called, i made it $40. the small blind called my raise, then player b went all in for another $65 on top of my raise. i raised his bet to $150, and the small blind shipped them in over the top of me. if i was beat, so beit, but i can't fold a set here. the small blind must have thought i was raising with a diamond draw. the small blind had me covered, so i'm all in for the main pot and all in for the side pot as well. winning this pot outright puts me back even for the night. i guess player b thought it was a tournament, cuz he flipped his hand over immediately once we were all in. he held AdJd for top pair with the nut flush draw. ok, i'm still a big favorite as his trips and 2 pair cards are dead (barring some crazy runner runner), he has 9 clean outs twice, so i'm a 70% favorite or so. wasn't sure what the small blind held yet. the turn is a 7s, which isn't a complete brick as 4-5 got there, but i'm not too unhappy with it. and the river......4d. those several big hands in a night make the difference, but i knew i played it right.
the small blind showed AQ (both black cards) for pretty much dead money in the pot on the flop. my set won the side pot, which gave me a modest profit on the hand. okay, but not exactly what i was looking for.
so i was down 2/3 of a buyin on the session. not too terrible considering how my big hands played out.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
August by the numbers
i see on-line players measure their win rates in poker tracker big blinds / 100 hands ("ptbb/100"). poker tracker (a software package that helps track everything about playing poker on line) apparently calculates a win (or loss) rate using limit holdem "big bets" per 100 hands. in limit holdem, the big bet (on the turn and river) are twice the big blind. so the units equte to 2 big blinds / 100 hands.
i am tracking dollars won and hours played, but was able to do a couple of quick calculations to gauge my results.
i played 106.5 hours of live games. if we guestimate about 35 hands / hour dealt in a typical live game (that would be 17-18 hands per dealer "down"), that makes a total of about 3727 hands played. assuming a big blind of $3 (i played 1 session in a 3/5 NL game and 1 session of 2/2), my win rate works out to +63.5 big blinds / 100 hands = +32 poker tracker big bets / 100.
or in non on-line terms 21 big blinds / hour.
i know 3700 hands is not a big enough sample size to really conclude anything, but i'm happy where i'm headed.
[any of you live cash game players: how many hands do you think are dealt in an hour on average?]
i am tracking dollars won and hours played, but was able to do a couple of quick calculations to gauge my results.
i played 106.5 hours of live games. if we guestimate about 35 hands / hour dealt in a typical live game (that would be 17-18 hands per dealer "down"), that makes a total of about 3727 hands played. assuming a big blind of $3 (i played 1 session in a 3/5 NL game and 1 session of 2/2), my win rate works out to +63.5 big blinds / 100 hands = +32 poker tracker big bets / 100.
or in non on-line terms 21 big blinds / hour.
i know 3700 hands is not a big enough sample size to really conclude anything, but i'm happy where i'm headed.
[any of you live cash game players: how many hands do you think are dealt in an hour on average?]
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