$1/2 NL - $100 max 10 seated.
UTG, I am dealt 10 ♦ - 9 ♦ . I limp for $2. Player next to me raises to $12. Action rolls back around to me. I call for $12, with $59 behind. My call makes the pot $72 preflop, as there are six callers. To give you background on the players involved, there are two short stacks, another stack similar in size to my own. Additionally, there are two stacks containing well over $300 and another with almost $200.
This table has been rather soft, as there has been little reraising prior to this, and the players - less one, are not tricky. Of course, the table often lacks "standards" in that hands such as A-9 offsuit have been raised and shown. Additionally, Q-9 is a regular "calling hand" here too. So, while I do not have any delusions that I'm the best, or even close preflop, my hand is "playable" at this table oop.
The flop delivers 7 ♦ , Jack ♦ and the King ♣ .
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The blinds check, as do I. My check was with the intentions of raising or calling. This is a great board for me, as I have eight outs to the flush. Additionally, I have three additional queens that can give me the straight, though not the nut straight. Speaking of nuts, three eights give me the nut straight and the 8 ♦ gives me the nut straight flush. In total, I have 15 outs, though some of them may make me second best. I'm ready to let a pot be built, then push.
The guy to my left continues with $20 into that $70 pot. There's a raise to all-in, followed by another raise to all-in. Two of the deep stacks call cleanly, one of the blinds fold and I move all-in as well. The initial better folds. The main pot now contains about $375.
Action does continue on the turn between the deep stacks, as the turn card is an 8 of ♣ . The two deep stacks end up all-in. The river brings me my eight of ♦ , though I already hit the nuts on the turn. But the straight flush on the river was a nice touch.
The hands shown were queens, King Jack, Queen Jack, and my 10-9. No one saw the straight on the board. The dealer, in fact, almost did not see it. They did call it a flush initially, I corrected saying it was a straight flush.
Now, in the interest of fairness, I had my ass handed to me in the next session, as I could not hit a set during the entire 18 hour session. In fact, I made some really really nice second besters that were great on the push, and bad on the come. That session was absoutely sick, and going to be mentioned no further here (for now, until my stomach settles).
Mike
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2007/07/08
| [+/-] |
How do you get away from this hand? |
2007/06/27
| [+/-] |
noteworthy live hands - hammer drop 1 |
Lots of live play for the Beerguy this week. Here's the highlight reel...
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Hand 1 - Charity tournament
Blinds - 50 - 100 10 ante 32 players started, 24 players remain... 8 handed, avg stack 2666
UTG (3500 chips) raises 2.5 times the blinds,
button calls (1700 chips),
I call from SB (4500 chips) with 2 ♠ 7 ♦
BB also calls (roughly 900 chips)
Pot contains: 1080
Flop comes: 2 ♣ 10 ♣ king ♥
Action:
I check, BB checks, utg bets out 500. Button folds. I suspect BB is going to either fold or go allin, so I raise to 1200 - which is enough to both cover him and not make it appear as if I'm trying to force him out. Additionally, I'm interested in seeing how the UTG plays this. He thinks and calls cleanly.
Pot contains: 3480
Turn card is the 7 of ♥
I check, being reasonablly certain he's going to bet here again - especially considering there are now two flush draws on the board, not to mention the straight draw. All of which have not been filled on the turn. My suspician is that he will bet here hoping for a fold.
He does in fact bet out, and bets 800. I again raise to put him all in. He postures and someone at the table mentions I'm playing the hammer. He thinks some more and says, "We're boys, he wouldn't drop the hammer on me." He concludes I'm either on a straight or flush draw, so he calls with top pair, ace kicker.
River's a blank and the hammer correctly holds up. I go on to finish fourth place...
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2007/01/26
| [+/-] |
Gobbo thoughts |
I had planned to maintain some sort of order for my Aussie memories postings. I'd like to skip ahead and talk about an individual I got to know a bit while in the land of Oz. I had what I consider the pleasure of meeting a young, up and coming poker player while in Australia named Jimmy Fricke. Jimmy had first been pointed out to me by Ryan Fisler, while we were in the Auckland, NZ airport. He mentioned something about Jimmy, PCA, Dave Williams and some sick hand. Later, at the Crown, Jerry had mentioned the same. Given the buzz surrounding this kid, I had to meet him.
Before I write any more, however, a few disclaimers...
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First, anything I write here is my thoughts... and my thoughts alone. They don't reflect the thoughts or ideas, to the best of my knowledge, of anyone else. Second, unless I specifically quote someone, consider that I am paraphrasing from my memory. Do not, in any way, shape or form consider this particular work to be an interview, a gossip column, nor something that I've quoted. This is simply my thoughts being spoken here at my Poker Pub Poker Blog.
One may wonder why I feel the urge to fly disclaimers like this on my own blog...
A friend pointed me in the direction of a two plus two thread that forced me to change things up just a bit, with respect to the ordering of my posts. Now, historically speaking, I've read two plus two from time to time, but I've steered clear of posting there. While I hold no ill will or feelings towards any individual or group there, I'm just not comfortable with the community there and do not find myself a good fit at that particular venue.
Anyway... to paraphrase the issue at hand, 2 incidents took place during or shortly after the Aussie Millions:
1. "Gobboboy" or Jimmy ended up in a big hand with "Shaniac" (whom I also met while in Oz). Shane got his money in while best and Jimmy improved, sealing the deal on the suckout with all the money in the center. Shane went to the rail, and Jimmy had made a comment, something along the lines of "ship it."
2. Jimmy was informally interviewed by a friend on his friend's blog, where he was openly critical of specific opponent's play.
Above issues aside, which for the record, that 2+2 thread has seemingly resolved itself. It was asserted that Jimmy came off sounding like a douchebag, and very disrespectful and maybe even as if he was "better than everyone else."
From what I saw of Jimmy, his ego is very much in check. He presented himself as a courtious, polite, and fun loving guy. He was definitely not "full of himself." In fact, for the effect he had on the majority of the players he encoutered and the onlooking "railbirds," I'd say he was quite humble - truth be told.
Hell, I spoke to him after his big day 1 - specifically in regards to the table where he sat next to "the croc" and had busted Wille Tan and Jack Lee in one hand. We discussed the reaction of both the players and the rail. It really seemed as if not one person at that table liked his playing style, his ruthless and seemingly blind aggression. To me, it seemed as if he had tilted the entire tournament and even people looking on were wanting to hop the rail, buy in and bust him.
It was truly an amazing reaction, especially considering that one of the players, right before the break had belittled Jimmy for making what he considered a "bad call" and was talking mad shit on him. When he knocked Willie and Jack out at once, you could sense the frustration on everyone's face. Suddenly, he has chips; not that he hasn't been raising havoc on the table before, but now... Now the monster is awake and well fed. Not one person was happy, be it player or rail bird.
I ask Jimmy what he thought about that, after day 1 is behind, and he laughs it off, claiming that's not at all how it was. "Really, you think so?" he asked.
I told him there was not a doubt in my mind. I applauded his composure, noting that as a 19 year old kid, let alone any man, he held himself very very well during the whole time I observed his play. "Wow", "Holy shit", and "Absolutely amazing" were pretty much the only three phrases that came to mind that would do any justice to what I witnessed.
I asked him how long after he takes this tourney down is it going to take for him to write his book. He laughed me off, citing that he's "really not that good" and that he can name off several others there that are far more qualified than he is to write a book.
We joked about a quote that had been rumoured around the poker room to one of the pokernews people, where he had been quoted as saying he was going to win the tournament, from what he's has seen of the level of competition down here. We laughed together and made a few joking comments, and then he brought it home and said something along the lines of "no, seriously, there's a lot of good players left and still a long way to go." He also cited, "but I have been practicing for Australia. I like the outback, which is Australian" implying he feels comfortable in his "native environment."
Again, all the while; a fun loving, joking, yet humble tone.
I continued to follow Jimmy throughout the tournament. His second place finish was surely something special in my opinion. He seemed to really enjoy what he was doing, but not at the expense of others (from what I observed).
I strongly suspect I was not the only one who felt this way. It seemed that a few of the people on the rail who were at first jeering the kid were now 100% behind him, supporting him all the way. To some people, Scott and Lenora in particular, he came off very polite, well mannered, and as a great all-around guy!
After his second place finish, I bumped into one of Jimmy's friends at the after party. I was hoping Jimmy would be making an appearance. I had previously been willing to bet he'd show, even if for only ten to fifteen minutes. He in fact did. We went and found him, I shook his hand, gave him mad props and made sure he knew he had so much to be proud of. Then I asked for a picture with him. When I first went to Oz, I had said the only picture I wanted of me and any of the pros was with the Fossilman. Now Gobboboy joined those ranks.
I have the utmost respect for Jimmy Fricke as a player and a person. The sky's the limit, my friend. Keep on smilin, and keep on raising!
Mike
--- Said photo will be posted as soon as my data cable returns from Australia.
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2006/12/22
| [+/-] |
Un-fing-believable... |
I am still sitting here, roughly 12 hours removed from that horrible beating... totally in disbelief. 1 word... un-fing-believable! Look, forget in the last post I said one of six cards would help me. I know it was five cards... That's not the point.
The point is, well... the point is... Look, I should not EVER lose with the hammer when I drop it, period. And now that I have... well, I guess now I have to question everything I once believed to be real. Thanks Mitch! Thanks for the wake up call...
No advertisments today, in mourning of the BeerGuy's hammer drop gone wrong...
The two-fing-seven offsuit is supposed to be the strongest hand in poker. And in the interest of fairness, I've never went to a showdown with the hammer and lost with it. I can really only conclude that live poker is rigged. I mean how else do you explain such a beating? Mitch had to have had access to the algorhythm or something in the human shuffler. Or maybe the dealer was giving him signals. Mitch was the host, after all. Or maybe it was a pocket cam that he had access to?
Even so, I'd think that between my playing the strongest hand in poker AND I've not even mentioned Chuck F'ing Norris was protecting my chips. Sure, Mitch had a ninja... big deal. Everyone knows Norris trumps Ninja, period...
So, what next? Where do I go from here? I mean, next thing you're gonna tell me is that some things do actually occur 90% of the time... or or or... that the US is going to be the only country still not on the metric system, right?
I know, you're gonna say that people are going to sell their poker blogs and turn them into... nah, that's just ridiculous. No one sells their poker blogs.
All I know is that I've not lost with the hammer since the modern sack era of football ever! And now that I have... well, I guess I have to re-learn the game of hold'em, because what I once believed to be true now no longer is. So, I guess I'm a newbie here... I'm going to have to teach myself to play all over again. Start from scratch, if you will...
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to train between now and "the big game" (Blogger Poker Tour Grand Final - Saturday 3pm --- pregame begins at 5pm Moscow Time - happy hour). And, unlike Mitch, I'm a true athlete and won't juice up to enhance my performance on the felt. So, I guess the Grand Final is the place! I'm gonna learn to play all over again, and what a great training ground that will be. 19 quality players and the new guy. I wonder if I'll have beginner's luck?
Until then...
Mike
Related Posts
We're in uncharted waters here... the hammer lost... nothing relates.
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2006/12/11
| [+/-] |
Didn't you say...? What the...? |
Yes, I said live casino report... twice, as a matter of fact... "So, where's the reports, right? I know, you must be a losing player... otherwise, you'd freely report on the games."
Actually, I did go 0 for 2 this past week. However, sad to disappoint, I did not have losing sessions. I had no sessions at all, as a matter of fact. (More after the break).
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This past week - one "bad beat" after another... but wait a minute, I do not believe in bad beats, only bad plays... Fair enough - two "misplayed hands" this week cost me live play.
First, the charity game and soccer night were one in the same. That left Tuesday open for me to do whatever I choose. I naturally chose to make a casino run. For a few weeks now, I've seen this bus leave from a shopping center up the road a bit. So, on Tuesday, I set the alarm, grabbed the bankroll and pushed north to hit the bus.
I board the bus and find out that we're heading to a smaller casino than the one I normally frequent when I play live. No worries though, as they do in fact have a poker room. I get there, only to find out that the card room is empty/closed. Additionally, when I start asking around, it seems that no one working during the day can tell me anything about their card room. It seems that I sit for five hours watching everyone play bingo and that ends my poorly played hand. No worries though, Saturday I am planning to go up too!
Saturday rolls around and the actor and I pack up for a 14 hour session. Our plan was to get there by noon and stay until 4am or we had no opposition, whichever came first. I considered shutting my phone off as soon as I got in the car, as I did not wish for anything to distract or de-rail my mission.
We talk strategy on the way up, passing the time in a productive manner. Five minutes prior to arrival at the casino, I hear this ever so eerie noise. For those who don't know, when my telephone rings, I have the theme song from the movie Halloween, so when I say eerie noise, I mean it.
I look down and mention to the actor that he's calling me. Of course, his house would not be calling unless it was an emergency. Sparing details, there was an "incident" and we had to turn around and head for home. Again, no live play.
I did manage to play at "the host's" house Sunday for a special edition of the "monthly game." We played .05/.10 NL for about 5 hours. We played at a full table, I was in the hole until the last hand, which I dug myself out of. I was at about a 55-60% saw flop rate. Of course, this table did not have the ideal players to implement that strategy, but no matter... I just wanted to have fun, throw some chips around and play... And play I did. I donked around and sucked out on the last hand to recoup nearly all my losses.
Charity game is tonight on the home front. CheckRayz League at Bugsy's Club on the virtual felt. I'm still looking into the answer about how leaderboard points are awarded, so as soon as I have that info, I shall pass it along to all of you.
Have a great day...
Mike
Related Posts
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2006/10/16
| [+/-] |
Heads up poker tournament |
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Some of you may know that in addition to running the CheckRayz Poker site, and doing my best to provide a quality poker blog primarily on the world of online poker, I also run a small weekly poker game for a local charity. The weekend, we held a heads up tournament. Normally, my tourneys were typical NL Texas hold'em tourneys with the standard blind clock, 1000 chips, etc. Nothing "spectacular," except that I guarantee that the experience, the feel of the game, and the atmosphere of the game is by far the best one will get without driving at least two hours.
Beerguy note: if you're looking for poker content, and believe you'd become bored by this tourney logistics stuff, skip down to where I have the heading "poker stuff."
Enough tooting my own horn, as I am already drifting off topic. Anyway, my initial point was that I have experience and know what I am doing running these traditional tourneys and can calculate or "plan" the length of game based on the blinds, so that I can tell people with great certainty that if they "go the distance" they'll be here until roughly 8.15pm, give or take thirty minutes. The reason I could do such a thing is because the blinds are structured, and when blinds get to a certain level based on the starting chip count AND providing they proress in a natural manner, you can know that the tourney should finish plus or minus one level from the "target point." Thus, I can "plan" to hold a game that lasts almost exactly three hours every week. I can tell players that with certainty, and then look all smart-like when it comes to pass. With these heads up tournaments, I can make no such promise.
Anyway, we have ten players show up. I wanted 32 players, but would have been content with 16. Based on the feedback I received, the start time was an issue (we started on a Saturday at noon, as opposed to early Sunday Evening). Additionally, this tournament was a two day committment. I planned to play down to four players on Saturday, and run the finals on Sunday. The initial problem was how do I play down to the final four with ten players? I thought it through, and it made most sense to break into two groups of five, where we'd hold a round robin style of tournament. Each player in the group played all the other players once. This gave everyone four heads up poker matches. The top two in each group would advance to the knockout phase to compete for the prize money.
Easy enough, right? Well, initially it seemingly made sense, at the very least. And it worked in my bracket. In fact, two of us finished exactly 3-1. I was 3-0 going into the match, my opposition was 2-1. She beat me, and we both went through. She was the top seed from our group and I was number 2. I matched up against the top from bracket B, who went undefeated.
Here's where logistically things broke down. One player went through in bracket B, one player went home. Three players were tied record-wise in second place. Additionally, it turned out that none of them obtained both wins against one another, so we had to "play off" for that second spot in their group. We'd been playing for about 8 hours by the time we got to this stage, so everyone agreed to play at noon on Sunday.
Of course, considering it was a heads up tourney, I felt it was most appropriate to have heads up matches to decide their fate. Yea, bad idea... Wouldn't you know, they again failed to take care of their business. So, they decided to play a three way poker tourney to decide who went through. "The actor" finally ended up advancing and we were able to play the tournament out.
Poker Stuff
So play begins - best two out of three matches to move on. It should be noted that my opposition has won the last four poker tournaments he has played in. I'm not sure how much of that is due to skill, however, I will start out by saying that while he's not as good as he believes he is, he's surely not nearly as bad a poker player as I believed him to be.
During the first match, I was making him very uneasy, it seemed. I had my head propped up on my arm, leaning on the table, almost appearing to look up at him. He believed that I was studying him, eyeing him up. In reality, however, someone may have had too much to drink the night before still been slightly drunk from the night before. Because he thought I was watching him, I figured that anytime he moved unnaturally, with a jerking reaction, or seemingly forced movement, he was "acting." Said another way, his play meant the opposite of what he was trying to make it seem to indicate (strong means weak, weak means strong). In these situations, I would make laydowns even though I had sufficient odds to call. I would compensate for throwing hands like low pair low kicker away (with odds to call/continue) by re-raising him when I believed him to be weak. I'd reserve the right to do this with both my stronger and weaker hand ranges, as they related to the board.
This strategy panned out well for me. Our starting chip counts were 5000 each. By round nine, with blinds going up every five minutes, we were beginning to feel stressed. Twice during this match did I need to mount a comeback. I had him on draws three times, of which he hit once, nearly crippling me. The other two times, I had him on draws I knew he couldn't let go, and I got all-in with the better hand/draw, and held up. My reads on him were seemingly dead on during the first match. After crippling him when his flush did not complete (note: i too was on a flush draw and a straight draw), he got allin with 5-5 vs my 10-10. My tens held up and I took down the first match.
Up 1-0, he now surely believed I would begin to get aggressive and go for the kill early. I figured, with blinds reset, that when I saw JJ in the first hand, I'd raise big, he'd think steal and he'd chase. Didn't happen. Can't blame a brotha for trying though. Hand two he raises, I fold. Hand three, I'm dealt 4-7 suited. The flop comes 10-10-4. I throw out a half pot bet. He raises and I reraise slightly. He calls. I have him, at this point "probably" on a four, "maybe" on an ace or king, and "possibly" on a ten - based on his play. The turn inflicts another ten onto the board. I bet 1/4 the pot, he throws out a pot sized raise, which I call cleanly. Now, I have him on "most likely" an ace, king, or four. I decided that he doesn't have what is now "the ten." At no time do I put him on a pocket pair, as it's highly unlikely he'd not have raised pre-flop with a PP, especially this early in the tourney, as this went against his "logic."
River delivers a three. So, assuming I am correct, and he doesn't have a PP, I do have the nut full house. The only other card that's not a ten or a four is the three. He either has an ace, a king or a four. He checks, and does so fairly certain that I am going to bet, which of course I overlook. I bet slightly, just something he'd be comfortable calling with his ace or king, but suspicious enough to make it possibly seem like I may be better than board. He raises to allin. I become irritated now because I am certain he has a four and know that he does not have "the ten" because "he couldn't possibly have the ten." I call his allin, only to find that ten... you know, the one he "couldn't possibly have."
So, that's right... three hands into the first blind level, I am 1-1. And of course, the words, "Judith, I will never go out in round one of a tourney because I don't get allin without the absolute nuts" and the words "everytime I think so and so cannot have something, they do... because they can" all come to mind.
You read me correctly if you have me on tilt right about now... and of course, I play like I am on tilt for the opening two rounds of the third game. I drop chips and then win them back. I have a 6000-4000 lead when the following hand took place, which is a derivitive of my favorite situation and most profitable situations. It played out as follows:
I'm dealt Queen seven, both of hearts. I called a preflop raise of 3x the blinds (blinds are 50/100). The flop comes king of hearts, seven of clubs, two of hearts. So, I have a flush draw, the hammer draw (everyone knows my obsession for the hammer in our weekly crew, despite not having dropped it in nearly three months), and I have middle pair. I love pushing on middle pair, flush draw, however, ideally I like to have one overcard to the board, which I do not have. This overcard is usually a clean three outs if I need them. Usually, I do need to improve to win, as it's quite often two pair or TPTK that falls into "the move."
Anyway, he bets into me, suggesting he has top pair. I think about it and reraise... hard. I am certain that if he has top pair, he'll lay down anything that is not a decent kicker, thinking I may have him outkicked. Additionally, he'd lay down any hand that did not contain at least one heart. Odds are, he'll lay down about 50-60% of the time in my mind. Of the 40-50% of the time he doesn't lay it down, I'll win this roughly half the time. So, I am winning money here roughly 75% of the time. He makes the call, turning over king ten not suited. I do not catch on the turn or river. We're down to 8000-2000 now, going in his favor.
I make a few steals preflop, working back to 7-3. We teeter back and forth for quite some time. Blinds end up at 400-800. I have exactly 4950 chips, he has 5050 chips. I push allin, holding the gap tooth whore, who is dressed as if she's going clubbing (Qc9c). He thinks it over and decides to make the call, even though he indicates he believes he is behind. He knows this is the tourney on the line. I feel kicked in the stomach when he flips over Qd10d. Ouch. He's winning this 70% of the time. Fortunately for me though, the nagging slut hand of mine was determined to go clubbing, as we flopped ourselves the nut flush, with the ace and king of clubs hit the board with the matching seven of clubs. His tourney hope is shattered when the redundant cards hit the turn and river. Two forced allins later, he's eliminated after one hell of a battle.
We ended up splitting the main prize, as there was entirely too much football on and we'd played a combined 12-14 hours over the last two days. My opposition was quite fatigued, as her game lasted 20 more minutes than ours did. She asked for a split, and I had no problem delivering. Overall, it was a great tournament. I'd conduct it a bit differently in the future, but no complaints from this guy now.
Mike