Sunday, September 20, 2009
Power Play
(20/40 Limit Hold 'Em @ Diamond Lil's)
I wish I could say the hero of this hand was me, but it wasn't. I mucked preflop, and was just an observer. The hero was kid named Caine, or Cain, or Kane; I'm not sure. But, hey, let's just call him The Man. He earned it.
And the other guy I'll call Coffee, as that's close to what they call him, and I'm not sure quite what his name really is, or how it's spelled. An older gent, though not quite so old and decrepit as me, and I'd guess he comes originally from someplace East of Italy, and West of India. Kind of a Groucho Marx look, wire rim glasses, thinning hair combed straight back. Nice dresser. Big talker, even though he never seems to say anything meaningful. He did say he's an engineer and works for some Chinese company in Texas. Or something.
Coffee is a wildman. Plays 80% of his starting hands, marathon sessions, cold calls 2, 3 or 4 bets with anything, gives up his blinds, well, never, and makes some of the wackiest bets, raises, and even FOLDS, that you ever saw. He's one of those few opponents where I have to pass on that concept of "trying to get inside the other guy's head," because, well, this guy is out there where the busses don't even run.
He's also kind of a PITA (Pain in the Ass), because the dealer always has to tell him when it's his turn to act. If he's talking to a waitress, or masseuse, or on the phone, or buying chips, or stacking a pot, or babbling on to nobody in particular about why he did what he did on the last hand, or scratching his ass.... WHATEVER, the action stops dead when it reaches him, and he needs to be prompted to act. Often more than once. And he always seems to be doing one of those things at those moments, and tends more to keep doing it, wants to finish, before finally acting on his hand. Somebody probably woulda killed this guy by now, if he weren't such a Producer.
He likes to get the $1/minute massage, for 30, 40, 50 minutes, then again an hour or two later. The other day, seated beside me, he inexplicably offered to treat me to a massage! WTF?
"Me?" I asked him. "In public? With my clothes on? Not happening," I said. "But thanks anyway." The masseuse laughed.
Anyway, in this Power Play hand, the Play of the Day, maybe Play of the Month, The Man bets the river, on a board with all small cards, and Coffee raises him. The Man doesn't hesitate at all, and re-raises.
How often do you make a River Bluff Raise? You know, raise on the river with nothing, hoping to make the bettor fold a better hand. Now that's REAL poker. Against a tough opponent who is capable of making the laydown, a River Bluff Raise should be a powerful play. Right?
But in the games I play, my opponents generally are anything but tough, and most times they don't give it up when they should. If they flop top pair and get raised on the turn, you almost always have to show them a hand on the river to take the pot. They just don't lay down. In fact, some of the worst chip-burning mistakes I've made in these games, repeatedly, was trying to run over guys who aren't going anywhere; aren't gonna lay down. So maybe the RBR should be part of my toolkit, but it really isn't. I keep looking for an opportunity, but every time I think I may have one, then consider it, the chance my opponent will actually fold seems too close to zero.
Coffee, however, won't hesitate to bet the river, or even raise it, with nothing. Gets caught all the time, too, but that doesn't slow him down much.
So like I say, he raised the river here, but got re-raised right away.
Coffee shows his Ace Ten -- Ace high, no pair, and mucks it. Caught bluffing again.
Thing is, Coffee was bluffing with the best hand, but he didn't even know it! The Man shows 76, a worse no pair, a busted straight draw, and takes the pot. How often do you River Bluff RE-RAISE??
Wait, let's put that question differently: how often (in a LIMIT game) do you see ANYONE raise the river, get re-raised, and fold? Almost never happens, right? The river raiser is almost always gonna call a reraise, unless he was bluffing in the first place, and for The Man to read that, and successfully RE-BLUFF, seemed quite remarkable to me.
He didn't seem to think so. The other players loudly expressed their surprise when he even showed the re-bluff, but he just said...
"C'mon, who didn't know he [Coffee] was bluffing? You all knew, didn't you?"
It was just awesome, and won my instant and complete admiration and respect.
===
The Man put a little hurt on Mrs. Rock in a different game a couple days later. Open raised UTG with pocket deuces, and flopped a set against her unimproved pocket Kings. Ouch.
=== === === ===
Fun With Statistics
Do you keep any kind of poker log, and record your sessions? Some players do, and some don't. I do now, but there were times, not long ago, that I didn't, just because it was too painful.
If you do keep records, what do you track? Just Date and Win/Loss? That's nice, but how about hours played? And how about drop paid (number of raked pots won), and how much came off your stack for tokes, food, drink, massage, whatever.
Actually, that last category should be subdivided into two columns: costs that you DO, or DO NOT, consider to be "part of the game." Either way, count all chips that leave your stacks, because that's more that you would have cashed out. In other words, that, plus the drop, is the difference between your Gross and Net result.
Sound like too much trouble? Waste of time, tracking all that stuff? Maybe, but when I recorded all those things on Excel spreadsheets, and crunched some numbers, a very interesting statistic fell out. So interesting, in fact, that it helped me understand what I needed to do to improve my game, and cash out more chips. Do I have your attention yet?
Again, what I record in columns across a spreadsheet, and with one row for each day/session, is Date, plus:
A. Buy In Amount
B. Cash Out Amount
C. Number of raked pots won
D. Money off my stack- Game Related
E. Money off my stack- Non Game
F. Hours played (start & stop times)
Then, from the TOTALS on each of those columns, some Excel formulas tell me:
1. Cost of playing (D + (C x 5)) [drop in my game is $5. YMMV.]
2. Net Win/Loss (B + E - A)
3. Gross Win/Loss (B + D + E + (C x 5) - A)
4. Pots won per hour (F / C)
Are you getting bored yet? OK, enough detail; let's cut straight to the payoff. The surprise that came out of all this was when we compared my stats to Mrs. Rock's, and saw a similar trend repeat itself, over several sample time periods. We saw that her hourly rate was better than mine, often way better, even though I was consistently winning more pots per hour than her. OK, now stop, please, and read that last sentence again, unless you already picked up on the significance.
Now let's sidetrack a minute, and talk about my friend, G.A. Joe. He used to be G.I. Joe, but the Army kicked him out, and then he joined Gamblers Anonymous.
Joe is the worst player ever. He NEVER folds. He goes to the river with EVERY starting hand. Any time Joe could catch runner-runner for a straight or flush, or spike a set of deuces on the river, or even call a bluff and win a showdown with seven high, he does win that pot. He never misses an opportunity to get lucky, and wins every pot he possibly could win.
So Joe makes two-pair, sets, straights, flushes, whatever, more often than anyone else, and wins more pots than anyone else. And Joe loses his money faster than anyone else, too. He will go broke chasing down everything in sight. The thing that defines Joe as such a horrible player is that he plays so many hands that he shouldn't, takes the worst of it so often, and puts chips into the pot with a Negative Expectation so much.
This concept is easy to grasp, once you think about it. But even then, even after they "get it," MOST players continue to think, and act (perform) like they DON'T get it.
And that's what I was doing, just a tiny little bit, but enough to make a difference. I wasn't chasing everything, completely out of control, like Joe. But I was— believe it or don't, up to you— WINNING TOO MANY POTS! Just a few too many, because I was playing maybe more than just a few too many hands. And while some of those "extra" hands came through and won, too many of them didn't. Net result: minus.
This was a real surprise, hard to accept, because anyone you ask would probably say I'm the tightest player in the game. So which hands was I playing that I shouldn't?
My last couple posts talked some about that cutoff raise against a weak limper with, for example, a ragged Ace, and trying to get heads up, or maybe have just a couple callers. Doing that indiscriminately, against a field where more likely several will play, was one mistake, and was the first place I tightened up. I was already starting to understand why I should be making that play way less often. After a while, and a lot of thought and discussion, we identified a couple other places where I needed to tighten up. And also a couple where I had to LOOSEN up, too, but that's a whole 'nother post.
It's been a couple months now, and some small changes seem so far to be improving my rate. Too brief a sample period to be sure, but I'd like to think that my game improved just a little. Maybe enough to soon challenge Mrs. Rock's first place spot on our leader board. So what to do now? Find ways to improve it more, of course!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
The Alien Hand
Does this ever happen to you? Even while your hand is putting chips in the pot, your brain is yelling "Hey! What are you doing? Are you nuts??"
I call it the Alien Hand. It's almost like it has a mind, and a will, and a plan of its own. I just hope he knows what he's doing!
It happened again Friday night, when a guy open-limps early, and I raise right behind him, with Ace Ten offsuit. The good old hope this ain't a chip burner isolation play. And my brain didn't really yell, just kinda smart-ass commented, something like "Hey, didn't you do a blog post about this just the other day? Something about Breaking Bad Habits? What's wrong, you got a short memory??"
Again, I didn't think enough about who the blinds were, and in this case Big Blind was not likely to give it up; he's more like a guy who likes to call, then sometimes check-raise you on any flop, whether it hits him or not. He's also the only guy I know whose name is both an acronym AND a palindrome. Think M*A*S*H
So he calls, and the limper calls, and the flop comes rags: 378. The Big Blind does indeed check-raise, and the limper folds. So I raise his ass right back, with nothing, and he calls.
I might have bet the turn, too, except it came a six, making me a gutshot draw. So if he checkraises me again there would be 18 small bets in the pot, and I'd be getting 9-to-1 odds to chase an 11-to-1 draw. Not good. Of course I may have more outs than that, but still, I'd just hate to get raised and have to lay down, even when I'm thinking he's putting the move on me, or call to draw when getting shitty odds. So when he checked the turn, I checked too. If I were a better player, maybe I could make more sophisticated decisions than this, and might play differently, and cash out more chips. Maybe if I bet here and got checkraised, and thought he had nothing, or even if he had something, I should reraise anyway. Maybe. Guess I don't quite play at that level.
So anyway, the river is a Jack, and he bets out. Now I'm getting 6-to-1 odds that he has nothing, and that my Ace high is good. One time out of seven? This guy? HELL YES, I tell myself, and call. Funny thing was, he turns over Ace Nine, and so it turns out my Ace Ten IS good. Once again an opponent has made a river bet that, in retrospect, makes no sense at all. Well, at least not to me. That's really confusing, because this guy is the best player in the room― if you don't believe me, just ask him― and so of course I'm trying to study him, and learn from him, and pick up on some of those advanced strategies. But, sadly, I still haven't learned how make value-betting Ace high into a winning play. Maybe someday. Or maybe not. :-)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Dog
Saturday night 20/40 at Diamond Lils. Main game, after midnight, I'm the sole ethnic minority at this table, and these guys are gambooling, for sure. No blind stealing or chopping going on, and rarely less than five players seeing the flop. Sometimes a raise or two, but just as often not.
So I limp in on the button, after several others, with K9. The Dog. Flop comes 984, but by the time the action reaches me, it's already three bets !
In many games in this situation, against most players, I'd probably want to just let it go, and figure somebody must already have a real hand. But not against these guys. With only the tiniest voice in my head whining that it might be a little over aggressive, I cap it at four bets. I think there's a good enough chance that I have the best hand. Everyone calls.
Turn is a 3, and now a backdoor flush draw on board, and I'm also worried someone out there is slowplaying a set, or maybe top two. Checked to me, I bet, and they ALL call. Yikes! Where am I at in this hand?<
A 7 on the river, checked to me again, and I can't think of any reason to bet now. I check, and two guys, both the flop aggressors, turn over Ten Jack for the nut straight, and split the pot.
If I my poker philosophy was Results Oriented, then I should be unhappy about this outcome. But since I am devoutly Performance Oriented, I was just fine with it. Did you ever see my essay about that, and the secret philosophical poker equation?
Result = Performance ± Luck
That essay is here: Part I & Part II.
Sure, they sucked out on me [luck] , but I made them pay the max [performance] , and then when they got there [result], and both of them tried for the check-raise [performance-them], but I didn't take the bait [performance-me]. So even though the result was unfavorable, I'm happy with performance, and that's all that really matters.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
If I Ran the Room<
Isn't it funny how many players try to tell the houseman or the dealer how to run the room or deal the game? And some players really like to do that, don't they?. Sometimes they give ORDERS to the dealer, and TELL him what to do. Not me. No way. It's their house, I'm a guest, and it's not my place to do more than maybe make a polite comment, or at most a suggestion now and then.
But here, on my own blog, I can sound off a little, right? Hope you don't mind.
1. No more small chips! 20/40 is a RED CHIP GAME. When a player goes all-in, isn't it silly to make him, or even let him, put in those last two dollars? If he has five $1 chips, then fine, that equals a Redbird, so put it in. But odd amounts? Forget it, and stop wasting time making all that small change for the side-pot.
And when it's a split pot, stop wasting time breaking the odd $5 chip down into $1 chips. It's a RED CHIP GAME, so just give the odd red chip to the entitled player, and be done with it.
2. No more curiosity viewing! Every room as a rule saying something like "Any player at the table is entitled to see a called hand." So when two guys jam it to squeeze you out, then after you fold they just check it down, and on the river one guy shows one card and the other guy starts to throw away, you can tell the dealer "Both Hands, Please!"
This is a good rule, useful for detecting or discouraging collusion, and in that "squeeze play" situation, it makes sense. In fact, when two guys do that to me, and it does happen now and then, I do ask to see both hands.
But more often the player asking to see a hand on the end has no reason to suspect any hanky-panky, and is simply being curious. Now that's just wrong. But it's difficult, if not impossible, to base a rule on what a player is thinking, or what their motivation is, for asking to see a hand.
So if I ran the room, when a player asks to see a hand, the floorman is called, and the requestor has to explain why they're asking. If they can make any kind of case beyond "I'm just curious," then fine. Otherwise, forget it. After this happened a few times, players would come to understand the difference between game-protection and curiosity, and would stop asking just because they're curious. Wouldn't that be a good thing?
If you asked the cardroom to consider making those changes, they'd probably tell you they can't, because of State Gambling Commission rules. I think they'd just say that, and that the Commission people don't know enough, or pay attention enough, to make rules like that. Not long ago the house rule changed to let a player "Buy the Button." Did that change get approved by the Commission? Are you kidding me? Do you really think anyone there has even half a clue what "Buy the Button" means, or that they specify rules and regulations to that level of detail? Maybe so, but I kind of doubt it.
The other day I was in a hand, 3 way action, I'm in the middle, and the button bets the turn. The guy ahead of me calls, and at that point I didn't like my chances, and folded. Then the river comes, and the first guy just throws away. Well, in that case I immediately asked the dealer "Both hands, Please." I didn't so much want to see that hand that folded with no bet to me, as the guy who took the pot without even having to bet or show, when he should have had to do one of those two things.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Nightmares
It was a week ago, but this hand is still keeping me awake nights. I've described times that my opponents made mistakes, and maybe blew off a few chips, betting or calling when they shouldn't. Bad enough. But this time it was me that screwed up, and it cost me the whole damn (large) pot.
I'm in seat 8, as usual, and right after me in 9 is this 20-something kid who will call raises and/or chase to the end with just about anything. Fine. But he is also Mr. Maximum Slow Play. If he flops or makes 2 pair or better, he will always wait until the turn, or more often the river, before doing any raising. One time he smooth-called my preflop raise with pocket Kings, and waited for the turn to raise. Every other time he raised the turn or river and showed, he had at least two pair. Always.
So...comes this hand where he's on the button, several people limp in ahead of us, and I raise King Queen Diamonds from the cutoff. Max, both blinds, and all the limpers call.
Flop comes Jack, Ten, four, rainbow. Open ender, two overcards, in a volume pot. I like it. Checked to me, I bet, Tom-Tom checkraises from the blind, and I 3 bet. We lose a couple, but it's still four way.
This guy in the blind, Tom-Tom, is even older than me, and is always there in fresh, clean blue or green one-piece shop-suit coveralls. He is another who will play just about anything, and is often quite unpredictable. For example, he called my 3 bets on the flop, didn't reraise, but now he bets out when a five hits the turn. What does that mean? He likes the five, made him two pair? Hard to say. Like I said, unpredictable.
So at this point I'm not raising any more, just calling with my open ender, good odds, but then Max raises behind me. Shit. Tom-Tom calls. I call.
The river does not make my straight, but is a King, giving me top pair. We let Max bet, and Tom-Tom calls. What do I do? Overcall?<
Remember we said said how Max never raised the turn or river with less than 2 pair? And what did Tom-Tom bet out with, then call that raise with, on the turn? 37 bets in the pot, but I decide, too quickly, that one of these guys must have me beat. I fold.
Tom-Tom calls, though, and Max turns over Ace Jack. Tom shows Queen Jack. So they both flopped top pair, and I sucked out on the river, but didn't even know it. I been watching Max all day, thought I had his number, but I sure didn't have it this time, and it sure did cost me. So, just how dumb, how terrible, was my laydown? Pretty damn bad, I'm afraid. I mean, to give it up in that spot you have to be really, really, sure you are beat.
Then another mistake: I told Mrs. Rock about this disaster, and now she keeps looking at me with what appears to be pity, while sadly shaking her head. And I'm also telling it to you, my readers, even though you may laugh at me over it. Why? Because I want to remember this hand, painful as it may be, so next time I'm faced with this situation, where I think I really know the guy, maybe I can think more carefully, and make a better decision. The decision I made this time really sucked.
=============<
I call it the Alien Hand. It's almost like it has a mind, and a will, and a plan of its own. I just hope he knows what he's doing!
It happened again Friday night, when a guy open-limps early, and I raise right behind him, with Ace Ten offsuit. The good old hope this ain't a chip burner isolation play. And my brain didn't really yell, just kinda smart-ass commented, something like "Hey, didn't you do a blog post about this just the other day? Something about Breaking Bad Habits? What's wrong, you got a short memory??"
Again, I didn't think enough about who the blinds were, and in this case Big Blind was not likely to give it up; he's more like a guy who likes to call, then sometimes check-raise you on any flop, whether it hits him or not. He's also the only guy I know whose name is both an acronym AND a palindrome. Think M*A*S*H
So he calls, and the limper calls, and the flop comes rags: 378. The Big Blind does indeed check-raise, and the limper folds. So I raise his ass right back, with nothing, and he calls.
I might have bet the turn, too, except it came a six, making me a gutshot draw. So if he checkraises me again there would be 18 small bets in the pot, and I'd be getting 9-to-1 odds to chase an 11-to-1 draw. Not good. Of course I may have more outs than that, but still, I'd just hate to get raised and have to lay down, even when I'm thinking he's putting the move on me, or call to draw when getting shitty odds. So when he checked the turn, I checked too. If I were a better player, maybe I could make more sophisticated decisions than this, and might play differently, and cash out more chips. Maybe if I bet here and got checkraised, and thought he had nothing, or even if he had something, I should reraise anyway. Maybe. Guess I don't quite play at that level.
So anyway, the river is a Jack, and he bets out. Now I'm getting 6-to-1 odds that he has nothing, and that my Ace high is good. One time out of seven? This guy? HELL YES, I tell myself, and call. Funny thing was, he turns over Ace Nine, and so it turns out my Ace Ten IS good. Once again an opponent has made a river bet that, in retrospect, makes no sense at all. Well, at least not to me. That's really confusing, because this guy is the best player in the room― if you don't believe me, just ask him― and so of course I'm trying to study him, and learn from him, and pick up on some of those advanced strategies. But, sadly, I still haven't learned how make value-betting Ace high into a winning play. Maybe someday. Or maybe not. :-)
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
The Dog
Saturday night 20/40 at Diamond Lils. Main game, after midnight, I'm the sole ethnic minority at this table, and these guys are gambooling, for sure. No blind stealing or chopping going on, and rarely less than five players seeing the flop. Sometimes a raise or two, but just as often not.
So I limp in on the button, after several others, with K9. The Dog. Flop comes 984, but by the time the action reaches me, it's already three bets !
In many games in this situation, against most players, I'd probably want to just let it go, and figure somebody must already have a real hand. But not against these guys. With only the tiniest voice in my head whining that it might be a little over aggressive, I cap it at four bets. I think there's a good enough chance that I have the best hand. Everyone calls.
Turn is a 3, and now a backdoor flush draw on board, and I'm also worried someone out there is slowplaying a set, or maybe top two. Checked to me, I bet, and they ALL call. Yikes! Where am I at in this hand?<
A 7 on the river, checked to me again, and I can't think of any reason to bet now. I check, and two guys, both the flop aggressors, turn over Ten Jack for the nut straight, and split the pot.
If I my poker philosophy was Results Oriented, then I should be unhappy about this outcome. But since I am devoutly Performance Oriented, I was just fine with it. Did you ever see my essay about that, and the secret philosophical poker equation?
Result = Performance ± Luck
That essay is here: Part I & Part II.
Sure, they sucked out on me [luck] , but I made them pay the max [performance] , and then when they got there [result], and both of them tried for the check-raise [performance-them], but I didn't take the bait [performance-me]. So even though the result was unfavorable, I'm happy with performance, and that's all that really matters.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
If I Ran the Room<
Isn't it funny how many players try to tell the houseman or the dealer how to run the room or deal the game? And some players really like to do that, don't they?. Sometimes they give ORDERS to the dealer, and TELL him what to do. Not me. No way. It's their house, I'm a guest, and it's not my place to do more than maybe make a polite comment, or at most a suggestion now and then.
But here, on my own blog, I can sound off a little, right? Hope you don't mind.
1. No more small chips! 20/40 is a RED CHIP GAME. When a player goes all-in, isn't it silly to make him, or even let him, put in those last two dollars? If he has five $1 chips, then fine, that equals a Redbird, so put it in. But odd amounts? Forget it, and stop wasting time making all that small change for the side-pot.
And when it's a split pot, stop wasting time breaking the odd $5 chip down into $1 chips. It's a RED CHIP GAME, so just give the odd red chip to the entitled player, and be done with it.
2. No more curiosity viewing! Every room as a rule saying something like "Any player at the table is entitled to see a called hand." So when two guys jam it to squeeze you out, then after you fold they just check it down, and on the river one guy shows one card and the other guy starts to throw away, you can tell the dealer "Both Hands, Please!"
This is a good rule, useful for detecting or discouraging collusion, and in that "squeeze play" situation, it makes sense. In fact, when two guys do that to me, and it does happen now and then, I do ask to see both hands.
But more often the player asking to see a hand on the end has no reason to suspect any hanky-panky, and is simply being curious. Now that's just wrong. But it's difficult, if not impossible, to base a rule on what a player is thinking, or what their motivation is, for asking to see a hand.
So if I ran the room, when a player asks to see a hand, the floorman is called, and the requestor has to explain why they're asking. If they can make any kind of case beyond "I'm just curious," then fine. Otherwise, forget it. After this happened a few times, players would come to understand the difference between game-protection and curiosity, and would stop asking just because they're curious. Wouldn't that be a good thing?
If you asked the cardroom to consider making those changes, they'd probably tell you they can't, because of State Gambling Commission rules. I think they'd just say that, and that the Commission people don't know enough, or pay attention enough, to make rules like that. Not long ago the house rule changed to let a player "Buy the Button." Did that change get approved by the Commission? Are you kidding me? Do you really think anyone there has even half a clue what "Buy the Button" means, or that they specify rules and regulations to that level of detail? Maybe so, but I kind of doubt it.
The other day I was in a hand, 3 way action, I'm in the middle, and the button bets the turn. The guy ahead of me calls, and at that point I didn't like my chances, and folded. Then the river comes, and the first guy just throws away. Well, in that case I immediately asked the dealer "Both hands, Please." I didn't so much want to see that hand that folded with no bet to me, as the guy who took the pot without even having to bet or show, when he should have had to do one of those two things.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Nightmares
It was a week ago, but this hand is still keeping me awake nights. I've described times that my opponents made mistakes, and maybe blew off a few chips, betting or calling when they shouldn't. Bad enough. But this time it was me that screwed up, and it cost me the whole damn (large) pot.
I'm in seat 8, as usual, and right after me in 9 is this 20-something kid who will call raises and/or chase to the end with just about anything. Fine. But he is also Mr. Maximum Slow Play. If he flops or makes 2 pair or better, he will always wait until the turn, or more often the river, before doing any raising. One time he smooth-called my preflop raise with pocket Kings, and waited for the turn to raise. Every other time he raised the turn or river and showed, he had at least two pair. Always.
So...comes this hand where he's on the button, several people limp in ahead of us, and I raise King Queen Diamonds from the cutoff. Max, both blinds, and all the limpers call.
Flop comes Jack, Ten, four, rainbow. Open ender, two overcards, in a volume pot. I like it. Checked to me, I bet, Tom-Tom checkraises from the blind, and I 3 bet. We lose a couple, but it's still four way.
This guy in the blind, Tom-Tom, is even older than me, and is always there in fresh, clean blue or green one-piece shop-suit coveralls. He is another who will play just about anything, and is often quite unpredictable. For example, he called my 3 bets on the flop, didn't reraise, but now he bets out when a five hits the turn. What does that mean? He likes the five, made him two pair? Hard to say. Like I said, unpredictable.
So at this point I'm not raising any more, just calling with my open ender, good odds, but then Max raises behind me. Shit. Tom-Tom calls. I call.
The river does not make my straight, but is a King, giving me top pair. We let Max bet, and Tom-Tom calls. What do I do? Overcall?<
Remember we said said how Max never raised the turn or river with less than 2 pair? And what did Tom-Tom bet out with, then call that raise with, on the turn? 37 bets in the pot, but I decide, too quickly, that one of these guys must have me beat. I fold.
Tom-Tom calls, though, and Max turns over Ace Jack. Tom shows Queen Jack. So they both flopped top pair, and I sucked out on the river, but didn't even know it. I been watching Max all day, thought I had his number, but I sure didn't have it this time, and it sure did cost me. So, just how dumb, how terrible, was my laydown? Pretty damn bad, I'm afraid. I mean, to give it up in that spot you have to be really, really, sure you are beat.
Then another mistake: I told Mrs. Rock about this disaster, and now she keeps looking at me with what appears to be pity, while sadly shaking her head. And I'm also telling it to you, my readers, even though you may laugh at me over it. Why? Because I want to remember this hand, painful as it may be, so next time I'm faced with this situation, where I think I really know the guy, maybe I can think more carefully, and make a better decision. The decision I made this time really sucked.
=============<
Monday, January 19, 2009
Breaking Bad Habits
(20/40 limit Hold Em, Diamond Lil's, Renton, WA)
Smith limps in early, and I raise from the middle with AcTs. That's the bad habit I'm talking about, right there.
If the blinds were tiny, say just one small blind, then you should only come in with the biggest hands, right? And if the blinds were huge, for whatever reason, then you should be much looser about what you come in with. Right?
So when a loose player limps in early, and he's the kind who plays a lot of hands but raises with his big ones, I kind of see that as the blinds getting bigger.
Then, if I can isolate him, get the blinds in there as dead money, and hope I hit something, or he hits nothing, or maybe puts money in drawing, but never hits, and my Ace wins. Lots of ways to win, hopefully right on the flop. Seems like a reasonable plan, doesn't it?
Trouble is, doing this too often, against the wrong guys, can be a dumb play, and cost a lot of chips. Smith isn't the kind to flop nothing and meekly fold. Well, maybe sometimes, but sometimes he will play back at you with nothing. What I'm saying is that making this play against him may have been a poor decision. :-(
And those two guys in the blinds aren't the kind to give up easily, and I didn't think enough about that, either. I just saw that open-limp go in the pot, looked down at AT, got excited, and raised.
So this "isolation play" may be a good one at times, in the right situation, but doing it too often, indescriminantly, is probably a chip burner. This was one of those times that it probably was not a great idea, but I did it anyway, and, again, that's the bad habit I'm taking about. In this case I got lucky, and it turned out well.
Small Blind, Big Blind, and Smith all call, 8 bets in the pot, and the flop comes Q86, all Clubs. Checked to me, I bet, small blind checkraises, call, call, and I three bet. Wouldn't you? Everyone calls. Twenty small bets in the pot.
Turn is pretty much a blank, 4d, unless 5-7 is out there against me. With these guys, anything is possible. They all check to me. I have the Ace of Clubs, nut draw, but not much else. What should I do? What would you do?
There's 20 small bets in the middle, so a bet would get 10-to-1 pot odds that they all fold, and I don't even have to get there. Is there better than a ten percent chance they'd all muck? I don't think so. Probably closer to zero percent. :-)
And if I bet and get raised, then I have to call, and will wish I hadn't bet. Wouldn't you? Then if an Ace or Ten comes on the river I may have to make a crying call again. Screw that. So I tell the dealer: "Free Card!"
Ka-ching. King of Clubs. Check, check, then Smith agonizes a long time, kinda mumbling to himself, reviewing the action, analyzing the situation, then, finally, he bets. No Hollywood, I just raise right away. He's the kind of guy who can know he's beat, but has to pay off and see it anyway. So he pays, then I show, and stack the chips.
Back in the day, before Blogs, I used to post "Trip Reports" to usenet:rec.gambling.poker. In a 2002 WSOP Report, I wrote about a handful of Fun Things to Say (FTTS) in a Hold 'Em Game; things like:
-- "You're Not Gonna Check-Raise Me, Are Ya?"
-- "Sorry, I Got Excited..."
-- "All That Practice Really Paid Off"
-- "I Can't Call You..." (then raise)
-- "Six Titties!"
-- "I Didn't Know What To Put Me On"
-- "Keep Looking, Maybe You'll Find Something"
You can read those old posts here, or just that '02 TR describing those original FTTS in parts, here: Part I, Part II and Part III.
Here are some more of my favorite newer FTTS.
1. Say the pot is raised from early position preflop, and I'm behind the raiser, middle position, with something like, for example, A4 suited. Especially Spades. :-) Impulse says call, but of course I cannot. So while mucking, I might say:
"Damn, I wish I was on tilt, so I could call you with this!"
2. When betting or calling (or especially when raising) a completely rainbow turn:
"Flush Draw!"
3. I could have, maybe should have, bet the river, but didn't. I win, and now that the showdown is over, we see that I would have been called. Missed a bet. BFD. But while the dealer pushes the pot I might say:
"Is it too late to bet?" -- and then maybe --
"Just gimme twenty, and we'll call it even..."
4. These are rather cruel ones, for use only on someone you don't much like.
-- When they end a long session and declare that "I finally got even!" you can ask them:
"For Life?"
-- When he says that "I just want to win back 'my' chips..." that he lost earlier, you can politely point out how they really aren't his chips any more.
5. No bet on river, then a player ahead of you just mucks. Or maybe he bets, you call, and then he mucks rather than turn over:
"I can beat that!"
6. A scarecard hits the river, I'm last, the other guy(s) check to me, but I'm not betting either, so just shake my head and tell them...
"I wouldn't bet now with YOUR money!"
7. Ran bad, and have to rebuy. So hand over the cash, but also tell the cashier or floorman:
"That last rack I you sold me was defective. Please have 'them' credit my account."
8. You win a couple pots and are busy stacking chips, then you get another hand, there's a raise, you have garbage, and are folding.
"I'd call you if I wasn't running so bad."
=============
Doc, Can I Get a Prescription? Please?
I wasn't really paying attention, wasn't looking, and just heard part of the audio on this TV commercial. It was for a drug called Mirapex, to treat "Restless Leg Syndrome," or RLS. You know, like that guy in your game who nervously jacks his leg up and down 300 times a minute. No, wait, I guess that's not really what it is. Thing is, the voiceover ended with "...side effects may include increased gambling or sexual urges." No kidding, that's what they said! Now I don't really know what the hell RLS is, but, seriously, I WANT THOSE MEDS! Who wouldn't ??
=============
Who's The Dummy?
A weak and way too loose player open-limps in early position, could have just about anything, and I raise in middle, well, *almost* late position, with 66, trying to isolate him. But Jesse calls out of the small blind.
Flop comes something like J53, two clubs, and they both check and call my bet.
Third club on the turn, and they both check again. I hold the 6c, but, gee, I hate to chase a flush with anything much smaller than a King. :-) I do bet, tho--- not so much because I have that tiny club, but because I hope they both have no club, and might even fold a Jack or a seven, or not be there to hit some overcard on the river. Limper mucks, but Jesse is still calling.
Then the river puts a fourth club on board, and he bets out. Well, shit, he must have a bigger club than me, and I need to fold, right? Well, yeah, if I'm wearing that hat that says "weak-tight." But wait a minute. What if he's betting with the hope that I AM THE ONE with no club? You know, just like I did against him a moment ago, on the turn.
I don't try to count dollars in the pot to figure odds. Instead, I count "small bets," in $20 increments, even on the turn and river. Makes pot odds mental math way easier.
In this hand, preflop, then on the flop and turn respectively, 7+3+4 small bets went into the pot. Plus 2 more he just put in makes 16, and it would cost me 2 small bets to call this showdown. So I'm getting 16-to-2, or 8-to-1 odds.
Is there better than 8:1 odds, aka "one chance in nine" that, for whatever reason, Jesse has bet with no club all? Just one chance out of nine? Put differently, better than an 11% chance? I think about this for a couple seconds, decide HELL YES, probably two or three chances out of nine! So I call.
Jesse turns over 5s4c, and my 6c wins. Funny thing was how the other players watching all this, his buddies, reacted like they thought his was a bold river bet, and my call was weak and wimpy. I still like my call, and don't like his bet at all. If he had bet a big club for value, or no club at all as a bluff, that might make sense. But with that tiny club, well, seems to me that either check-fold, or maybe check-call, are his only plays. YMMV.
=============
Feedback Appreciated
Turns out I never really configured this blog, and it was set to only allow comment postings only by registered members, or something. Sorry! I just didn't know better. Now it's set wide open, anyone can comment, and I'd love to hear from you, so please do comment. After all, why write a blog unless you can see that somebody is reading?
Smith limps in early, and I raise from the middle with AcTs. That's the bad habit I'm talking about, right there.
If the blinds were tiny, say just one small blind, then you should only come in with the biggest hands, right? And if the blinds were huge, for whatever reason, then you should be much looser about what you come in with. Right?
So when a loose player limps in early, and he's the kind who plays a lot of hands but raises with his big ones, I kind of see that as the blinds getting bigger.
Then, if I can isolate him, get the blinds in there as dead money, and hope I hit something, or he hits nothing, or maybe puts money in drawing, but never hits, and my Ace wins. Lots of ways to win, hopefully right on the flop. Seems like a reasonable plan, doesn't it?
Trouble is, doing this too often, against the wrong guys, can be a dumb play, and cost a lot of chips. Smith isn't the kind to flop nothing and meekly fold. Well, maybe sometimes, but sometimes he will play back at you with nothing. What I'm saying is that making this play against him may have been a poor decision. :-(
And those two guys in the blinds aren't the kind to give up easily, and I didn't think enough about that, either. I just saw that open-limp go in the pot, looked down at AT, got excited, and raised.
So this "isolation play" may be a good one at times, in the right situation, but doing it too often, indescriminantly, is probably a chip burner. This was one of those times that it probably was not a great idea, but I did it anyway, and, again, that's the bad habit I'm taking about. In this case I got lucky, and it turned out well.
Small Blind, Big Blind, and Smith all call, 8 bets in the pot, and the flop comes Q86, all Clubs. Checked to me, I bet, small blind checkraises, call, call, and I three bet. Wouldn't you? Everyone calls. Twenty small bets in the pot.
Turn is pretty much a blank, 4d, unless 5-7 is out there against me. With these guys, anything is possible. They all check to me. I have the Ace of Clubs, nut draw, but not much else. What should I do? What would you do?
There's 20 small bets in the middle, so a bet would get 10-to-1 pot odds that they all fold, and I don't even have to get there. Is there better than a ten percent chance they'd all muck? I don't think so. Probably closer to zero percent. :-)
And if I bet and get raised, then I have to call, and will wish I hadn't bet. Wouldn't you? Then if an Ace or Ten comes on the river I may have to make a crying call again. Screw that. So I tell the dealer: "Free Card!"
Ka-ching. King of Clubs. Check, check, then Smith agonizes a long time, kinda mumbling to himself, reviewing the action, analyzing the situation, then, finally, he bets. No Hollywood, I just raise right away. He's the kind of guy who can know he's beat, but has to pay off and see it anyway. So he pays, then I show, and stack the chips.
Afterwards Smith tells me, a couple times, that my check on the turn confused him. "I never saw you check like that!" Huh? I don't get it. Before the flop my play, perhaps foolishly, tried to run over the game a little. But once that flop came, everything I did was based on the math, not psychology, and wasn't trying to be deceptive. Seems like his thought process, trying to put me on a hand there, failed completely, but, hey, don't blame me! :-) And what the hell did he have, anyway? I dunno.
I liked telling about this hand, and maybe this story makes me look good, but only because I got lucky on the end. It's was better than three times more likely that no club would come, and then I wouldn't even be telling this.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
More Fun Things to Say
Back in the day, before Blogs, I used to post "Trip Reports" to usenet:rec.gambling.poker. In a 2002 WSOP Report, I wrote about a handful of Fun Things to Say (FTTS) in a Hold 'Em Game; things like:
-- "You're Not Gonna Check-Raise Me, Are Ya?"
-- "Sorry, I Got Excited..."
-- "All That Practice Really Paid Off"
-- "I Can't Call You..." (then raise)
-- "Six Titties!"
-- "I Didn't Know What To Put Me On"
-- "Keep Looking, Maybe You'll Find Something"
You can read those old posts here, or just that '02 TR describing those original FTTS in parts, here: Part I, Part II and Part III.
Here are some more of my favorite newer FTTS.
1. Say the pot is raised from early position preflop, and I'm behind the raiser, middle position, with something like, for example, A4 suited. Especially Spades. :-) Impulse says call, but of course I cannot. So while mucking, I might say:
"Damn, I wish I was on tilt, so I could call you with this!"
2. When betting or calling (or especially when raising) a completely rainbow turn:
"Flush Draw!"
3. I could have, maybe should have, bet the river, but didn't. I win, and now that the showdown is over, we see that I would have been called. Missed a bet. BFD. But while the dealer pushes the pot I might say:
"Is it too late to bet?" -- and then maybe --
"Just gimme twenty, and we'll call it even..."
4. These are rather cruel ones, for use only on someone you don't much like.
-- When they end a long session and declare that "I finally got even!" you can ask them:
"For Life?"
-- When he says that "I just want to win back 'my' chips..." that he lost earlier, you can politely point out how they really aren't his chips any more.
5. No bet on river, then a player ahead of you just mucks. Or maybe he bets, you call, and then he mucks rather than turn over:
"I can beat that!"
6. A scarecard hits the river, I'm last, the other guy(s) check to me, but I'm not betting either, so just shake my head and tell them...
"I wouldn't bet now with YOUR money!"
7. Ran bad, and have to rebuy. So hand over the cash, but also tell the cashier or floorman:
"That last rack I you sold me was defective. Please have 'them' credit my account."
8. You win a couple pots and are busy stacking chips, then you get another hand, there's a raise, you have garbage, and are folding.
"I'd call you if I wasn't running so bad."
=============
Doc, Can I Get a Prescription? Please?
I wasn't really paying attention, wasn't looking, and just heard part of the audio on this TV commercial. It was for a drug called Mirapex, to treat "Restless Leg Syndrome," or RLS. You know, like that guy in your game who nervously jacks his leg up and down 300 times a minute. No, wait, I guess that's not really what it is. Thing is, the voiceover ended with "...side effects may include increased gambling or sexual urges." No kidding, that's what they said! Now I don't really know what the hell RLS is, but, seriously, I WANT THOSE MEDS! Who wouldn't ??
=============
Who's The Dummy?
A weak and way too loose player open-limps in early position, could have just about anything, and I raise in middle, well, *almost* late position, with 66, trying to isolate him. But Jesse calls out of the small blind.
Flop comes something like J53, two clubs, and they both check and call my bet.
Third club on the turn, and they both check again. I hold the 6c, but, gee, I hate to chase a flush with anything much smaller than a King. :-) I do bet, tho--- not so much because I have that tiny club, but because I hope they both have no club, and might even fold a Jack or a seven, or not be there to hit some overcard on the river. Limper mucks, but Jesse is still calling.
Then the river puts a fourth club on board, and he bets out. Well, shit, he must have a bigger club than me, and I need to fold, right? Well, yeah, if I'm wearing that hat that says "weak-tight." But wait a minute. What if he's betting with the hope that I AM THE ONE with no club? You know, just like I did against him a moment ago, on the turn.
I don't try to count dollars in the pot to figure odds. Instead, I count "small bets," in $20 increments, even on the turn and river. Makes pot odds mental math way easier.
In this hand, preflop, then on the flop and turn respectively, 7+3+4 small bets went into the pot. Plus 2 more he just put in makes 16, and it would cost me 2 small bets to call this showdown. So I'm getting 16-to-2, or 8-to-1 odds.
Is there better than 8:1 odds, aka "one chance in nine" that, for whatever reason, Jesse has bet with no club all? Just one chance out of nine? Put differently, better than an 11% chance? I think about this for a couple seconds, decide HELL YES, probably two or three chances out of nine! So I call.
Jesse turns over 5s4c, and my 6c wins. Funny thing was how the other players watching all this, his buddies, reacted like they thought his was a bold river bet, and my call was weak and wimpy. I still like my call, and don't like his bet at all. If he had bet a big club for value, or no club at all as a bluff, that might make sense. But with that tiny club, well, seems to me that either check-fold, or maybe check-call, are his only plays. YMMV.
=============
Feedback Appreciated
Turns out I never really configured this blog, and it was set to only allow comment postings only by registered members, or something. Sorry! I just didn't know better. Now it's set wide open, anyone can comment, and I'd love to hear from you, so please do comment. After all, why write a blog unless you can see that somebody is reading?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
New Years Resolutions
New Years Resolutions. Yeah, we're already half way thru January, but it's not too late, is it? I've finally made a few:
1. Play MORE Hold 'Em, specifically $20/40 at Diamond Lil's. Last year I played maybe 2 or 3 times a week, but this year I don't want to stay home more than 2 or 3 days a week. So far I've played nine of the eleven days this month. On track.
2. Play BETTER Hold 'Em. Specifically, focus on that one particular weak part of my game-- the one I've known about and struggled with for a long time-- get it fixed, and turn it from a weakness into a strength. Finally I am actually doing better with this the last couple weeks. If you ask in person what the hell I'm talking about here, I'll explain it to you. Maybe.
3. Finish the year with a better poker win record than Mrs. Rock. That has never, ever, happened before-- not even close-- but this *could* be the year.
4. Post more on this blog. Bring it back to life. Try to be entertaining.
=============
Misread the Board, Call with 10 High, and Win the Pot.
I don't think I'd ever seen his stranger before, but I sure hope to see him again. About my age, thinning wavy hair combed straight back, kinda looks a little like that old movie actor, Melvyn Douglas. On a bad day. Wears wire-rim glasses with thick lenses, but the prescription must not be right, because when he gets his cards he leans in with his head down right by the rim of the table, gets his face within a couple inches of the hand, and takes a good look. It's pretty funny to watch.
So anyway, I'm in seat 8 when this guy sits down in 9, and tells everyone that "I've been playing this game for a long, long time, so you guys better not try to run over me!" Then he proceeds to play more than half of his starting hands, and make bets, calls, and even a couple raises, that, well, just made no sense at all. And it doesn't seem like he's particularly trying to be deceptive; more like he has no clue what he's doing.
Then comes this hand where The Stranger and two other guys limp in, and I get a free play in the Big Blind, with Ten-Three. 4 players, the flop comes 8, Jack, Queen, two suited cards. I think a second about betting my gut-shot. What's the chance I can win right now, don't even have to get there? Fugedaboutit. The Stranger had limped in UTG, could have anything, the other two guys are likely to call, or raise, if they have even a piece of that flop. So I check, and, long story short, nobody bets the flop and nobody bets the turn, a blank.
Then a 9 on the river makes my straight, but makes that possible flush too. I check, The Stranger bets, and the other two guys fold. Small pot, but good odds this guy has nothing at all. I call. He hesitates, doesn't want to show, but finally turns over some nothing like five deuce off. Just as I'm tabling my hand to show my straight and claim the pot, I look at the board again. Holy Shit, that isn't Jack Queen out there, it's two Jacks! I don't have a straight. I don't have anything. But my Ten does have him high-carded, so I win. A couple other players who have been watching, and Vicky, the dealer, all look at me in surprise, trying to decide if I'm an idiot or a genius. I could have explained that I had misread the board, but admitting that would ruin the illusion, and take them-- rightfully-- to that "idiot" conclusion. So I don't say a word. :-)
Note to self: Look at the board more carefully. Twice. And maybe go see that optometrist who sent a postcard 2 years ago saying it's time for a checkup..
====================
Another Bad Play
Just got done saying "Play Better," but here's a mistake I've been thinking about for a week.
I open raise in late-middle position with Queen Ten suited, get a couple callers, and flop A94, with two of my suit. I bet, and get those same couple callers.
Turn is a Ten, and when the Big Blind check raises me, I raise him right back. I'm thinking that I can check behind him on the river, unless I make that flush. This plan starts unraveling right away: He caps it. Oops.
But then the River brings another ten, and he checks. Without enough thought, I bet, he calls, and I show my trip tens. Then he shows his pocket fours, making him fours full of tens, and takes the pot.
Then he tells me that he had to put me on Ace Ten, and didn't bet the river for fear I had filled up with a better boat than he did. Yes, of course. Thing is, I should have given more thought to "what does he think I have?" based on the action, and figured that out myself, after he four-bets the turn but then checks on that particular river card.
So my river bet was really flakey. Should have known better where I was in that hand, and saved those chips!
=============
Checking the Nuts on the River
Don't you hate it when you go for a check-raise, and nobody bets? I sure do. Especially on the River, when you turn it over, and everyone laughs. How humiliating! :-)
So I almost never take that chance, checking the nuts at the end, but there are exceptions, and against this guy was the one. I'll just call him The Feeler.
He came into my game a couple days ago, don't think I ever saw him before, and within a couple minutes of sitting down into seat 9, he reaches over and pinches the dealer's ass. No kidding.
She didn't much like that, told him "Don't!!" and also kind of half-seriously called out for Security. Then, a minute later, he does it again! Again she tells him "Don't do that !!" and calls out for security, sounding more serious this time, but the security guy apparently heard her the first time, because now he's standing right behind and looking right at this player. And yet he does nothing, and says nothing. Go figure.
I may be wrong, but it seemed to me like the dealer was so bothered by all this that she was almost ready to burst into tears. I just couldn't understand why the security guy was watching this behavior but doing nothing about it.
So I get my cell ready, planning to, if it happens again, call 911 and find out if doing that to a lady in this city is a criminal assault, like I *think* it is. Yes, I was ready to call the cops and make a complaint myself, even if the "victim" and the house weren't taking any action. Ya think they would have laughed at me, or would they take it seriously? I'm not sure. But although he never did stop running his mouth, The Feeler kept his hands to himself after that, so I didn't make that call, and didn't find out.
Can you tell that I don't much like this guy? Well, guess I do like him in my game, if not personally, and he was there again tonight, when I found Ace-King Hearts in the small blind. Several players, including The Feeler, limped in, and I raise. Flop comes two hearts, I bet, and get two callers. Turn comes a blank, I check, they check: free card.
Deuce of hearts on the river makes me the nuts. Normally I hate to check here, take a chance that nobody bets, but I already checked the turn, showed apparent weakness, and feel confident The Feeler will try to pick up this pot, if I let him. I check, and he does not disappoint. Didn't call my raise, just threw his cards in disgust. Felt sooooo good.
=============
Your Brain as a Noise Canceling Circuit
Ever used noise-canceling headphones? They have a tiny microphone on the outside that picks up the same environment noises that you DON'T want to listen to, apart from your music, then they generate and "play" an OPPOSITE of that noise, to cancel it. This can be very effective.
Well, if you're in a noisy cardroom talking to your honey or your homie on your cell, but can't hardly hear them for all the noise around you, there's a little trick that might help. All the noise is coming in both your ears, and also into your cellphone's microphone, and mixing with the voice that you're struggling to listen to.
The cellphone's mic is probably just a tiny hole at the bottom; if you COVER that with a fingertip, then your telephone ear doesn't get all the noise that the other ear gets, and your brain should step in and separate the two, and you *should* be able to hear better. Satisfaction guaranteed, or double your money back. Offer void where prohibited, or if your brain is defective.
Remember to uncover the mic when you want to talk. This may take some coordination and manual dexterity, but, hey, you can shuffle stacks of chips with both hands, right? So you should be able to handle this. :-)
====================
1. Play MORE Hold 'Em, specifically $20/40 at Diamond Lil's. Last year I played maybe 2 or 3 times a week, but this year I don't want to stay home more than 2 or 3 days a week. So far I've played nine of the eleven days this month. On track.
2. Play BETTER Hold 'Em. Specifically, focus on that one particular weak part of my game-- the one I've known about and struggled with for a long time-- get it fixed, and turn it from a weakness into a strength. Finally I am actually doing better with this the last couple weeks. If you ask in person what the hell I'm talking about here, I'll explain it to you. Maybe.
3. Finish the year with a better poker win record than Mrs. Rock. That has never, ever, happened before-- not even close-- but this *could* be the year.
4. Post more on this blog. Bring it back to life. Try to be entertaining.
=============
Misread the Board, Call with 10 High, and Win the Pot.
I don't think I'd ever seen his stranger before, but I sure hope to see him again. About my age, thinning wavy hair combed straight back, kinda looks a little like that old movie actor, Melvyn Douglas. On a bad day. Wears wire-rim glasses with thick lenses, but the prescription must not be right, because when he gets his cards he leans in with his head down right by the rim of the table, gets his face within a couple inches of the hand, and takes a good look. It's pretty funny to watch.
So anyway, I'm in seat 8 when this guy sits down in 9, and tells everyone that "I've been playing this game for a long, long time, so you guys better not try to run over me!" Then he proceeds to play more than half of his starting hands, and make bets, calls, and even a couple raises, that, well, just made no sense at all. And it doesn't seem like he's particularly trying to be deceptive; more like he has no clue what he's doing.
Then comes this hand where The Stranger and two other guys limp in, and I get a free play in the Big Blind, with Ten-Three. 4 players, the flop comes 8, Jack, Queen, two suited cards. I think a second about betting my gut-shot. What's the chance I can win right now, don't even have to get there? Fugedaboutit. The Stranger had limped in UTG, could have anything, the other two guys are likely to call, or raise, if they have even a piece of that flop. So I check, and, long story short, nobody bets the flop and nobody bets the turn, a blank.
Then a 9 on the river makes my straight, but makes that possible flush too. I check, The Stranger bets, and the other two guys fold. Small pot, but good odds this guy has nothing at all. I call. He hesitates, doesn't want to show, but finally turns over some nothing like five deuce off. Just as I'm tabling my hand to show my straight and claim the pot, I look at the board again. Holy Shit, that isn't Jack Queen out there, it's two Jacks! I don't have a straight. I don't have anything. But my Ten does have him high-carded, so I win. A couple other players who have been watching, and Vicky, the dealer, all look at me in surprise, trying to decide if I'm an idiot or a genius. I could have explained that I had misread the board, but admitting that would ruin the illusion, and take them-- rightfully-- to that "idiot" conclusion. So I don't say a word. :-)
Note to self: Look at the board more carefully. Twice. And maybe go see that optometrist who sent a postcard 2 years ago saying it's time for a checkup..
====================
Another Bad Play
Just got done saying "Play Better," but here's a mistake I've been thinking about for a week.
I open raise in late-middle position with Queen Ten suited, get a couple callers, and flop A94, with two of my suit. I bet, and get those same couple callers.
Turn is a Ten, and when the Big Blind check raises me, I raise him right back. I'm thinking that I can check behind him on the river, unless I make that flush. This plan starts unraveling right away: He caps it. Oops.
But then the River brings another ten, and he checks. Without enough thought, I bet, he calls, and I show my trip tens. Then he shows his pocket fours, making him fours full of tens, and takes the pot.
Then he tells me that he had to put me on Ace Ten, and didn't bet the river for fear I had filled up with a better boat than he did. Yes, of course. Thing is, I should have given more thought to "what does he think I have?" based on the action, and figured that out myself, after he four-bets the turn but then checks on that particular river card.
So my river bet was really flakey. Should have known better where I was in that hand, and saved those chips!
=============
Checking the Nuts on the River
Don't you hate it when you go for a check-raise, and nobody bets? I sure do. Especially on the River, when you turn it over, and everyone laughs. How humiliating! :-)
So I almost never take that chance, checking the nuts at the end, but there are exceptions, and against this guy was the one. I'll just call him The Feeler.
He came into my game a couple days ago, don't think I ever saw him before, and within a couple minutes of sitting down into seat 9, he reaches over and pinches the dealer's ass. No kidding.
She didn't much like that, told him "Don't!!" and also kind of half-seriously called out for Security. Then, a minute later, he does it again! Again she tells him "Don't do that !!" and calls out for security, sounding more serious this time, but the security guy apparently heard her the first time, because now he's standing right behind and looking right at this player. And yet he does nothing, and says nothing. Go figure.
I may be wrong, but it seemed to me like the dealer was so bothered by all this that she was almost ready to burst into tears. I just couldn't understand why the security guy was watching this behavior but doing nothing about it.
So I get my cell ready, planning to, if it happens again, call 911 and find out if doing that to a lady in this city is a criminal assault, like I *think* it is. Yes, I was ready to call the cops and make a complaint myself, even if the "victim" and the house weren't taking any action. Ya think they would have laughed at me, or would they take it seriously? I'm not sure. But although he never did stop running his mouth, The Feeler kept his hands to himself after that, so I didn't make that call, and didn't find out.
Can you tell that I don't much like this guy? Well, guess I do like him in my game, if not personally, and he was there again tonight, when I found Ace-King Hearts in the small blind. Several players, including The Feeler, limped in, and I raise. Flop comes two hearts, I bet, and get two callers. Turn comes a blank, I check, they check: free card.
Deuce of hearts on the river makes me the nuts. Normally I hate to check here, take a chance that nobody bets, but I already checked the turn, showed apparent weakness, and feel confident The Feeler will try to pick up this pot, if I let him. I check, and he does not disappoint. Didn't call my raise, just threw his cards in disgust. Felt sooooo good.
=============
Your Brain as a Noise Canceling Circuit
Ever used noise-canceling headphones? They have a tiny microphone on the outside that picks up the same environment noises that you DON'T want to listen to, apart from your music, then they generate and "play" an OPPOSITE of that noise, to cancel it. This can be very effective.
Well, if you're in a noisy cardroom talking to your honey or your homie on your cell, but can't hardly hear them for all the noise around you, there's a little trick that might help. All the noise is coming in both your ears, and also into your cellphone's microphone, and mixing with the voice that you're struggling to listen to.
The cellphone's mic is probably just a tiny hole at the bottom; if you COVER that with a fingertip, then your telephone ear doesn't get all the noise that the other ear gets, and your brain should step in and separate the two, and you *should* be able to hear better. Satisfaction guaranteed, or double your money back. Offer void where prohibited, or if your brain is defective.
Remember to uncover the mic when you want to talk. This may take some coordination and manual dexterity, but, hey, you can shuffle stacks of chips with both hands, right? So you should be able to handle this. :-)
====================
Monday, February 11, 2008
Superbowl Sunday at the D.L.
Got to Diamond Lil's somewhere around the first quarter of the ballgame. Not that it made any difference to me; I personally have little interest in college or pro sports, and you'll sure never see me going to a stadium or arena and paying big bucks to watch a bunch of millionaires play ball with each other. Hell, THEY should pay ME to come watch! They can afford it way better than I can. And besides, the only sport I'm really into is: Co-Ed Wrestling. And NOT as a spectator!
The parking lot and the room were both half empty, but there were two 20/40 games going. I landed sixth on the list, but it moved quickly, and soon I got a seat, then didn't move an inch for the next seven hours. Well, my stack moved— downwards— in spite of a truly wonderful lineup. A sixty something Chinese lady sat next to me all that time, and timidly went to the river with nearly every hand, making rebuy after rebuy. The one time she actually made a bluff, then proudly showed it, we all clapped and cheered for her. Well, not the guy she knocked off the best hand on the river, but everyone else.
Hadn't seen Singapore John for, like, a year or more, but there he was in seat five, his old favorite. Said he's moving back there, just in town to sell his house, and leaving tomorrow. So I guess this was his Seattle Poker swan song. Too bad, as he's a fun guy action player who likes nearly every starting hand too.
The rest of the lineup had just a couple slightly rough spots, but otherwise was nice and soft. Kinda like Charmin. It also included this one incredibly stoic guy, a regular I won't name, who can sit there for hours, never say anything, passively play nearly every hand, and rebuy, rebuy, rebuy. After a while he may curse some very quietly, under his breath, but otherwise never says a word.
So it was a great game, but I sucked, and couldn't do much. Oh well. At least they play here every day, so plenty of opportunity to get revenge.
---
How Low Can You Go?
No, we're not talking about dancing the Limbo. This ties in to an old Sgt. Rock quote (see the archives) about how "Everyone's true character shows itself sooner or later in the poker game." We're talking about those players who get beat, then "punish the dealer" by deliberately mucking their hand AWAY from the center, instead of towards the center.
Sometimes they are actually able to inflict physical pain on the poor dealer who has to reach and stretch to retrieve that low-life's cards, even when she already has an aching back, or shoulders, or worse, from the repetitive motion stresses and strains of dealing the game every day. And that doesn't even begin to talk about the arrogance, the attitude, the insult, the disrespect, conveyed by this despicable gesture. I guess this is why I could never be a dealer; first time some asshole pulled that shit on me, I would surely say or do something that would get me fired right away.
And how about the utter stupidity of blaming bad luck on the dealer in the first place? If she really had any control, wouldn't she put her sister and both her cousins into the game? What kind of pathetically immature personality does it take, what kind of "denial" to you have to be in, to hold the dealer responsible for which cards, shuffled by a machine, come off the deck?
And ya know what's really frightening? These same people, with this same broke-dick defective reasoning, get to vote in the presidential election. Or if you or I were to somehow be arrested for something and put on trial, innocent, these same brain-damaged people could be on the jury, deciding our fate. Scary!
---
To Catch a Thief
Even worse is a player who steals chips from the pot, and this next part is posted as a public service. I thought I saw a something wrong in the D.L. 20/40 the other day, and it reminded me that I thought I had maybe seen the same thing from the same guy at the Mucks last year. I'm only 82% sure I saw what I thought I saw, so I cannot name this guy. I'll just say that he's younger than me, and English is not his first language, but he is not Asian. He's not a regular at D.L., but I see him there once or twice a month or so. That narrows it down some, so if you play or deal in Seattle, well, keep your eyes open, and try to catch and bust this guy if you can. Here's what I thought I saw:
A bet and one or more raises have been called. The betting round is over, maybe the showdown has occurred and our boy has lost, or maybe it's just the turn. Our boy has some loose chips on the cloth in front of his stack, near his hands, and then his bets and calls are stacked out in front of him. The dealer has already verified that all the bets are "out there," correct number of chips everywhere; the pot is right."
But then our boy "helps" the dealer bring in his bets, even when no help is needed. Some players help sometimes with the edge of their hand, or fingertips, or maybe "clear" their hand after helping, to show that nothing went South. Not this guy. He pushes them out with his palms, smearing them into the cloth, breaking the neat stacks into a loose pile of chips, just in time for the dealer to take that pile to the pot. Then he drags his hands, palms still down, back over the aforementioned loose chips in front of his stack, grabs some of those, and puts them on his stacks. Got the picture?
I saw this three times in a session last week, and was thinking that there is no reason to do this-- handle your chips and bets in quite that way-- unless you wanted to steal, and every reason to do it, exactly that way, if you did want to steal. But I'm slow, and didn't figure all that out until the third time I saw it. Shortly after that, the alleged perpetrator racked up and left.
So to bust this guy, you would have to catch the dealer the moment she has taken that pile, but before she can bring it into the pot, and have her stack it back up again, and show that what just a moment ago was 16 chips, is now only 14 or 15 chips. And I damn well better be right, or face some extreme embarrassment, or worse.
---
My Worst Play This Year (So Far)
I open limp under the gun with pocket deuces. Now that may seem bad right there, and it usually would be. But this is the late night game, 5 or 6 or more players seeing nearly every flop, usually for one or two bets, so I feel just fine about the limp.
Shauna raises right behind me. Oops. Can't like that much. But then she gets a few callers. OK, that's better.
And it flopped real nice, too: Q 4 2. I checkraise, and Shauna calls.
Turn brings another Queen, I bet, she raises, and I just call. I have to put her on three Queens, or a big pair, and still think my boat is best. I'm vaguely planning to wait and see that the river isn't too threatening, maybe raise her then, but not yet.
And I was damn glad I didn't, too, when the river brought yet another Queen! I check, she bets, I call, and she shows me four Queens.
So that's that's my worst play so far this year: The last call on the river. A moment ago I had a big hand, but now I have shit. What can I beat? I needed to take a moment, take a breath, accept the suckout, fold, and save some chips. But instead, almost by reflex, and as if "in denial," I quickly made that truly moronic call. Sick.
---
MegaTell
After the house rake, Lil's drops another $2 per hand, to fund the bad beat and super bad beat jackpots, plus they give a $500 cash bonus for the highest Hold Em hand, every two hours. So whenever you make a big boat, or especially quads or a straight flush, you're wondering if someone else in the room already hit a higher hand, or if you have a shot at the five bills. The highest hand (so far) is recorded on the big whiteboard up front, right beside the waiting lists. You can always look up there to see what you gotta beat. And if you're in the 20/40 Main Game, you're at Table 1, very near that board.
If this isn't The Mother of All Tells, then I don't know what is. A scare card hits the turn, or river, and the player looks up at the board, to see what the high hand is. Five times out of six that I've seen someone take that look, it turned out that they had indeed just made the monster hand. And when I made quads on the river the other day, I really had to fight the urge to look.
---
See also my old posts to rec.gambling.poker at:
http://sgt.rock.home.comcast.net
The parking lot and the room were both half empty, but there were two 20/40 games going. I landed sixth on the list, but it moved quickly, and soon I got a seat, then didn't move an inch for the next seven hours. Well, my stack moved— downwards— in spite of a truly wonderful lineup. A sixty something Chinese lady sat next to me all that time, and timidly went to the river with nearly every hand, making rebuy after rebuy. The one time she actually made a bluff, then proudly showed it, we all clapped and cheered for her. Well, not the guy she knocked off the best hand on the river, but everyone else.
Hadn't seen Singapore John for, like, a year or more, but there he was in seat five, his old favorite. Said he's moving back there, just in town to sell his house, and leaving tomorrow. So I guess this was his Seattle Poker swan song. Too bad, as he's a fun guy action player who likes nearly every starting hand too.
The rest of the lineup had just a couple slightly rough spots, but otherwise was nice and soft. Kinda like Charmin. It also included this one incredibly stoic guy, a regular I won't name, who can sit there for hours, never say anything, passively play nearly every hand, and rebuy, rebuy, rebuy. After a while he may curse some very quietly, under his breath, but otherwise never says a word.
So it was a great game, but I sucked, and couldn't do much. Oh well. At least they play here every day, so plenty of opportunity to get revenge.
---
How Low Can You Go?
No, we're not talking about dancing the Limbo. This ties in to an old Sgt. Rock quote (see the archives) about how "Everyone's true character shows itself sooner or later in the poker game." We're talking about those players who get beat, then "punish the dealer" by deliberately mucking their hand AWAY from the center, instead of towards the center.
Sometimes they are actually able to inflict physical pain on the poor dealer who has to reach and stretch to retrieve that low-life's cards, even when she already has an aching back, or shoulders, or worse, from the repetitive motion stresses and strains of dealing the game every day. And that doesn't even begin to talk about the arrogance, the attitude, the insult, the disrespect, conveyed by this despicable gesture. I guess this is why I could never be a dealer; first time some asshole pulled that shit on me, I would surely say or do something that would get me fired right away.
And how about the utter stupidity of blaming bad luck on the dealer in the first place? If she really had any control, wouldn't she put her sister and both her cousins into the game? What kind of pathetically immature personality does it take, what kind of "denial" to you have to be in, to hold the dealer responsible for which cards, shuffled by a machine, come off the deck?
And ya know what's really frightening? These same people, with this same broke-dick defective reasoning, get to vote in the presidential election. Or if you or I were to somehow be arrested for something and put on trial, innocent, these same brain-damaged people could be on the jury, deciding our fate. Scary!
---
To Catch a Thief
Even worse is a player who steals chips from the pot, and this next part is posted as a public service. I thought I saw a something wrong in the D.L. 20/40 the other day, and it reminded me that I thought I had maybe seen the same thing from the same guy at the Mucks last year. I'm only 82% sure I saw what I thought I saw, so I cannot name this guy. I'll just say that he's younger than me, and English is not his first language, but he is not Asian. He's not a regular at D.L., but I see him there once or twice a month or so. That narrows it down some, so if you play or deal in Seattle, well, keep your eyes open, and try to catch and bust this guy if you can. Here's what I thought I saw:
A bet and one or more raises have been called. The betting round is over, maybe the showdown has occurred and our boy has lost, or maybe it's just the turn. Our boy has some loose chips on the cloth in front of his stack, near his hands, and then his bets and calls are stacked out in front of him. The dealer has already verified that all the bets are "out there," correct number of chips everywhere; the pot is right."
But then our boy "helps" the dealer bring in his bets, even when no help is needed. Some players help sometimes with the edge of their hand, or fingertips, or maybe "clear" their hand after helping, to show that nothing went South. Not this guy. He pushes them out with his palms, smearing them into the cloth, breaking the neat stacks into a loose pile of chips, just in time for the dealer to take that pile to the pot. Then he drags his hands, palms still down, back over the aforementioned loose chips in front of his stack, grabs some of those, and puts them on his stacks. Got the picture?
I saw this three times in a session last week, and was thinking that there is no reason to do this-- handle your chips and bets in quite that way-- unless you wanted to steal, and every reason to do it, exactly that way, if you did want to steal. But I'm slow, and didn't figure all that out until the third time I saw it. Shortly after that, the alleged perpetrator racked up and left.
So to bust this guy, you would have to catch the dealer the moment she has taken that pile, but before she can bring it into the pot, and have her stack it back up again, and show that what just a moment ago was 16 chips, is now only 14 or 15 chips. And I damn well better be right, or face some extreme embarrassment, or worse.
---
My Worst Play This Year (So Far)
I open limp under the gun with pocket deuces. Now that may seem bad right there, and it usually would be. But this is the late night game, 5 or 6 or more players seeing nearly every flop, usually for one or two bets, so I feel just fine about the limp.
Shauna raises right behind me. Oops. Can't like that much. But then she gets a few callers. OK, that's better.
And it flopped real nice, too: Q 4 2. I checkraise, and Shauna calls.
Turn brings another Queen, I bet, she raises, and I just call. I have to put her on three Queens, or a big pair, and still think my boat is best. I'm vaguely planning to wait and see that the river isn't too threatening, maybe raise her then, but not yet.
And I was damn glad I didn't, too, when the river brought yet another Queen! I check, she bets, I call, and she shows me four Queens.
So that's that's my worst play so far this year: The last call on the river. A moment ago I had a big hand, but now I have shit. What can I beat? I needed to take a moment, take a breath, accept the suckout, fold, and save some chips. But instead, almost by reflex, and as if "in denial," I quickly made that truly moronic call. Sick.
---
MegaTell
After the house rake, Lil's drops another $2 per hand, to fund the bad beat and super bad beat jackpots, plus they give a $500 cash bonus for the highest Hold Em hand, every two hours. So whenever you make a big boat, or especially quads or a straight flush, you're wondering if someone else in the room already hit a higher hand, or if you have a shot at the five bills. The highest hand (so far) is recorded on the big whiteboard up front, right beside the waiting lists. You can always look up there to see what you gotta beat. And if you're in the 20/40 Main Game, you're at Table 1, very near that board.
If this isn't The Mother of All Tells, then I don't know what is. A scare card hits the turn, or river, and the player looks up at the board, to see what the high hand is. Five times out of six that I've seen someone take that look, it turned out that they had indeed just made the monster hand. And when I made quads on the river the other day, I really had to fight the urge to look.
---
See also my old posts to rec.gambling.poker at:
http://sgt.rock.home.comcast.net
Sunday, November 11, 2007
More Weekends at the DL
I'm still playing 20/40 at Diamond Lil's 3 or 4 days a week, usually sessions of 12 hours or more. The games are so good I'm kinda wishing I could go there every day. Sometimes having a real J-O-B is SO inconvenient. :-) I'd retire tomorrow if I didn't like the web programming work (and the paydays) so much.
State law doesn't allow 24 hour operation, so Lil's games shut down from 6:00am to 10:00am daily. I used to try to get there right at ten, to start the 20/40, then play until mid-evening. But lately the second and third 20/40 games are starting sooner, so I'm coming in afternoons, and staying later. Where the day game is real good, the late night game is, well, awesome.
The swings can get kinda big in these games. Oftentimes it's a rammin' jammin' thing where some guys and even girls will raise or cap preflop with some the really wacky hands, because, "Hey, nobody is ever gonna put me on this !!" :-)
So you hang on, and play good hands, and keep reminding yourself what a huge chip-burning mistake it would be to try to run over these people. Instead, you let them try to run over you, then try to help them run into a wall (when you have a big hand), or maybe just a speedbump (when you have just a decent hand and they have nothing.)
And they WILL keep betting, without regard for whether or not they have anything. Have you ever called a heads-up river bet with absolutely nothing, like 45 suited on a draw that never got there, just for the pot odds that the bettor might muck his hand when you call? What? That sounds crazy, doesn't it?
But that very situation presented itself the other day. I had been studying the guy for some time, he had already "bet then mucked" three times within an hour, and I really felt like I could *tell* that he was about to do it again; after he bet, he was uncomfortably squirming the same way he had those other times. So I called with 5 high, the bettor mucked, and I stacked the chips. I roughly estimate this to be a situation that will occur about as often as a lunar eclipse.
-----
Friday night I came in on the button with Jd Td for five way action. Considered raising, but looked like the blind might raise, so I just limped, and, sure enough, she did raise.
The flop came with Kd and Qd, giving me a straight draw AND a flush draw. The blind raiser checked, and someone bet early. I just called, expecting the blind to raise for me, and again she did not disappoint. So I 3 bet, and she capped it. Still five way!
Both my draws got there on the turn: 9d! We capped it. Then we capped it again on the river. She had the A high nut flush, and kept raising me back with no hesitation. Either she didn't see the possible straight flush, or else just refused to accept that she might be beat.
In addition to that really nice pot, my straight flush also won the bi-hourly $500 High Hand cash bonus. The next night Mrs. Rock made a Royal, so she took down a $500 bonus too.
--------
Franklin
This guy is a wildman. I mean, look up "Maniac" in the Poker Dictionary, and you'll see his picture in there as the example. When the mood strikes him-- and it usually does-- Franklin will call or raise or cap, with just about anything.
Couple days in a row recently, he sat beside the dealer with a huge stack, sometimes over seven thousand, and ran over pretty much everyone. For a while. Eventually the wild play catches up and the stack dwindles (doh), but along the way it's quite a ride. Everyone has a real good time.
My man Franklin made a play the other night that was, well, just remarkable. It was mid-evening, and the barmaids had been kept really busy for a couple hours. In other words, several players, especially Frank, were severely hammered. No shortage of rammin' and jammin' in this game.
In this hand the pot is capped 6 ways before the flop, then on the flop is bet and raised by the time the action reaches Frank. He three bets. No surprise yet.
It takes a while for the action to get back around to him, and by this time it is capped again. Then, for some reason, Franklin is taking forever to make his decision to call. He's just sitting there in his wrap-around shades, "thinking," and it takes about 30 seconds before the dealer and everyone else finally realize that, between the time he three bet and now, Franklin has fallen asleep. It was one of the funniest things I ever saw in the game.
Sadly, Franklin got himself 86'd about a week later. A new policy said that waitstaff will decide when an intoxicated patron should be "cut off," and that doing so also means they will be "picked up" from whatever game they might be in. In other words, if he's completely toasted, let's get him outta here and back on the road, where he belongs. Brilliant. And if there's some guy in the game you want to get rid of, and if he's drinking, just slip the waitress a big toke, get her to declare him cut-off, and, poof, he's gone. Sweet, huh? :-)
Same day this new "policy" starts, Frank shows up, and starts chugging. Next thing you know they cut him off AND tell him to cash out. He doesn't appreciate this, starts loudly expressing his unhappiness with liberal and non-stop use of some language that is not allowed in the cardroom. So then "go home for today" expands to include "and don't come back!" Tragic! I miss him already.
That policy changed within a couple days. Now they've found a way to circumvent the need to cut anyone off; instead, they "slow him down" by saying they can't serve him another drink "for a while," like an hour or so.
-----
Talk Dirty To Me
Sometimes the good laugh comes from someplace you wouldn't expect. Alex is a Southeast Asian transplant ESL kind of guy, nice friendly kid, always smiling, but kinda quiet; doesn't usually have a lot to say. Well, the other night there was this young Asian woman in the game who was going out of her way to impress everyone with how frequently and loudly she could say the F word. I guess the dealer is supposed to say something, but he didn't. Me? Couldn't care less, one way or the other. If anything, I guess I found it "amusing."
After a while, though, Alex pipes up and tells her "Miss, please watch your language. There are gentlemen present." :-)
But all these players throwing around the F word, and various other taboo letter-words, are kinda pathetic, and are just amateurs. They don't get it; they don't understand that a real professional knows how to talk dirty-- maybe even filthy-- without actually using any of those words that can get you in trouble. Here's an example, and we leave it as an exercise for the reader to imagine the reaction this outburst produced:
Shauna is a tough aggressive player, and a slender, sexy, bright and sophisticated young woman, with kind of a pixie look. She's in the game (or the 50 games at the Mucks) most days.
Recently she got her short dark hair tinted with some red accent streaks, and it came out real nice.
Next day she's in the game sitting next to me, with red fingernails and toenails to match the hair, and this guy comes over and starts, well, not really "hitting on" her, but just saying how much he admires the coordinated new look. Then, in a suggestive way, he asks "Is *everything* colored red?"
Shauna is not particularly shy. "Oh," she responds, "Are you asking me if the carpet matches the drapes?"
Hey, they started this, not me. I mean, I'm not gonna go there on my own, but they brought it up, and a crazy-good riposte immediately popped into my (admittedly somewhat twisted) head, and how could I resist? So I jumped right in, and said:
"Wait, can I guess? I'm gonna go with hardwood floors."
[Editor's Note: Almost immediately Sarge was told - but NOT shown - that he had guessed correctly.]
State law doesn't allow 24 hour operation, so Lil's games shut down from 6:00am to 10:00am daily. I used to try to get there right at ten, to start the 20/40, then play until mid-evening. But lately the second and third 20/40 games are starting sooner, so I'm coming in afternoons, and staying later. Where the day game is real good, the late night game is, well, awesome.
The swings can get kinda big in these games. Oftentimes it's a rammin' jammin' thing where some guys and even girls will raise or cap preflop with some the really wacky hands, because, "Hey, nobody is ever gonna put me on this !!" :-)
So you hang on, and play good hands, and keep reminding yourself what a huge chip-burning mistake it would be to try to run over these people. Instead, you let them try to run over you, then try to help them run into a wall (when you have a big hand), or maybe just a speedbump (when you have just a decent hand and they have nothing.)
And they WILL keep betting, without regard for whether or not they have anything. Have you ever called a heads-up river bet with absolutely nothing, like 45 suited on a draw that never got there, just for the pot odds that the bettor might muck his hand when you call? What? That sounds crazy, doesn't it?
But that very situation presented itself the other day. I had been studying the guy for some time, he had already "bet then mucked" three times within an hour, and I really felt like I could *tell* that he was about to do it again; after he bet, he was uncomfortably squirming the same way he had those other times. So I called with 5 high, the bettor mucked, and I stacked the chips. I roughly estimate this to be a situation that will occur about as often as a lunar eclipse.
-----
Friday night I came in on the button with Jd Td for five way action. Considered raising, but looked like the blind might raise, so I just limped, and, sure enough, she did raise.
The flop came with Kd and Qd, giving me a straight draw AND a flush draw. The blind raiser checked, and someone bet early. I just called, expecting the blind to raise for me, and again she did not disappoint. So I 3 bet, and she capped it. Still five way!
Both my draws got there on the turn: 9d! We capped it. Then we capped it again on the river. She had the A high nut flush, and kept raising me back with no hesitation. Either she didn't see the possible straight flush, or else just refused to accept that she might be beat.
In addition to that really nice pot, my straight flush also won the bi-hourly $500 High Hand cash bonus. The next night Mrs. Rock made a Royal, so she took down a $500 bonus too.
--------
Franklin
This guy is a wildman. I mean, look up "Maniac" in the Poker Dictionary, and you'll see his picture in there as the example. When the mood strikes him-- and it usually does-- Franklin will call or raise or cap, with just about anything.
Couple days in a row recently, he sat beside the dealer with a huge stack, sometimes over seven thousand, and ran over pretty much everyone. For a while. Eventually the wild play catches up and the stack dwindles (doh), but along the way it's quite a ride. Everyone has a real good time.
My man Franklin made a play the other night that was, well, just remarkable. It was mid-evening, and the barmaids had been kept really busy for a couple hours. In other words, several players, especially Frank, were severely hammered. No shortage of rammin' and jammin' in this game.
In this hand the pot is capped 6 ways before the flop, then on the flop is bet and raised by the time the action reaches Frank. He three bets. No surprise yet.
It takes a while for the action to get back around to him, and by this time it is capped again. Then, for some reason, Franklin is taking forever to make his decision to call. He's just sitting there in his wrap-around shades, "thinking," and it takes about 30 seconds before the dealer and everyone else finally realize that, between the time he three bet and now, Franklin has fallen asleep. It was one of the funniest things I ever saw in the game.
Sadly, Franklin got himself 86'd about a week later. A new policy said that waitstaff will decide when an intoxicated patron should be "cut off," and that doing so also means they will be "picked up" from whatever game they might be in. In other words, if he's completely toasted, let's get him outta here and back on the road, where he belongs. Brilliant. And if there's some guy in the game you want to get rid of, and if he's drinking, just slip the waitress a big toke, get her to declare him cut-off, and, poof, he's gone. Sweet, huh? :-)
Same day this new "policy" starts, Frank shows up, and starts chugging. Next thing you know they cut him off AND tell him to cash out. He doesn't appreciate this, starts loudly expressing his unhappiness with liberal and non-stop use of some language that is not allowed in the cardroom. So then "go home for today" expands to include "and don't come back!" Tragic! I miss him already.
That policy changed within a couple days. Now they've found a way to circumvent the need to cut anyone off; instead, they "slow him down" by saying they can't serve him another drink "for a while," like an hour or so.
-----
Talk Dirty To Me
Sometimes the good laugh comes from someplace you wouldn't expect. Alex is a Southeast Asian transplant ESL kind of guy, nice friendly kid, always smiling, but kinda quiet; doesn't usually have a lot to say. Well, the other night there was this young Asian woman in the game who was going out of her way to impress everyone with how frequently and loudly she could say the F word. I guess the dealer is supposed to say something, but he didn't. Me? Couldn't care less, one way or the other. If anything, I guess I found it "amusing."
After a while, though, Alex pipes up and tells her "Miss, please watch your language. There are gentlemen present." :-)
But all these players throwing around the F word, and various other taboo letter-words, are kinda pathetic, and are just amateurs. They don't get it; they don't understand that a real professional knows how to talk dirty-- maybe even filthy-- without actually using any of those words that can get you in trouble. Here's an example, and we leave it as an exercise for the reader to imagine the reaction this outburst produced:
Shauna is a tough aggressive player, and a slender, sexy, bright and sophisticated young woman, with kind of a pixie look. She's in the game (or the 50 games at the Mucks) most days.
Recently she got her short dark hair tinted with some red accent streaks, and it came out real nice.
Next day she's in the game sitting next to me, with red fingernails and toenails to match the hair, and this guy comes over and starts, well, not really "hitting on" her, but just saying how much he admires the coordinated new look. Then, in a suggestive way, he asks "Is *everything* colored red?"
Shauna is not particularly shy. "Oh," she responds, "Are you asking me if the carpet matches the drapes?"
Hey, they started this, not me. I mean, I'm not gonna go there on my own, but they brought it up, and a crazy-good riposte immediately popped into my (admittedly somewhat twisted) head, and how could I resist? So I jumped right in, and said:
"Wait, can I guess? I'm gonna go with hardwood floors."
[Editor's Note: Almost immediately Sarge was told - but NOT shown - that he had guessed correctly.]
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Weekends at the D.L.
Last Friday night we made history at Diamond Lil's, here in Renton, Washington. (Renton is to Seattle as Henderson is to Las Vegas. South end..)
For the first time ever, just about midnight, they spread a FOURTH $20/40 Hold 'Em game. They'd been peaking at three games most nights for a couple weeks, and that in itself is noteworthy enough. But now they're pretty much the only Washington room spreading this limit, and Lil's has established herself as *the* place to play 20/40.
So I've had a clear choice to make lately. Always great to have options, ain't it? I can drive 15 miles to the huge Muckleshoots tribal casino in Auburn, Tuesday or Thursday, and play in a $50/100 game that sometimes features a couple ding dongs, but pretty much always includes several of the toughest players in Washington, guys that I would, well, just as soon not see in my game.
Or I can drive 2 miles to Diamond Lil's any day, and play their $20/40 Party Game. Well, it starts out half-serious in the morning, but by early evening the liquor starts flowing, and the players start tilting, and you know the rest. These are 'fasten your seatbelt' games. These often are 'matchstick' games, where, hey, no matter how late it is, or how tired you are, can't afford to leave, so prop your eyes open with matchsticks if necessary, and play on!
Our state law changed last Spring, and now allows this higher limit outside the tribal rooms. I think it was around that same time Lil's started paying $500 for high hand every 2 hours Mon, Tues and Weds, and $300 other days. They also have both a bad beat jackpot and a harder-to-hit super jackpot. So they rake $3, then drop another $2 to fund those "incentives." This means that in their $4/8 game, they're dropping 1.25 small bets per hand! In the 20/40 it becomes 0.25 small bets, somewhat more overcomeable. Is that a word?
Ego says that I should want to play in the bigger game. My years of experience, and (what I should like to think is) my reputation in the local poker community, says that I should want to play in the bigger game. Yeah? Well, screw that. Sure the Mucks' 50 game is 2.5 times bigger than Lil's 20 game, but I actually think that, for me, potential expectation, bets per hour, may be more than 2.5 times better at Lil's !
Last night I raised there with 2 red Queens, and by the turn I was head up with a drunken maniac, while the King and two other Diamonds were on board. We both checked. Then another Diamond hits the river, and he checkraises me and shows me Ah 5h, for a pair of fives, then seems surprised when it doesn't win the pot. Huh? Thing is, this is not unusual in these games. Daytime games are sometimes medium snug, but nearly all the tighties leave by dinnertime, and the evening and late night games are just awesome!
Meanwhile, I hear the Mucks rarely spreads any limit between that twice-a-week 50/100 and their now weak 10/20 game. As is so common everywhere, their big thing now is the spread limit game, and that is strong, with a couple tables of a couple levels going daily. I sure would love to learn how to play no limit, or spread limit. Great potential, I'm sure. But currently, I have no frickin' clue how to play those games, how to size my bets, how to not lose my whole damn stack to one stoopid mistake. I accept that PL and NL games are the "Real Poker." I understand how limit games were invented by cardrooms to prevent the suckers from going broke instantly, and to keep them around, paying rake, longer. But until I get a clue about the spread games, I have to stick to limit, and right now I'm just loving Diamond Lil's.
Often times ALL the other players are ESL folks, and especially evenings and late night, I'm often the ethnic minority at the table. But we all know each other all too well, and get along great, with just a couple notable exceptions. There's lots of animated but friendly trash talk in the game. There also are cliqués of friends who don't bet against each other once they get heads up, and the "English Only" rule -- three signs posted -- is mentioned frequently by staff, and ignored universally by players. 98% of the time someone speaks a particular Southeast Asian language during a hand, it's completely innocent. The other 2% of the time, it's an intolerable cheat, where they tell their friend(s) what they hold. But these things don't happen often enough, and are handled so ineptly when they do happen, that I think of it more as an annoyance than a serious threat.
The Turncoat
One morning I arrived to start the game and ran into Treebark, a seasoned player I wrote about in an RGP post nearly 10 years ago. This guy is about my age, but has been around the game at least twice as long as I have. Anyway, he had been there all night, just finished breakfast, and was tired and headed home. We chatted a couple minutes, and he stood up to go, but I asked him to listen to something first, then go away and think about it.
"Next time we're both in the game with these guys who seem to think that poker is a team sport, let's do what they do," I tell him. "Let's show them what it feels like."
"Let's each take half of the other, and I'll see you later in the parking lot."
"And if we're both in a hand, we'll jam it to knock the other guy out, then just check it down once we get heads-up ."
"After the hand we'll give each other back a bet or two, essentially 'chopping up' what 'the other guy' lost."
I guess we both knew that I was just venting a little, and wasn't quite serious. I laughed, and he laughed, and he went on home.
Couple days later I'm in the game and Tree comes into the room. As soon as he sees me, he comes right over.
"Hey, remember what you were talking about the other day?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Well forget about it," he tells me, with a perfectly straight face. "I can't do it. I'm with them now."
For the first time ever, just about midnight, they spread a FOURTH $20/40 Hold 'Em game. They'd been peaking at three games most nights for a couple weeks, and that in itself is noteworthy enough. But now they're pretty much the only Washington room spreading this limit, and Lil's has established herself as *the* place to play 20/40.
So I've had a clear choice to make lately. Always great to have options, ain't it? I can drive 15 miles to the huge Muckleshoots tribal casino in Auburn, Tuesday or Thursday, and play in a $50/100 game that sometimes features a couple ding dongs, but pretty much always includes several of the toughest players in Washington, guys that I would, well, just as soon not see in my game.
Or I can drive 2 miles to Diamond Lil's any day, and play their $20/40 Party Game. Well, it starts out half-serious in the morning, but by early evening the liquor starts flowing, and the players start tilting, and you know the rest. These are 'fasten your seatbelt' games. These often are 'matchstick' games, where, hey, no matter how late it is, or how tired you are, can't afford to leave, so prop your eyes open with matchsticks if necessary, and play on!
Our state law changed last Spring, and now allows this higher limit outside the tribal rooms. I think it was around that same time Lil's started paying $500 for high hand every 2 hours Mon, Tues and Weds, and $300 other days. They also have both a bad beat jackpot and a harder-to-hit super jackpot. So they rake $3, then drop another $2 to fund those "incentives." This means that in their $4/8 game, they're dropping 1.25 small bets per hand! In the 20/40 it becomes 0.25 small bets, somewhat more overcomeable. Is that a word?
Ego says that I should want to play in the bigger game. My years of experience, and (what I should like to think is) my reputation in the local poker community, says that I should want to play in the bigger game. Yeah? Well, screw that. Sure the Mucks' 50 game is 2.5 times bigger than Lil's 20 game, but I actually think that, for me, potential expectation, bets per hour, may be more than 2.5 times better at Lil's !
Last night I raised there with 2 red Queens, and by the turn I was head up with a drunken maniac, while the King and two other Diamonds were on board. We both checked. Then another Diamond hits the river, and he checkraises me and shows me Ah 5h, for a pair of fives, then seems surprised when it doesn't win the pot. Huh? Thing is, this is not unusual in these games. Daytime games are sometimes medium snug, but nearly all the tighties leave by dinnertime, and the evening and late night games are just awesome!
Meanwhile, I hear the Mucks rarely spreads any limit between that twice-a-week 50/100 and their now weak 10/20 game. As is so common everywhere, their big thing now is the spread limit game, and that is strong, with a couple tables of a couple levels going daily. I sure would love to learn how to play no limit, or spread limit. Great potential, I'm sure. But currently, I have no frickin' clue how to play those games, how to size my bets, how to not lose my whole damn stack to one stoopid mistake. I accept that PL and NL games are the "Real Poker." I understand how limit games were invented by cardrooms to prevent the suckers from going broke instantly, and to keep them around, paying rake, longer. But until I get a clue about the spread games, I have to stick to limit, and right now I'm just loving Diamond Lil's.
Often times ALL the other players are ESL folks, and especially evenings and late night, I'm often the ethnic minority at the table. But we all know each other all too well, and get along great, with just a couple notable exceptions. There's lots of animated but friendly trash talk in the game. There also are cliqués of friends who don't bet against each other once they get heads up, and the "English Only" rule -- three signs posted -- is mentioned frequently by staff, and ignored universally by players. 98% of the time someone speaks a particular Southeast Asian language during a hand, it's completely innocent. The other 2% of the time, it's an intolerable cheat, where they tell their friend(s) what they hold. But these things don't happen often enough, and are handled so ineptly when they do happen, that I think of it more as an annoyance than a serious threat.
The Turncoat
One morning I arrived to start the game and ran into Treebark, a seasoned player I wrote about in an RGP post nearly 10 years ago. This guy is about my age, but has been around the game at least twice as long as I have. Anyway, he had been there all night, just finished breakfast, and was tired and headed home. We chatted a couple minutes, and he stood up to go, but I asked him to listen to something first, then go away and think about it.
"Next time we're both in the game with these guys who seem to think that poker is a team sport, let's do what they do," I tell him. "Let's show them what it feels like."
"Let's each take half of the other, and I'll see you later in the parking lot."
"And if we're both in a hand, we'll jam it to knock the other guy out, then just check it down once we get heads-up ."
"After the hand we'll give each other back a bet or two, essentially 'chopping up' what 'the other guy' lost."
I guess we both knew that I was just venting a little, and wasn't quite serious. I laughed, and he laughed, and he went on home.
Couple days later I'm in the game and Tree comes into the room. As soon as he sees me, he comes right over.
"Hey, remember what you were talking about the other day?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Well forget about it," he tells me, with a perfectly straight face. "I can't do it. I'm with them now."
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