Boneheadedness

I'm still pissed off with myself after a dumbass move in the 50-50 last night.

Much like the previous evening, I was cruising along quite nicely. If I'd kept my head straight, I'd have coasted into the money if I chose. Instead, I stopped thinking and gave my chips away in one fell swoop.

A little over 200 people left, and I have A9h. I limp from EP and get raised for another 2k, which isn't a significant portion of my stack but a significant enough raise blinds-wise to let go. The problem was that this donk had shown a proclivity to raise and call with cards like K9o, so I didn't put him on much.

Long story short, AQxx two club, no heart board and I re-pop a weak turn bet by him for all my chips (an absolutely POINTLESS move since I had a great stack in the top 40 and he had me covered by a couple grand) and he flipped over AKc. No river 9 and I'm done just like that. I had convinced myself he had junk (K-high in fact) and I was going to bust him, even though the little voice was trying to tell me to run. No need to tell me what I did wrong, because that hand is full of steps of idiocy. I just needed to get it off my chest.

I went out of 32k last night when I overpushed a side-pot raise with AK (A on the board) into a turned inside straight because I slowplayed the flop. Sigh. I did something equally stupid the previous night in the 32k I believe.

But I satellited into the 50-50 from a $14 SnG, and won a $10 turbo before that, so the night showed a tiny little profit regardless. I just hate when I make totally boneheaded moves.

Oh yah... I started playing some of the larger-field MTTs again this week. I don't know why I stopped, since I love these things. Other than one-hand lapses in judgement costing me hours of effort, I really like where my game has been the past couple nights.

I'm hitting the club with Kat and her messed up ankle tonight, and I'm feeling good. I highly doubt I'll make The Mookie tonight, but you never know.

Back to Poker

Well, trip report's done, back to poker.

Hasn't been a good few days for me results-wise. Between Sunday and Monday I took more bad beats than I've seen in a loooooooong time. Not that MY play was all that stellar either.

But I cashed in the Labour Day 100k (3700 runners I think, 175k pool) for a whopping $87 and change when I pushed over the big stack to me right. He was in the hijack and had raised from there enough to be noticed, I put him on another steal and knew if I was going to fight back it was now or never. So with A5s I pushed for my 7k (blinds 400/800 + 100) to his 3000 bet. He thought and thought (stack = 30k) and finally called with KJo. K on the flop was enough to beat me. Grrrr. At least it covered my buy-in and MATH buy-in, although not all the various satellites I'd tried earlier before giving up and ponying up. I did hit as high as 57th out of 1800 or so at one point.

A few hands of interest from both the MATH and 100k:


My overbet wasn't enough to lure in Fuel, who was a might tipsy. Regardless: DQB!


From the 100k. Fuel is right - flopped straights NEVER win.
I called a minraise from someone else to get to the flop, check-called the flop putting him on a Q, bet and called his push on the turn, and cried on the river. I had him covered, but it took me a long time to recover, and by then my stack wasn't nearly as impressive compared to the blinds.


Mike plays gud. He pushed pre-flop, I called. Battle of short stacks.

I guess I just need to repeat it: If you're getting sucked out on, you're playing good poker, right?

Tell that to my bankroll.

Make One Good Call...

Played in the 50-50 tonight. As is rapidly becoming tradition, Chad ended up at my table for a while, this time on my right.

I'll confirm he got some absolutely horrific beats laid on him. Thing is, he's still alive with 2 tables left (and now out 15th). Me?



So, a better pay than I got with 4th in the Mookie, and it covered all my buy-ins and attempts at buy-ins last night plus a bit of profit. Which is good, since the Big Game didn't go so well for me. I started both of the tournaments 30 min late as well, which was less than advantageous.

I guess I should explain the title. My last hand of the 50-50:

Dealt 33 in the BB. MP raises as usual, and I call. Flop comes 664, I bet 20k into the 29k pot, leaving me with about 19k. Raiser thinks, and I know I've got him. He pushes, I call, and he flips over AQ. Any guesses what hits?

Nope. 4 on the turn, counterfeiting my 2 pair, K on the river helps nobody. I'm done in 20th. About 5 hours of play, $211 profit. I guess $42 an hour isn't a bad rate.

But here's what you really want to know.

348 hands

AA - 5 times
KK - 3 times
QQ - 4 times
JJ - 1 time

10 other pocket pairs (everything but 88; 33 and 66 twice)

AK - 9 times

AQ - 1 time

AJ - 5 times
KQ - 5 times
KJ - 6 times
QJ - 4 times

So once again, 18% of all the hands were a pocket pair, AK, A-face, or paint. I hope everyone cleaned out their buckets from last time. The sad part? I got almost nothing for the aces. The first one got me a built pot (I raised the limpers, and most called), the second got me an all-in, and after that? Nothing but blinds. I guess I should mix up my play a bit more with them.

Long weekend in some parts of Canada. I love the extra day off. 4 day week, and then 2 weeks off, including 1 week in Iceland. I need a vacation.

Middling

First, at Alan's request: Dinner was okay. My steak was incredibly salty, but otherwise cooked right and tasty. Wine was great, and the key lime pie was awesome as soon as you got rid of the ridiculous amount of whipped cream. I left with the belt loosened and stumbled home to collapse on my couch for 2 hours. So that's a good sign.

For the record - tonight's dinner was a hot dog from a cart on the way home after a couple beers.

Mookie - out 40-something, pre-points. Aces cracked by NumbersGame's QQ crippled me, and I treaded water with 357 chips for a bit and eventually went out with some A-high hand.

50-50 - Cashed again. 125th, so that was good for about $87. Didn't do much this time around. Not a lot of cards, but pocket sevens that turned into a flopped boat helped at one point. Stolen blinds with about 50 to go to the money kept me afloat. I tried to steal with A4d before the bubble, and got re-raised by an all-in AKo for about 1800 chips more. I called and nothing improved for either of us. Finally went out after the bubble pushing over the top from the BB with AJo and meeting my old nemesis AKo again. JQx on the flop, T on the turn... bye me.

Also jumped in the blogger 1/2 for the first time since it used to be popular. Made a bit, but then got killed by the big hands. KK beat by Don's straight (I believe him). I had to throw them away on the flop when he put me all-in with an A, straight draw, and failed flush draw on the board. I put him on the flush draw with middle cards, and was half right. Honestly? If I wasn't in the process of being knocked out of the 50-50 at the same time, I call based on my read, but I suddenly didn't want to get knocked out simultaneously and folded. I guess that's weak of me.

Then AA went down to WildDuces235's flopped set of sixes. I don't have a problem folding aces, but I saw nothing on the board to scare me (no flush, no straight, no connected cards at all), and did my usual brilliance of betting into the better hand the whole way down. With $26 left in front of me on the river and the pot over $100, I had to put it in on that board (2J6K4 rainbow)... hoping for the jackace, and not the rivered straight (seemed HIGHLY unlikely) or KJ. Nope... sixes. Set of evil.

*EDIT: Just a quick welcome to WildDuces. New Blog, kicked my aces last night, and is ALSO a 26k winner (from back in May if I'm reading through the glare properly). Seems he's got some game. Welcome to our dysfunctional cadre of donkeys. Now learn how to take a screen shot. :)

My second cracked aces of the night was enough to get me to stand up and call it a night instead of continuing my donation. I guess I'm still getting hands, but now they aren't holding up. I should have played my crap hands all night, it would have been an embarrassment of winning straights.

Good blogger turnout in the 50-50. Chad, Hoy, Alan, cmitch, me... anyone else? And someone going by Tasit who has played in 3 BBT events and obviously reads here since we had a discussion about my recent dinners :). So here's a shout-out to tasit, because it's always awesome to be recognized at the tables.

Riverchasers tomorrow. THAT should be interesting. Maybe I'll 3-table it with the 50-50 and the 26k. I won a token in my sleep last night (literally... I was drifting in and out to the final 5. Woke up and pushed and won 6 straight hands to finish 1st), so it should be put to donkish use.

I need to get my cash game back. It's sucked hard of late, and that's no good for the bankroll. That or start crushing the SnG's.

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Update - Congrats to RecessRampage! 103rd in the 50-50 and WINNER of the Mookie. Damn, now I've dropped in the standings. :)

Damn

*EDIT - Congrats to Chad for winning the 26k AGAIN. I think I just need to start jamming with unsuited disconnectors more often. :)

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Cashed in the fifty-fifty. I'm a tool though. After typing it all up, I'm not sure I'm a complete donkey. Maybe I've just convinced myself otherwise. This post is a mess, but it's late and I'm not going to tidy it up.

AJo, I limp in from the SB with the button limping before me. K-high flop, I bet, button raises, I fold.

Two hands later, AJh in the cutoff. No action before me, I raise to 4x the BB. SB raises to put me almost all-in (less 820 chips).

I start to think.

M was 6, but after my bet it's more like 4.4, and the SB is a fairly big stack (~46k in chips). He's either been lucky or aggressive, but I just got moved to this table and haven't seen enough to know. Why that raise? I don't think it was designed to get me to call or raise all-in, but to make a decision. I can't put him on a premium pair here with that bet after the bubble. I'm sure it's to scare me out. AK? AQ? Maybe. More likely a complete blind-protecting bluff or an overplayed medium pocket pair.

And then, with an M of 5, people dropping like flies post-bubble, pot odds of 1.76:1 I think, I call my coin flip (1.17:1 ... or 46%) and he flips over 77... so not a complete bluff. 33QKK on the board sends me home 142nd for $80 and change.

Now, I had to take the possibility of him being full of it into account here. In my mind that skews the odds more in my favour. I'm pretty sure at worst I'm in a coin flip, and maybe even facing a weaker suited ace. Premium hands just aren't a consideration as far as I'm concerned. Plus, I'm playing to win, not walk out with $80. The next few levels are small increases, and if I win here, I'm over 20k in chips and can steal, gamble and cruise for a few levels.

In the end, it was that chance to double-up that made my decision for me.

So sooooted AJ being a cruddy hand aside (although I think my 4x BB raise in the cutoff is the right move 100% of the time), am I thinking correctly here?

- I've put him on either a medium pair, a weak ace, or a stone cold bluff for my chips
- M is < 5 if I fold, but I'll be in the hijack at a full table
- We've lost 12 players since the bubble burst about 2 minutes earlier
- I'm in the cash for $80. Next levels are $86, $97, and $113. So I have to go 2 more levels to see a significant percentage jump, and that means outlasting around 42 more people. I don't care about $17 more, I want to go deep.
- This guy is either lucky or good. If he's lucky, then he could have anything - paint, a weak suited ace, hell, even a suited king is a possibility. If he's good, then he doesn't have a premium hand here and wants to scare me off or isolate with AK, especially since he knows I can fold from 2 hands earlier. So either way, I'm 95% sure I'm in a coinflip or better with that bet.
- Pot odds are 1.76:1 (I think) vs my coin-flip (at worst)
- If I double-up here, I'm solid for a while

*EDIT: One thing I didn't think of was his stack size BEFORE my initial raise. I think if I had I would have either pushed or tried to get in cheap and folded to a re-raise. This might have been my biggest mistake.

Do you go all-in or fold? Hell, is my math even right?

Full Tilt Poker Game #2762964492: The Fifty-Fifty (20654789), Table 5 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:40:43 ET - 2007/06/25
Seat 1: lawdork1980 (48,386)
Seat 2: azbigpot (21,255)
Seat 3: peterthekiller (7,172)
Seat 4: Astin (9,370)
Seat 5: RobM77 (13,915)
Seat 6: cruise122 (46,617)
Seat 7: Mkush (11,892)
Seat 8: rancher7979 (3,565)
Seat 9: winning_12 (20,437)
[everyone antes]
cruise122 posts the small blind of 300
Mkush posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Astin [Ah Jh]
[folds to me]
Astin raises to 2,400
RobM77 folds
cruise122 raises to 8,475
Mkush has 15 seconds left to act
Mkush folds
Astin has 15 seconds left to act
Astin raises to 9,295, and is all in
cruise122 calls 820
Astin shows [Ah Jh]
cruise122 shows [7d 7s]
*** FLOP *** [3d 3h Qc]
*** TURN *** [3d 3h Qc] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [3d 3h Qc Kc] [Ks]
Astin shows two pair, Kings and Threes
cruise122 shows two pair, Kings and Sevens
cruise122 wins the pot (19,865) with two pair, Kings and Sevens