Last night's Monday tournament was a good one for me. I haven't won it in a few weeks, and I was more than glad to do so, collecting a first place prize payout padded by my must-win bet against Dale.
I was playing really well overall, and got my money in good in a lot of spots. The addition of the ante into the game at the fourth level created some great opportunities for chipping up via well timed preflop aggression combined with continuation-type bets on the flops. However, one pot developed early on in the tournament in which I went broke when all my chips went into the pot on the flop in the following hand:
Marc: KK
Me: TT
Flop: Q 6 T
Turn: 9
River: J
Marc caught runners to the straight! Even worse, Chip folded two jacks on the flop when Marc shoved all-in and I insta-called, making his hit on the river even more painful. I rebought, and began aggressing more than usual preflop, as it was more important to steal the blinds given my short stack. After taking down four pots in a row, I three-bet Chris all-in and doubled up when my tens held up against his eights. I now had about what I'd had before Marc took me out earlier.
Marc had huge chips at this point, and was playing his usual any-two-are-good-to-see-a-flop-with-even-if-it's-raised strategy. Unfortunately for him, the escalating blinds meant that he was calling off 2 or 3 bucks each hand, which was eroding his stack. A little while into the fourth or fifth level of blinds, I limped one off the button with the 8 5 of hearts, and Chris called in the small blind. The big blind checked. The flop was gin for me - 5 8 5. He bet $1 on the flop, which I flat-called. The turn brought a 6, and he made the same bet, which I again elected to just call. The river came off an offsuit 9, and he now bet $5. I raised all-in, having him covered. He called, showed ace-5, and was out of the tournament.
A while later, I picked off an all-in play that Marc made with second pair on a board of T 8 5 when I held the 10 3. The turn brought a 3, the river a ten, and we were heads-up. The heads-up match between Eric and I lasted a little less than an hour, and finally the following hand came up:
I had $80.25 in chips, Eric had $84. Blinds were $1/$2 with a 25 cent ante, and I was on the big blind. Eric called, and I looked down at ace-deuce. I had been playing fast in heads-up, raising nearly every hand from the button, and I decided to step out and raise $4 more from the big blind, which he called. The flop brought A 2 K with two clubs. Normally, I'd try to trap here, but (A) I got the sense that Eric was sick of my constant betting/raising, and (B) I wanted to shut out the possible draws. I led for $8.50, and Eric thought for a while before calling. The turn brought a ten of spades, which wasn't that threatening since I didn't think Eric would make the call there with a queen-jack. Ideally, he'd have king-ten and I could stack him. I made another bet, this time of $40. Eric tanked for a long time before raising all-in. I instantaneously called for my last $25.50 , and he showed K 8. The river brought another ace, and having only $3.75 left in his stack, Eric conceded the match.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
an interesting heads-up match
tonight I played a heads-up game with Dale for ten bucks, because we had nothing to do and couldn't get a game together. There were two interesting hands. We began the hand fairly even in chips, though he was up a little. He limped the button, and I checked my option with the ace of spades and the four of hearts. The flop came down 2 5 9, all spades. I checked my nut flush draw/inside wheel draw, and dale bet 75 cents (three quarters of the pot, since blinds were 25/50. We had started with $35 in chips each.). I check-raised him to $3.25, and he thought about it for a while before eventually making it 4 more on top of that. Feeling that he was weak, I decided to go all-in (debatable, but I knew I had a gazillion outs and two cards coming). Dale decided to call, showing the ace of clubs and the seven of spades!!! By the way, I hate this call. As it turns out, even though his high cards were better than mine, I was a favorite to win the pot.
A five of clubs peeled off, pairing the board. Still, I was a favorite to win it (check the math yourself on Cardplayer.com's odds calculator). However, the nine of clubs came on the river and we split it with nines and fives, ace kicker.
The other interesting hand came when Dale made it $1.50 from the button. Holding ace-ten offsuit, I decided there was a good chance my hand was good and made it $5 to go. Dale (fairly quickly) went all-in. I had a good amount of chips left, about $20 or $25, but there was $10 in the pot. I thought it was possible he had a better ace than me, but it was likely I was up against a pair lower than my tens, or something like KQ suited. After some deliberation, I decided that Dale just wouldn't have played it that way if he had a monster, and I made the call. He showed king-ten, which meant I was a 4:1 favorite to win the pot. It looked good when the flop came down 5 2 4 with two spades, but the king of diamonds turned and I was unable to redraw against him on the river, thus ending our match.
Though neither of these hands ended up the way I liked, I feel I played them well, and that's what really matters to me in a game like that, especially with the stakes as low as they were. Anyway, you have to take the good with the bad, and I got my money in good, which is really the object of poker.
Incidentally, as a quick aside on the Monday night tournaments, I'm ahead in the points still, by fifty. I have 195 against Chip's 145, which makes me feel pretty damned confident I can win this thing. There are twelve or thirteen games left in the year, and I'd really like to win at least two of them. Cashing is fine, and staying consistently in the points is good, too, but I feel I can win the individual tournaments as well. At any rate, enough bad beat stories and gloating about the Monday points. I'll keep everyone updated as best I can.
A five of clubs peeled off, pairing the board. Still, I was a favorite to win it (check the math yourself on Cardplayer.com's odds calculator). However, the nine of clubs came on the river and we split it with nines and fives, ace kicker.
The other interesting hand came when Dale made it $1.50 from the button. Holding ace-ten offsuit, I decided there was a good chance my hand was good and made it $5 to go. Dale (fairly quickly) went all-in. I had a good amount of chips left, about $20 or $25, but there was $10 in the pot. I thought it was possible he had a better ace than me, but it was likely I was up against a pair lower than my tens, or something like KQ suited. After some deliberation, I decided that Dale just wouldn't have played it that way if he had a monster, and I made the call. He showed king-ten, which meant I was a 4:1 favorite to win the pot. It looked good when the flop came down 5 2 4 with two spades, but the king of diamonds turned and I was unable to redraw against him on the river, thus ending our match.
Though neither of these hands ended up the way I liked, I feel I played them well, and that's what really matters to me in a game like that, especially with the stakes as low as they were. Anyway, you have to take the good with the bad, and I got my money in good, which is really the object of poker.
Incidentally, as a quick aside on the Monday night tournaments, I'm ahead in the points still, by fifty. I have 195 against Chip's 145, which makes me feel pretty damned confident I can win this thing. There are twelve or thirteen games left in the year, and I'd really like to win at least two of them. Cashing is fine, and staying consistently in the points is good, too, but I feel I can win the individual tournaments as well. At any rate, enough bad beat stories and gloating about the Monday points. I'll keep everyone updated as best I can.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
cold-decked, but not too upset
As the reader can probably infer from the title, I didn't end up winning the Monday tournament tonight! However, I'm not too upset with my play, and I'm still the big points leader. After a brutal stack-off to Andrew early on, I scraped my way back for a while. One of the players had to leave the game and his stack was just sitting there getting blinded off.
However, I was in a tricky spot! There were six players left, including an absent Chris, and both he, Dale, and I were on short money. I tried to think about whether it made more sense to go for the aggressive, marginal all-in short stack strategy, or to simply try to wait Chris out in order to place in the points. A points finish was strategically significant to me, since if I went out with no points and Chip won, he could gain nine points on me, which I would have been far from comfortable with. Fortunately, I picked up a pretty good run of cards and was able to take down the blinds uncontested quite a few times, allowing me a little bit of breathing room. Chris eventually was blinded out, and I had made at least five points. Thus, I had guaranteed that even if Chip won the tournament (he actually came in second), he could gain at most four points against me.
The final hand for me came when it folded to Andrew on the button and he doubled the bet to $3. Eric folded his small blind and I went all-in on the big blind with AK of clubs for $13.50 on top of Andrew's $3. He decided to call me with the ace-jack, which I was excited about until the board came 8 3 Q J Q and I was out of chips and out of the tournament in fifth place. Still, I got my money in pretty good throughout the night and just got into some unavoidable cold-deck situations. To give you an idea, here's tonight's bad beat story:
Me : 99
Andrew: K5
Flop: 5 9 5
Turn: 6
River: 5
It was the second time in this year's Monday tournament that I'd flopped nines full against Andrew's trips, and he hit a sick one-outer to make quads. Pretty frustrating! What's worse is that after the flop came out, there's no way I could have made him fold his hand. He was destined to hit his quads on the river, since there's no way a player who plays loose poker is folding trips in that situation. Oh, well!
Still, Chip gained only three points on me, and there are now only sixteen or seventeen Monday tournaments left in the year. Ideally, I'll be mostly gaining points on Chip, or allowing him only small gains those nights when I'm less fortunate. Here are the updated points for the tournament:
Me (171 pts.)
Chip (139 pts.)
Lee (121 pts.)
Chris (120 pts.)
Marc (107 pts.)
Eric (99 pts.)
Jake (92 pts.)
Dale (88 pts.)
Andrew (75 pts.)
Lori (65 pts.)
Justin (14 pts.)
Daniel & Brent (11 pts. each)
Mark (9 pts.)
Randy (8 pts.)
Jesse (6 pts.)
As you can see, those players below tenth place in points are for all intents and purposes out of the running at this point. It would take not only consistent wins, but also consistently bad results for almost everyone else playing - pretty much an impossibility, especially since a lot of the players at the bottom end of the spectrum aren't regulars. It pays to play.
However, I was in a tricky spot! There were six players left, including an absent Chris, and both he, Dale, and I were on short money. I tried to think about whether it made more sense to go for the aggressive, marginal all-in short stack strategy, or to simply try to wait Chris out in order to place in the points. A points finish was strategically significant to me, since if I went out with no points and Chip won, he could gain nine points on me, which I would have been far from comfortable with. Fortunately, I picked up a pretty good run of cards and was able to take down the blinds uncontested quite a few times, allowing me a little bit of breathing room. Chris eventually was blinded out, and I had made at least five points. Thus, I had guaranteed that even if Chip won the tournament (he actually came in second), he could gain at most four points against me.
The final hand for me came when it folded to Andrew on the button and he doubled the bet to $3. Eric folded his small blind and I went all-in on the big blind with AK of clubs for $13.50 on top of Andrew's $3. He decided to call me with the ace-jack, which I was excited about until the board came 8 3 Q J Q and I was out of chips and out of the tournament in fifth place. Still, I got my money in pretty good throughout the night and just got into some unavoidable cold-deck situations. To give you an idea, here's tonight's bad beat story:
Me : 99
Andrew: K5
Flop: 5 9 5
Turn: 6
River: 5
It was the second time in this year's Monday tournament that I'd flopped nines full against Andrew's trips, and he hit a sick one-outer to make quads. Pretty frustrating! What's worse is that after the flop came out, there's no way I could have made him fold his hand. He was destined to hit his quads on the river, since there's no way a player who plays loose poker is folding trips in that situation. Oh, well!
Still, Chip gained only three points on me, and there are now only sixteen or seventeen Monday tournaments left in the year. Ideally, I'll be mostly gaining points on Chip, or allowing him only small gains those nights when I'm less fortunate. Here are the updated points for the tournament:
Me (171 pts.)
Chip (139 pts.)
Lee (121 pts.)
Chris (120 pts.)
Marc (107 pts.)
Eric (99 pts.)
Jake (92 pts.)
Dale (88 pts.)
Andrew (75 pts.)
Lori (65 pts.)
Justin (14 pts.)
Daniel & Brent (11 pts. each)
Mark (9 pts.)
Randy (8 pts.)
Jesse (6 pts.)
As you can see, those players below tenth place in points are for all intents and purposes out of the running at this point. It would take not only consistent wins, but also consistently bad results for almost everyone else playing - pretty much an impossibility, especially since a lot of the players at the bottom end of the spectrum aren't regulars. It pays to play.
Monday, September 1, 2008
prepare yourself
Well, I'm off to work for a short three-hour shift, and then it's Monday night game time. I've had to walk a careful line in the tournaments, balancing between playing for first place in each game with the need for consistent in-the-points finishes so that I can be sure to take down the big share of the jackpot in December.
I'm ready for it tonight, though, I believe. Plus, my opponents in that game have huge leaks, especially with regard to hand selection. Some of them are calling raises with hands like queen-five! It is going to be an uphill battle for them if they continue playing this way, but there will always be the element of luck involved, so it's not impossible to lose to them given a couple of bad beats. At any rate, I hope to get my chips in with the best of it! Results to follow. . .
I'm ready for it tonight, though, I believe. Plus, my opponents in that game have huge leaks, especially with regard to hand selection. Some of them are calling raises with hands like queen-five! It is going to be an uphill battle for them if they continue playing this way, but there will always be the element of luck involved, so it's not impossible to lose to them given a couple of bad beats. At any rate, I hope to get my chips in with the best of it! Results to follow. . .
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