Tilting the tables our way
Seems like everyone who has a problem with ESPN's new show "Tilt" has landed on RGP today to gripe about it. From nitpicking, to wholesale condemnation, to righteous outrage, the complaints seem to run the gamut.
They're all missing the forest for the trees.
I, like many of you, I suspect, watched the premiere last night. My one major complaint with the show is that, like so many other shows these days, it just tosses you in the middle of everything and leaves it up to you to sort everything out. That works in some cases and doesn't in others, I think not so much in this one. Maybe it's just me, but I would have preferred a premiere that spoon-fed me all the information I'll need to understand the rest of the season, rather than one that left me puzzled about a lot of things. But this is very minor.
The card play itself, I thought was well done, except for that one nagging flaw of why anyone on earth would choose to play some of these starting hands. Okay, the Matador is a cheat and knows what everyone else at the table has, leaving him only 30-some cards to guess about instead of 40-some. How in the world does that translate into playing, much less raising with, a 46o? Other than that flaw, however, the rest of the hand was pretty crafty. I like the way the Matador taunted his mark into not betting his hand on the flop, giving the Matador the opportunity the chance to catch his draw for free.
And I have to say that I rolled on the line, "When we run out of toilet paper at the house, I wipe my ass with $8,000 -- $9,000 if I've had chili." Classic.
Yes, it's a bit heavy on the melodrama. But to all the people who are griping about it, I just have one thing to say. Get ready to fill your wallets. Tilt wasn't made for serious poker players. It was made for the masses, so naturally it's been given an overdose of drama. This is a show for people who maybe like to play cards on occasion or watch it on TV, not for people who earn their living at the tables. As such, some of the stupid moves the characters make will only encourage new players to line up and play stupidly. They'll all be wanting to play their 34s "because I have a pair." That can only mean that, for those of us who try to play seriously, our profit margins are about to soar.
SPEAKING OF PROFIT MARGINS ... that's a nice segue into my own play. Of course, as mentioned a couple of days ago, I frittered away the free $100 I received to play at Party. However, I was able to place 89th in the new player freeroll out of 2,500 players, earning $7. Okay, $7 is $7. It's a super-size meal and a hot apple pie, and that's about it. But when you're stubborn like me and wanting to try to prove a point, it is at least a small amount you can roll the dice with in hopes of getting in better position. That was my job last night. And let me tell you, when all you're holding is $7, there aren't many options. At first, I thought about playing a $5+1 tourney, but that would only give me one shot to make some money or not. So, I ventured into a $25 PL Omaha 8/b table instead.
Boy oh boy, I've never played Omaha that tight before. Of course, I'm new to the game, so I look at a lot of hands and see possibility and like to see cheap flops. I didn't have that option last night. I just had to wait for the perfect opportunity to come. My first really good hand, however, didn't hold up. Thankfully, I was able to see I was going nowhere fast and was able to get out of that hand before losing everything, although I was cut down to $3.50. The next hand I played, I ended up splitting a low pot, cutting me down to something like $2.82. Finally, a few hands later, I find two aces in my pocket and get all in. There's no low and I end up taking the pot and pocketing $8. I got down again by venturing into some pots and giving them up, and once by splitting a high pot and losing the low.
But ultimately, I found my groove and was able to claw my way into positive territory. I played very, very few hands, but the ones I played I always ended up winning, often scooping the entire pot. One in particular involved came when my stack was at $13. I was holding two sixes in my hand and the flop coming 622. I got extremely aggressive with it and got myself all-in against the only player at the table to have another deuce. No more low cards came, either, so I took the entire pot and doubled up.
Another came when I was holding AA and got an A on the flop. I was just as aggressive with that hand, but when the river came, there was an AKJ and three hearts on the board. I checked. The hearts came runner-runner, so I didn't think my only other opponent in the hand would have been drawing to a heart flush. Of course, he could have held something else and been fortunate to have two hearts. Or he could have been drawing for the straight all that time, although I didn't think that too likely either, as expensive as I had made it. Still, he could have been holding AKQ10, calling the entire time with two pair and the possibility of a straight. So I figured checking made sense. Anyway, he only had $5 left and he went all in. That put the pot at $30 and there was no way I was laying down my hand for that amount of money. If he had backed into a straight or flush, I would just have to pay it, but I truly felt he had an entirely different piece of the flop and I had him beat. I was right.
I don't know if that was the right call, though. Really, I can't see any way out of it. With that size bet and the amount I had already put into the pot, I think I was committed to calling. Yes, he could have very easily had made an unintentional straight or flush, but calling that last be was basically me just gambling that he hadn't. I do know that if there had been more players involved in the hand, I could have very easily laid the hand down, knowing the odds of a straight or flush were much more likely.
Anyway, the end of the tale is that I had a very good night, especially for someone with only $7. By the time I quit for the evening, my stack was at $42. That's not quite back to the hundred I blew, but walking away from a table with six times what you came with is a good night, no matter what the stakes or how you look at it.
One observation: When I tried to jump from the .01/.02 Omaha 8 game to the .10/.25 at Ultimate Bet, I was amazed at the increase in skill level. (That probably will make some of you battle-hardened O8 players laugh, but remember I'm new to the game.) Not only were the players more knowledgeable about the game, but it was a rare occurence when there were more than two players in a pot. As a result, there was very little profit in a high-low split game ... well, for me anyway. Anytime there were more than two players, it was usually because I was the third player who shouldn't have been in in the first place. In the penny games, you were guaranteed to get paid well when you had the best high or low, because there could be as many as six people showing down.
That's not a problem at Party. Since the lowest PLO8 game they spread has blinds of .25/.50, you have both decent and terrible players at that level, so the odds of getting paid well are higher, even in a split pot, because so many more people hang around until the end. It's simple math to see that you're going to fare much better splitting a six-way pot two ways than a two-way pot two ways.
I think I've found me a game I can play.
NO NEWS IS ... BAD NEWS: Sorry for the lack of tournament news today, but I haven't received my customary and usual reports from Tunica or Atlantic City. I did get a note from Tunica saying there was some sort of a problem with the report and that they would get it to me this morning, but it's mid-afternoon and still nothing. I don't know what's holding up AC.
They're all missing the forest for the trees.
I, like many of you, I suspect, watched the premiere last night. My one major complaint with the show is that, like so many other shows these days, it just tosses you in the middle of everything and leaves it up to you to sort everything out. That works in some cases and doesn't in others, I think not so much in this one. Maybe it's just me, but I would have preferred a premiere that spoon-fed me all the information I'll need to understand the rest of the season, rather than one that left me puzzled about a lot of things. But this is very minor.
The card play itself, I thought was well done, except for that one nagging flaw of why anyone on earth would choose to play some of these starting hands. Okay, the Matador is a cheat and knows what everyone else at the table has, leaving him only 30-some cards to guess about instead of 40-some. How in the world does that translate into playing, much less raising with, a 46o? Other than that flaw, however, the rest of the hand was pretty crafty. I like the way the Matador taunted his mark into not betting his hand on the flop, giving the Matador the opportunity the chance to catch his draw for free.
And I have to say that I rolled on the line, "When we run out of toilet paper at the house, I wipe my ass with $8,000 -- $9,000 if I've had chili." Classic.
Yes, it's a bit heavy on the melodrama. But to all the people who are griping about it, I just have one thing to say. Get ready to fill your wallets. Tilt wasn't made for serious poker players. It was made for the masses, so naturally it's been given an overdose of drama. This is a show for people who maybe like to play cards on occasion or watch it on TV, not for people who earn their living at the tables. As such, some of the stupid moves the characters make will only encourage new players to line up and play stupidly. They'll all be wanting to play their 34s "because I have a pair." That can only mean that, for those of us who try to play seriously, our profit margins are about to soar.
SPEAKING OF PROFIT MARGINS ... that's a nice segue into my own play. Of course, as mentioned a couple of days ago, I frittered away the free $100 I received to play at Party. However, I was able to place 89th in the new player freeroll out of 2,500 players, earning $7. Okay, $7 is $7. It's a super-size meal and a hot apple pie, and that's about it. But when you're stubborn like me and wanting to try to prove a point, it is at least a small amount you can roll the dice with in hopes of getting in better position. That was my job last night. And let me tell you, when all you're holding is $7, there aren't many options. At first, I thought about playing a $5+1 tourney, but that would only give me one shot to make some money or not. So, I ventured into a $25 PL Omaha 8/b table instead.
Boy oh boy, I've never played Omaha that tight before. Of course, I'm new to the game, so I look at a lot of hands and see possibility and like to see cheap flops. I didn't have that option last night. I just had to wait for the perfect opportunity to come. My first really good hand, however, didn't hold up. Thankfully, I was able to see I was going nowhere fast and was able to get out of that hand before losing everything, although I was cut down to $3.50. The next hand I played, I ended up splitting a low pot, cutting me down to something like $2.82. Finally, a few hands later, I find two aces in my pocket and get all in. There's no low and I end up taking the pot and pocketing $8. I got down again by venturing into some pots and giving them up, and once by splitting a high pot and losing the low.
But ultimately, I found my groove and was able to claw my way into positive territory. I played very, very few hands, but the ones I played I always ended up winning, often scooping the entire pot. One in particular involved came when my stack was at $13. I was holding two sixes in my hand and the flop coming 622. I got extremely aggressive with it and got myself all-in against the only player at the table to have another deuce. No more low cards came, either, so I took the entire pot and doubled up.
Another came when I was holding AA and got an A on the flop. I was just as aggressive with that hand, but when the river came, there was an AKJ and three hearts on the board. I checked. The hearts came runner-runner, so I didn't think my only other opponent in the hand would have been drawing to a heart flush. Of course, he could have held something else and been fortunate to have two hearts. Or he could have been drawing for the straight all that time, although I didn't think that too likely either, as expensive as I had made it. Still, he could have been holding AKQ10, calling the entire time with two pair and the possibility of a straight. So I figured checking made sense. Anyway, he only had $5 left and he went all in. That put the pot at $30 and there was no way I was laying down my hand for that amount of money. If he had backed into a straight or flush, I would just have to pay it, but I truly felt he had an entirely different piece of the flop and I had him beat. I was right.
I don't know if that was the right call, though. Really, I can't see any way out of it. With that size bet and the amount I had already put into the pot, I think I was committed to calling. Yes, he could have very easily had made an unintentional straight or flush, but calling that last be was basically me just gambling that he hadn't. I do know that if there had been more players involved in the hand, I could have very easily laid the hand down, knowing the odds of a straight or flush were much more likely.
Anyway, the end of the tale is that I had a very good night, especially for someone with only $7. By the time I quit for the evening, my stack was at $42. That's not quite back to the hundred I blew, but walking away from a table with six times what you came with is a good night, no matter what the stakes or how you look at it.
One observation: When I tried to jump from the .01/.02 Omaha 8 game to the .10/.25 at Ultimate Bet, I was amazed at the increase in skill level. (That probably will make some of you battle-hardened O8 players laugh, but remember I'm new to the game.) Not only were the players more knowledgeable about the game, but it was a rare occurence when there were more than two players in a pot. As a result, there was very little profit in a high-low split game ... well, for me anyway. Anytime there were more than two players, it was usually because I was the third player who shouldn't have been in in the first place. In the penny games, you were guaranteed to get paid well when you had the best high or low, because there could be as many as six people showing down.
That's not a problem at Party. Since the lowest PLO8 game they spread has blinds of .25/.50, you have both decent and terrible players at that level, so the odds of getting paid well are higher, even in a split pot, because so many more people hang around until the end. It's simple math to see that you're going to fare much better splitting a six-way pot two ways than a two-way pot two ways.
I think I've found me a game I can play.
NO NEWS IS ... BAD NEWS: Sorry for the lack of tournament news today, but I haven't received my customary and usual reports from Tunica or Atlantic City. I did get a note from Tunica saying there was some sort of a problem with the report and that they would get it to me this morning, but it's mid-afternoon and still nothing. I don't know what's holding up AC.
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