What a weekend
Had a really good time over the weekend. Got some live game action under my belt and, although the weekend came to a close with a net loss, it's still good. Like the saying goes, the next best thing to playing cards and winning is playing cards and losing.
It started with a bang, when I had one of those nights where I could do no wrong at the weekly live game. I got there late and, second hand of the night, I looked down at K9. Now, I've been playing exceptionally tight and not very aggressively of late, but Friday night I came to play. Normally, I would have considered folding that hand, but not this time. And after our newbie raised the .25/.50 blinds another quarter (we still haven't gotten around to requiring proper betting), I decided he needed to be taught a lesson and raised it to $1.50. (Okay, not exactly high stakes, but it was fun.) Everybody called. The thing about our newbie is that once he has made a raise, even just a quarter, he generally feels committed to stay until the river. The flop comes and, holy cow, it's K99. Our newbie bets $1. I slow-play and everybody calls. I realize that might not be the proper move in most cases, but I am also aware that most of the players consider me tight and figured if I had raised, they would have put me on at least the 9 and folded. By checking, I kept everybody in the pot, which was five-handed. Next card is a J, another $1 bet from the newbie. At this point, I considered raising, but I decided against it because the board was really starting to coordinate and I thought I might do better at the end if I allowed somebody to catch a hand first. I suppose I could have made a small raise to add some money to pot from everyone who was on a draw. Last card is a 10 and so now we have a gutshot draw on the board, and I think it might have made three suited cards on the board as well. This time newbie bets $2. I sense someone after me has made something, so I just raise another $2. Sure enough, the fellow after me raises it $5 more. Newbie and everyone else folds. I started to move all-in at that point, but instead just raised another $5 and got called. Bingo, I doubled up on the hand. By the end of the night, I had made $50, which was great since I had plans to play in a $60 tournament in Lexington the next day.
Didn't fare nearly as well at the tournament and finished well out of the money, then proceeded to lose another $20 by finishing on the bubble of a 10-person sit-n-go. In both tournaments, the only thing I could do was survive. I am sure that to the others, I appeared to be an extremely weak player, and I probably was to some extent. But I was getting extremely weak cards. Big-little was the theme of the night for me. It seemed every hand I was getting dealt K3 or Q4, with a healthy dose of 92 and 62. I did get KK once. The first two to act folded and then I raised 100. This was still the first round, but previous hands had led me to believe this bet would be considered strong, but that I would probably get at least one caller, maybe two. Nope, everyone folded and I won a grand total of 30. Had three other pocket pairs on the night -- 22, 55 and 88. I limped with the 22 and 55, got no help and eventually had to fold. I raised 3x the BB when I got the 88, only to pick up four callers, and I had to bail when the flop brought A35. (Good thing, too, because not only was I against AQ, but also 33.)
But a strange thing did happen to me that night. For the first time, I got this strange feeling of watching myself play, and I didn't like what I saw. But I was sizing my own play up probably the same way that the other players at the table were judging me, and I could see that I was giving off the aura of a truly pathetic player. I am confident that every half-decent player looked at the way I was playing and figured me so weak that they could get me to fold any bet. And given the cards I was dealt, they were right.
I went into the tournament with a good strategy. I would play exceptionally tight the first couple of levels, being satisfied to only play the luck of the draw and pick up any pots where I was a certain winner. Trouble is, the only hand I won was the KK hand that everyone folded. My plan was to remain tight but get a little more aggressive the next couple of levels. However, I was already short-stacked at that point, and I wasn't get many hands worth playing, and when I did get a couple, I didn't have the stack with which to be aggressive, and I didn't get any help of the couple of flops I actually managed to see.
So, my poker balance for the weekend went down $30. Not too bad all told.
But the best bit of news for me from this weekend is that I finally managed to get my hands on Super System 2. I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet, but I've already begun toying a little bit with some of the concepts I've picked up in the low limits and I've already made back half the cost of the book. Of course, I've been helped along the way by some truly pathetic players. One guy hurt me a little bit early on, but I got him back. My first hookup with him came when I held Q10s. Everybody limped to me on the button, and I decided to try some of that aggression SS2 talks about and raised preflop. The fish calls. The flop comes 6-high. I bet strong and he calls. The turn brings a J. He bets the minimum and I raise him all-in. He calls with his 10-7. At that point, he had no pair and no draw, and he called all-in. Of course, the river was a 7. But I got him back. A few hands later, I got 7-4. He raised I called from the BB. I paired my 7 on the flop, checked, and he checked. I bet the turn and he called, then checked a scare card on the river and he also checked. I ended up winning the pot. Okay, so now I've showed down a trash hand, and I'm getting all sorts of action from the table. Plus this guy is apparently pissed by the beat I gave him, because he refuses to fold whenever I bet. I get a QJ and raise 4xBB preflop. My mark and one other guy call. The flop comes J high. I bet 6xBB. The mark calls me with 10-5, and then calls all-in on the turn, when the board pairs 4s, without having paired anything. Then the river is another J. He buys back in and a few hands later I get QQ and bet 4xBB preflop. Naturally, the mark is just waiting for the chance to bust me again, so he calls. The flop comes J-high. I decide to try showing a little weakness and only bet 2xBB. He falls for it hook, line and sinker, plus he's got a J9, so he raises half his stack. Well, what could I do? I had to reraise him all-in. Once again, he busts out and this time he leaves the table. Smartest move he made all day.
Anyway, what I've taken from SS2 thus far is a much more aggressive strategy, but I'm also changing gears like I'm driving downtown. I'm always firing at the pot when I'm strong, but sometimes I'll limp with a trash hand when I feel weakness at the table, and other times I'll charge into the pot with a trash hand. The goal is to fluster the others at the table so much that when other players see me show down a trash hand, win or lose, I start getting paid off on good hands. And since they're under the impression that I will play anything, they can't put me on a hand, so they have to fold when I bet a ragged flop because I could already have two pair. It's a great little setup. But I still haven't played enough hands to see how it will work long-term. I'll let you know, though.
It started with a bang, when I had one of those nights where I could do no wrong at the weekly live game. I got there late and, second hand of the night, I looked down at K9. Now, I've been playing exceptionally tight and not very aggressively of late, but Friday night I came to play. Normally, I would have considered folding that hand, but not this time. And after our newbie raised the .25/.50 blinds another quarter (we still haven't gotten around to requiring proper betting), I decided he needed to be taught a lesson and raised it to $1.50. (Okay, not exactly high stakes, but it was fun.) Everybody called. The thing about our newbie is that once he has made a raise, even just a quarter, he generally feels committed to stay until the river. The flop comes and, holy cow, it's K99. Our newbie bets $1. I slow-play and everybody calls. I realize that might not be the proper move in most cases, but I am also aware that most of the players consider me tight and figured if I had raised, they would have put me on at least the 9 and folded. By checking, I kept everybody in the pot, which was five-handed. Next card is a J, another $1 bet from the newbie. At this point, I considered raising, but I decided against it because the board was really starting to coordinate and I thought I might do better at the end if I allowed somebody to catch a hand first. I suppose I could have made a small raise to add some money to pot from everyone who was on a draw. Last card is a 10 and so now we have a gutshot draw on the board, and I think it might have made three suited cards on the board as well. This time newbie bets $2. I sense someone after me has made something, so I just raise another $2. Sure enough, the fellow after me raises it $5 more. Newbie and everyone else folds. I started to move all-in at that point, but instead just raised another $5 and got called. Bingo, I doubled up on the hand. By the end of the night, I had made $50, which was great since I had plans to play in a $60 tournament in Lexington the next day.
Didn't fare nearly as well at the tournament and finished well out of the money, then proceeded to lose another $20 by finishing on the bubble of a 10-person sit-n-go. In both tournaments, the only thing I could do was survive. I am sure that to the others, I appeared to be an extremely weak player, and I probably was to some extent. But I was getting extremely weak cards. Big-little was the theme of the night for me. It seemed every hand I was getting dealt K3 or Q4, with a healthy dose of 92 and 62. I did get KK once. The first two to act folded and then I raised 100. This was still the first round, but previous hands had led me to believe this bet would be considered strong, but that I would probably get at least one caller, maybe two. Nope, everyone folded and I won a grand total of 30. Had three other pocket pairs on the night -- 22, 55 and 88. I limped with the 22 and 55, got no help and eventually had to fold. I raised 3x the BB when I got the 88, only to pick up four callers, and I had to bail when the flop brought A35. (Good thing, too, because not only was I against AQ, but also 33.)
But a strange thing did happen to me that night. For the first time, I got this strange feeling of watching myself play, and I didn't like what I saw. But I was sizing my own play up probably the same way that the other players at the table were judging me, and I could see that I was giving off the aura of a truly pathetic player. I am confident that every half-decent player looked at the way I was playing and figured me so weak that they could get me to fold any bet. And given the cards I was dealt, they were right.
I went into the tournament with a good strategy. I would play exceptionally tight the first couple of levels, being satisfied to only play the luck of the draw and pick up any pots where I was a certain winner. Trouble is, the only hand I won was the KK hand that everyone folded. My plan was to remain tight but get a little more aggressive the next couple of levels. However, I was already short-stacked at that point, and I wasn't get many hands worth playing, and when I did get a couple, I didn't have the stack with which to be aggressive, and I didn't get any help of the couple of flops I actually managed to see.
So, my poker balance for the weekend went down $30. Not too bad all told.
But the best bit of news for me from this weekend is that I finally managed to get my hands on Super System 2. I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet, but I've already begun toying a little bit with some of the concepts I've picked up in the low limits and I've already made back half the cost of the book. Of course, I've been helped along the way by some truly pathetic players. One guy hurt me a little bit early on, but I got him back. My first hookup with him came when I held Q10s. Everybody limped to me on the button, and I decided to try some of that aggression SS2 talks about and raised preflop. The fish calls. The flop comes 6-high. I bet strong and he calls. The turn brings a J. He bets the minimum and I raise him all-in. He calls with his 10-7. At that point, he had no pair and no draw, and he called all-in. Of course, the river was a 7. But I got him back. A few hands later, I got 7-4. He raised I called from the BB. I paired my 7 on the flop, checked, and he checked. I bet the turn and he called, then checked a scare card on the river and he also checked. I ended up winning the pot. Okay, so now I've showed down a trash hand, and I'm getting all sorts of action from the table. Plus this guy is apparently pissed by the beat I gave him, because he refuses to fold whenever I bet. I get a QJ and raise 4xBB preflop. My mark and one other guy call. The flop comes J high. I bet 6xBB. The mark calls me with 10-5, and then calls all-in on the turn, when the board pairs 4s, without having paired anything. Then the river is another J. He buys back in and a few hands later I get QQ and bet 4xBB preflop. Naturally, the mark is just waiting for the chance to bust me again, so he calls. The flop comes J-high. I decide to try showing a little weakness and only bet 2xBB. He falls for it hook, line and sinker, plus he's got a J9, so he raises half his stack. Well, what could I do? I had to reraise him all-in. Once again, he busts out and this time he leaves the table. Smartest move he made all day.
Anyway, what I've taken from SS2 thus far is a much more aggressive strategy, but I'm also changing gears like I'm driving downtown. I'm always firing at the pot when I'm strong, but sometimes I'll limp with a trash hand when I feel weakness at the table, and other times I'll charge into the pot with a trash hand. The goal is to fluster the others at the table so much that when other players see me show down a trash hand, win or lose, I start getting paid off on good hands. And since they're under the impression that I will play anything, they can't put me on a hand, so they have to fold when I bet a ragged flop because I could already have two pair. It's a great little setup. But I still haven't played enough hands to see how it will work long-term. I'll let you know, though.
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