Glenn's Poker Journal

Husband to FeliciaLee.. here are some of my poker adventures in 'bilking the internet poker machine, six dollars at a time' (--quoted from Sean, Anisotropy).

Name:
Location: United States

NOT a poker blogger!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

My Turn

OK, it's my turn for suckouts :)

Felicia and I went to Riverside for cash games again, but then ended up at the Palms for the 8pm tournament.

We started out the night at Riverside to try to get Felicia's O8 game going. Not long after we got there, they started up the table. I guess people have been itching to play, after not having a game all week. They only had 6 names on the list, but the floor called the game (me included, only to start the game, then I high-tailed it out). Before the game even started, the table was full. Floor started calling names for a HE game too and asked if I still wanted on the list. Yes! Don't know why, but I can't win at that $2-6 spread limit Omaha8 game. Seeing the O8 table full, I told Felicia I was going to take the open seat. They even were able to fill my seat before the game started. All week couldn't get a game going, but they really came outta the woodwork last night!

I was called to a $2-6 HE game and made a little before going into a NLHE game. I limped in later position with AKo and had my first suckout of the night (suppose you could call it "re-suck"). There are some people who will raise to the full $8 with AK (2 to come in, you can raise 6 at anytime, to make it 8 to go), but I usually only raise AK in early position in this game. One thing I've learned about 2-6, if there are enough people already in the game, people will call anything. They think they have the odds, based on the people who called, but they DON'T when they originally came in for only called 2. They just don't understand. In some ways, this is good. When you have a premuim pair, they're making the biggest mistake. But when it's AKo, where your odds are severely lessened by having multiple callers, it really does no good. I've seen people lose a ton because they'll keep firing with Ace-high. These donkeys just don't know to fold top pair.

On the flop, it's KTx, and I get bet into for $2. OK, my first mistake. I figure it's someone with QJo looking for a cheap card, or a weak King, so I raise it to 8. I hear her saying something like, "we must have the same thing". That does NOT sound like QJo! Hmm. I figure if she has a set, she's raising me back, and we definitely do NOT have the same thing. I might have been in trouble, until the Ace on the turn. She checks, I bet, and she just calls. OK, not QJo, and prolly not AK, she might have raised or bet either of those holdings. River brings a possible flush and I check behind (even though I don't put her on the hand, now there's the flush and the straight that she could have been drawing with). She shows KTo for the flopped top two. I show my AKo for my 're-suck' and take it down with the turned top two.

In a little while, I get called for the NLHE game. No max buy-in, 2/5 blinds. I'm listening to Dee and Russ and they're talking about the game from last night. Said it was wild. One hand was bet the whole way; someone called a $300 river bet with AK-high. They didn't tell me if it held, since I was just listening in, but sounds good. After the ME, I'm going to have to sit in on these games more often :)

For my next trick, I will perform a one-outer!

Russ, one of the wealthy locals, cold-calls $80 preflop from Ernie, one of the dealers sitting in the game. Flop comes J55 with two hearts and Ernie puts out a stack of red. Russ puts him AI (all-in) and Ernie calls. Although it's not a tournament, there's no slow-rolling here. Russ says, "I'm on a draw", and turns over Ah9h; seems he kinda thought he could win the hand by the push. Ernie turns over TT and must have known his tricks, calling with an over card on the flop. Turn is a heart, and Ernie moans and hits the ATM.

Two hands later, after Dee and Russ are saying "Oh, man, he's going to be AI, AI, now," (referring to Ernie) I'm in the blind with 84o. Ernie is in the hand. Flop is A84 rainbow, and with no raise pre, only like 20 in the pot, Ernie says "AI". Gets to me and I call, thinking that he must have limped with AK or AQ. Nope, A8o... ouch. Blank turn, 4 on the river. Guy to my right, not wanting to say anything before hand, says, "That's the last one, I folded a 4". For once, I'm the one getting the one-outer. Ernie hits up the ATM again.

Felicia comes over not too long after and reminds me to call the Palms to ask about their tournament, since she says her game is no good and I need more tournament experience. Find out that they do have some people signed up, so we end up heading over.

There were a bunch of new players who didn't know what they were doing. Man, talk about lucky. We arrived at the right situation. Majority of the time, you just bet, and they'll fold. Felicia got trapped three times on her first table. Once, in her free play BB, a guy caught trips on the flop and checked. Queen on the turn pairs Felicia and when he checked again, she bet. Bet the river, too, but not too much, because she had no kicker, and he just calls. She turns over 2pair, and he turns over a full-house, with Q3 under-the-gun, LOL. Never raised. We figure he just really didn't understand the monster that he had.

I got slow played in the blind about midway through. Just me in the BB and the SB limps. AT8 flop and SB checks. I have JTo so make about a 2/3rd's bet. He calls. Turn is a Jack, he checks again, and I bet again. I was watching his eyes, and I felt he had something when he called the flop, but after I turned two pair, I figured, well, let's see how strong he is. I doubled my bet from the previous round, and he just calls again. On the river, since there was a straight possible, I just checked behind. He shows me top pair of Aces, but I show my two pair to take the pot. Sucked out again :p Ye 'olde "making my own luck." I think this was a good set up for later though; I bet, I have something.. riiiight ;)

Once again I didn't get a heck of a lot during the early part of the tournament, but then started getting hands during the later stages. Plus, got a bit of Axs hands that I used to steal. Once I did the "See? I have a hand when I'm raising" and showed an AQs to the BB who was short. This again helped my image, allowing me to steal the blinds a bit more then I usually do.

I think I ended up taking out a couple people, plus the blind steals, and I had a good stack. With only 16 total people who entered (in Laughlin, a $125 event is big dough), Felicia and I ended up at the final table together. She was a little short, being cold-decked, but almost tripled up with QQ vs. 55 and an unknown hand--the first PFR folded). A few others knocked themselves out, and we were down to 5.

SB completes the blind against the BB and they see a flop of TT9. SB checks and BB (who was really short for a while, but had been going AI enough to get his chips back up a little) goes AI and SB insta-calls. SB shows T5o and BB shows A9o. (Way to raise BB, lol, this is the same guy who tried to slow play me ;) BB says "nice hand" and figures he's toast, until it comes runner 9's to give him quads! SB is shocked, but takes it well. Not long after he's out and we're in the money!

I end up knocking Felicia out with AK vs her 66 (can't wait to see what she says in my comments -grin-) and I have a good lead over the other two. Billy, folding his blinds a little too often ends up going AI vs my blind, but for so little more, I call blind. I think he had me high carded, but I pair and it's HU.

Him playing me HU was like me trying to play Phil Ivey. I pretty much ran over him as I'd expect Ivey to run over me. I doubled him up a couple times when I tried to knock him out when he had only one chip left. Both times I put in the last chip blind, but he won each time. Finally, 3rd time was the charm; he limped again, and I had 77, a real hand for once, that held up and I won.

I finally got to play one out to the end. Felicia and I actually asked if they wanted to chop once we got in the money, but the others didn't want to. OK by me, good practice :)

While I 'effectively' won the one the other night, when we chopped 3-way while I had the chip lead, I really did win this one. Good feeling.

Glenn

Posted by Glenn

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Are you going to post?

"Are you going to post? Are you going to post?"

This is the constant question from Felicia. But I try to wait for something interesting to say. I don't want to bore people with:

"Well, I lost today. Here are the hands. What suck outs. Oh, woe is me."

Just as bad is:

"Won today. Boy I'm a great player. See my rising bankroll $$$." -grin-

I like to tell stories. Perhaps like during the Orleans Open, the guy that took out the first THREE players at our table within the first hour or two (called all raises, pretty much), then lost all his chips before the dinner break (fortunately, some to me when I doubled up through him when I flopped top set vs his bottom two on a flop of T96 -- yes, he played 96o). Unfortunately, the rest of the tournament was boring as I about folded myself out of the money. Got card dead. Then caught QQ vs two limpers and the short stack who limped decided he'd had enough and called all-in with 33 and spiked a 3 on the river to cripple me. I made a last stand with A2s UTG and got called by A8s, which held. Pretty unexciting, so I didn't bother writing it. (Readers, all 2 of you -grin-, you'll have to let me know if you want me to write stuff like that up. If there is interest, I will.)

Once you've played enough poker, you've pretty much have seen it all. I mean, come on, what can be as exciting as when I tripled up at Binion's with top set vs middle set vs TPTK (top-pair-top-kicker)? What can be more depressing then having it AI pre-flop, flopping quads, then losing to runner-runner perfect straight-flush??

I can't say that I'm really that jaded (yet). I still get excited. Felicia always marvels at the fact that once I enter a card room, that I just gotta play. "Don't you look around? See if they have promotions, etc?" Um, I look around.. at the tables :-} What games are being spread, are there chips flying, or are people folding.

I have good days and bad, just like everyone else. Yesterday and the day before were bad days for cash games. I played some NLO8 on Stars. Got it AI on the flop with top set and got called by someone with top two with back-door flush that got there.

Since Felicia felt that my wanting to play some local tourneys was a good idea for practice for the WSOP ME (should I ever get any confirmation and my seat assignment from Harrah's), we ended up at Riverside last night and ended up playing the tourney there.

We went there for the cash games primarily. Felicia wanted to play their donk-fest O8, but there was no game going. She ended up playing 4/8 with me instead. As my cash game losing streak continued, she was running over the game. While I'm getting trapped with top two vs bottom set, she's catching premuim pairs and stealing with relative impunity. My card-dead self just couldn't compete. I even lost to her when I flopped TP from the BB vs her bottom two from the SB, ugh. Don't worry, when it was just HU on the river, I mucked to her bet, I figured TP no kicker was no good. She showed me her 63o two-pair, lol.

I continued being card dead in the tournament... As I said, we really didn't go there for the tournament this time around; however, there ceases to BE a cash game (4/8 anyway, there's always a 2-6 game) when the tourney starts. Though we don't like the structure and time limits as much at Riverside: 20 min levels on first hour, starting at 50-100, when everywhere else starts at 25-50; then 15 minute levels until the final table--huh??; then 30 minute levels at the final table--again, huh? Wacko. Still we ended up playing. It was either that or 2-6 spread limit. As Felicia said, "I'd rather cut off my right hand"; especially given my run of cards. I was hoping that I'd at least be able to manipulate at the tournament, as people fear getting knocked out.

Once again, being card dead for the first hour, I couldn't bring myself to try to do anything fancy. I like to actually have something to work with. I can say that I stole a pot when it was just HU, me in the BB and the SB limped. He checked, I bet complete air and he folded. But I knew he really had nothing, he was just too new, and I took the shot and it worked.

After that, I finally got a hand: TT. Since I've been reading Harrington, and I was UTG, I was looking at the blinds and my current "M", and decided that I really didn't want callers and shoved in (pretty much if I raise, I'm committed). I was immediately called by "Papa", one of the older guys from the Riverside that cashiers there. Since he knows I'm tight, I was sure I was sunk: AA or KK. Once it got folded around, I asked him if he has Aces, "uh huh", and he turns them up. I pat him on the back and say "nice hand, Papa". Then the flop comes down 789 with two spades and I have two black Ten's. Jack of hearts on the turn, and that sealed the deal. I told him that I was sorry, and he just grumbled. Although I hate sucking out on other's Aces, after 22 sucking out on my AA at the Palms (see my comment on the last post) and the QQ's out run by the 33's above, I got over it rather quickly -grin- .. what can I say, but, "that's poker".

After that, there was no stopping me. Felicia, in the SB when I was the BB (had gotten moved to her table), passed up trying to steal my blind, and I looked anyway found JJ and made motions to shove in my chips ;) . Finally was getting hands.

I got short again and when it was passed to me on the CO, I found K4o. With an M of something like 3 or 4, I just shoved it. Most the players to my left and in the blind were tight anyway, so I was just looking to pick up the blinds. I actually did get called AI by the BB (since she had no chips either) but I had her high carded: she showed QJo. I turned a King, which would have been enough, but I ended up making a straight with the 4 on the river, LOL.

Knocking out the BB brought us to the final table.

The first guy out at the final, I don't recall. He was short, made a stand and was busted. I think someone had an Ace that held against his K-high hand (don't recall).

Then I single handedly, seriously, got us to the money (top six). Short stack [SS] UTG limps, UTG+1, folds, I find QQ and shove. Then the call fest happened. Exactly what you don't want to see with QQ, right? Last position SS says, "well, I'm getting odds" and calls AI with KQs. BB SS calls AI with 86o. UTG SS calls with KJs. Wow. Flop is 8TJ with a heart (the KQs was hearts) and I'm seeing two people with a pair and one with an OESD. Turn is a low heart, giving more outs to KhQh. River is a Queen. I knocked out 3 people and propelled the rest of the table to the money (Felicia included).

Felicia was shocked that I seemed so blase.. well, I was a little nervous about getting out run. Later tho, she kept saying something about the case Queen. Finally I figured out that, since she was at the other end of the table, she thought the UTG SS had KK, not KJs, and that I had sucked out on his KK's with the last Queen in the deck. I was ahead the whole way, that's why I seemed blase to her, LOL.

After that, I think I played my big stack well. I did complete the SB against Felicia's BB rather than appearing to "dump" to her and fold my T2o. Once again, I was big stack and could afford to see a flop. I flopped bottom pair of deuces and bet out. She went AI with TP which held up after I called. Yes, we play hard against each other. Last thing we want is for someone to accuse us of soft play.

Anyway, someone took out of the others I think. Then the forth basically folded her way out. She went AI for my blind and I paired up where she didn't and we were down to three. "Dee", who is a local that I've talked about before, and Felicia and I. We ended up chopping it. I had about T190K , Felicia had T75K and Dee T80K. With blinds of 10K/20K, and soon to go up, it would just take one suckout for one of them to become chip lead. If Felicia wasn't one of the 3, I would have asked for extra via my chip position, but since she was, just did the even chop.

This was great for me after the suck outs at the Palms and the recent cash games downswings.

Yes, I do know how to play.

Ah, OK, good.

Glenn

Posted by Glenn

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

It's one long game

Tonight, it definitely was a loooong game... but that's not what I'm referring to (of course ; ).

Before tonight, I've been on a fairly good run at the 2-6 game (spread-limit), with an average of $25/hr. Of course I knew it couldn't last; variance would rear it's ugly head sooner or later. Tonight it did. Trips with King kicker lost to trips with smaller kicker.. that hit. Then JJ lost to A2 ('cause it was soooted: "well, normally I wouldn't, but it's sooted", he said after cold-calling the raise; ended up with a straight on the river).

This made me start the night at about a $50 loss. Did I quit? Nope. Game was too good. This one woman was showing her cards all the time; so many times she called down with bottom pair. At first I thought it was because this one guy got caught betting bottom pair with flush draw all the way. Then I realised: no, she just calls down anyone with any pair. People would chase all the way to the river, regardless of raises, regardless of paired boards. Good game :)

Finally, after 5 hours of play, I got a good flop of trips (again) with a good kicker (I was the blind, go figure -grin-) with one guy drawing to the OESD (open-ended straight draw), and another with some pocket pair ("I call... and I raise..."; "sorry sir, can't do that, it's a string bet"; so I got a nice free flop :) . I lead out with my Q9o on a board of 998 (might as well make JT or any other OESD's pay); called by draw; raised by Mr String-bet; I 3-bet; Mr Draw cold-calls 12; Mr String-bet calls. Bet, call, fold on turn. Check-check on river (draw didn't get there, so I gave him a chance to try to buy it.. figured he doesn't call if I bet anyway, unless he has me beat).

Good pot. Put me to $4 up. For a five hour session. Wow.

So, sorry Felicia for being so late tonight, but I had to try to come home a winner. ;)

At least I know that I'm in good company. I've heard how many top players, if they're losing, and the game is good, they'll keep playing to at least try to get even. It's that drive to win that keeps us going.

I know Felicia says, "you can't win all the time".

Maybe not, but I can sure try :D

Posted by Glenn

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Thank you Felicia!

Do I have a great wife, or do I have a wonderful wife?

What other poker player would give up their a seat to the 10k WSOP Main event??

Just got an email response today, from an email that she sent, saying that the package will be transferred over to my name, no problem.

So, she's giving up her seat to me.

Thank you, baby!!!

Posted by Glenn

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Bah, I'm out

Knocked out in the 700's in the WSOP ME finals (outta 3500 again).

AKs flopped top two, but someone else flopped set

-sigh- I'll try again next week ;)

Posted by Glenn