...you're down to heads-up, lady who only min-raises with an A-K or big pair (10s or higher) type hand min-raises you (mind you, both of us only have about 6 BBs at the end of this tourney), and you have A-8, a great hand at this stage. You know you are crushed, but you still decide to see a flop.
Flop comes A-9-5 rainbow, and even though you know your 8 kicker is no good, you still shove in...knowing damn well the lady is going to call you with the better Ace in her hand, although you're really pushing and praying that she has K-K. Of course, she calls, and you see that her A-J is ahead, and you don't catch up...and are crippled. WTG, Donkey!!!
Actually, if it wasn't for the stack sizes, that's a hand I can easily get away from...just one of those things heads-up where blinds get so high that it's less about skill, and more about cards at that point. Guess that's my only complaint about playing in World Tavern Poker - blind levels increase too much too soon, negating the skill factor and making it little more than a game of showdown. Hopefully, in a week and a half at Regionals (Overtyme in Waterford, August 7), the skill factor will be allowed to be greater than the shovefest factor.
3 top 3's in 2 weeks is a nice start to my TOC stack in about 3 months - won't complain too much about that, at all. Nor will I complain about tripling up in the cash game (errrrrr, "side game") at Dino's on Monday, thanks mainly to 2 hands...hopefully I'm playing both next week.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Little update here
Been a few weeks since I did real post, time to update on the last month of play here:
- Finished 2nd in a tough battle at WTP Tavern Championship. Got down to 8 as short stack, and grinded my way up to HU. Lost a coin flip at end that crippled me...congrats, Greg! Took 3rd in Tavern TOC, despite having less than half chips of top 2 pointgetters (chip stacks based on number of top 3 finishes).
- Took down 3 out of 12 90+ people MTT satellites over at Felt Stars (Merge Network), including 2 in one night...a sick run, no matter how you look at it. Basically, the tournament is a freeroll to a $1 tourney, and you have late registration of 60 minutes. Get in about 30 minutes late, and attack the aggro-donks...and hope you get a bit lucky once you get down to final 10 players. One of these Sundays when the weather is not sunny out, I'll play in the tourney...hell, I may even deposit there once fall starts.
- First 3 weeks of new WTP season, and already 4 top 3 finishes. Not that hard when you have 8-10 players every game, but there is a level of consistency that is pretty solid to bank on. Now if I can just win an all-in against Dale when I'm a 4-1 favorite...
- Playing in WTP Regionals over at Overtyme on the 7th of next month. Top 10% qualify for National Open in Vegas (I think...that, or Atlantic City) in a few months. Unsure if I will go if I qualify this time, but we'll see.
Played one charity poker tournament in last month, and found the idiocy at one of my tables to be eye-opening. Here's the situation: 3rd hand after the first break, and we're at 500/1000, UTG player goes all-in for his last 3500...gets two callers in front of me, and in BB I see A-10 (sooooooooooooooted!). Sitting with 32K chips, I think of isolating, but decide not to press matters, and just call (given pot odds and all). 10 on flop gives me top pair, and after it's checked around, the turn is a low card that gives me the nut flush draw. Trying to give myself the best chance to win the hand, I bet out 1/2 the pot, and see the 2 callers fold...and I'm HU with all-in player. Players spikes a queen to win the hand, and the fun begins.
One of the young DBs at the end of the table starts bitching that he would have won the hand had I not bet the turn, and that I should have checked it down...this got a response from me along the lines of "Hey, I was just trying to improve my equity in the hand...and it worked, except he (pointing to UTG player next to me) drew out on me.". A couple of players who have a brain just nodded their heads in agreement, but it was the DB's response after that floored me.
"You can talk about pot odds, implied odds, equity, and all that math stuff, but it's just all a bunch of bullshit!" Silence for a moment or 2, just to take in the whole idiocy of that statement, until I retorted back, "Ahhh, I get it, you're pissed of at me because *I* didn't let *you* win that pot...you do realize what a dumbass you sound like now, right?". Unfortunately for me, that last comment was heard by the poker room manager, and since that was considered "berating a player", I had to serve a 2-hand penalty...damn.
Look, I have no problem checking down hands when players are all-in, but there has to be certain conditions in play here:
- Dry side pot...but as we've seen already, if you have a hand, don't be afraid to bet into it. Bluffing into a dry side pot isn't usually a great idea, but there are valid reasons for doing so.
- Have to be already in the money, where the elimination of a player moves us up on the pay scale more than a nominal amount, or
- Have to be close to the money bubble, or near the end of a flat-payout structured satellite.
- Most importantly, it has to benefit ME! I am all for checking it down if it means that my shitty hands have a chance to improve and become the winning hand, after all!
I think I found someone that I want to play with more in the future, heh!
- Finished 2nd in a tough battle at WTP Tavern Championship. Got down to 8 as short stack, and grinded my way up to HU. Lost a coin flip at end that crippled me...congrats, Greg! Took 3rd in Tavern TOC, despite having less than half chips of top 2 pointgetters (chip stacks based on number of top 3 finishes).
- Took down 3 out of 12 90+ people MTT satellites over at Felt Stars (Merge Network), including 2 in one night...a sick run, no matter how you look at it. Basically, the tournament is a freeroll to a $1 tourney, and you have late registration of 60 minutes. Get in about 30 minutes late, and attack the aggro-donks...and hope you get a bit lucky once you get down to final 10 players. One of these Sundays when the weather is not sunny out, I'll play in the tourney...hell, I may even deposit there once fall starts.
- First 3 weeks of new WTP season, and already 4 top 3 finishes. Not that hard when you have 8-10 players every game, but there is a level of consistency that is pretty solid to bank on. Now if I can just win an all-in against Dale when I'm a 4-1 favorite...
- Playing in WTP Regionals over at Overtyme on the 7th of next month. Top 10% qualify for National Open in Vegas (I think...that, or Atlantic City) in a few months. Unsure if I will go if I qualify this time, but we'll see.
Played one charity poker tournament in last month, and found the idiocy at one of my tables to be eye-opening. Here's the situation: 3rd hand after the first break, and we're at 500/1000, UTG player goes all-in for his last 3500...gets two callers in front of me, and in BB I see A-10 (sooooooooooooooted!). Sitting with 32K chips, I think of isolating, but decide not to press matters, and just call (given pot odds and all). 10 on flop gives me top pair, and after it's checked around, the turn is a low card that gives me the nut flush draw. Trying to give myself the best chance to win the hand, I bet out 1/2 the pot, and see the 2 callers fold...and I'm HU with all-in player. Players spikes a queen to win the hand, and the fun begins.
One of the young DBs at the end of the table starts bitching that he would have won the hand had I not bet the turn, and that I should have checked it down...this got a response from me along the lines of "Hey, I was just trying to improve my equity in the hand...and it worked, except he (pointing to UTG player next to me) drew out on me.". A couple of players who have a brain just nodded their heads in agreement, but it was the DB's response after that floored me.
"You can talk about pot odds, implied odds, equity, and all that math stuff, but it's just all a bunch of bullshit!" Silence for a moment or 2, just to take in the whole idiocy of that statement, until I retorted back, "Ahhh, I get it, you're pissed of at me because *I* didn't let *you* win that pot...you do realize what a dumbass you sound like now, right?". Unfortunately for me, that last comment was heard by the poker room manager, and since that was considered "berating a player", I had to serve a 2-hand penalty...damn.
Look, I have no problem checking down hands when players are all-in, but there has to be certain conditions in play here:
- Dry side pot...but as we've seen already, if you have a hand, don't be afraid to bet into it. Bluffing into a dry side pot isn't usually a great idea, but there are valid reasons for doing so.
- Have to be already in the money, where the elimination of a player moves us up on the pay scale more than a nominal amount, or
- Have to be close to the money bubble, or near the end of a flat-payout structured satellite.
- Most importantly, it has to benefit ME! I am all for checking it down if it means that my shitty hands have a chance to improve and become the winning hand, after all!
I think I found someone that I want to play with more in the future, heh!
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