We actually played a poker tournament Monday night at my apartment. I played ridiculously loose, leading to Ian busting me twice and Derek once. I dropped $15 and went to McDonald's.
Full Tilt offered me a $75 bonus that I could redeem over a span of ten days, so late in the evening I sat on the couch between Ian and Derek and played some .25/.50 NLHE. It is important for me to note that I NEVER play at stakes this high in an internet cash game. I have played higher stakes live, but on the internet I feel that competition in these games is above my level. I was wrong- at least tonight. I can't lie though, I caught cards CONSTANTLY, allowing me to make plays and build an image.
I made over $60 in less than an hour. This hand was the highlight of my night. Can you dream of anything working out more awesomely?
Feeling invincible, I moved on to .10/.25 PLO. I took over $30 in a very brief session, a lot of it coming from this wet dream of a hand.
I'm sitting at a .25/.50 Stud table right now. I'm up 4 big bets. Can I lose money tonight?
Who knows.
One thing is for sure; I'm having fun playing poker again.
-The Gerk-
Showing posts with label hand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hand. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
A Sit-and-Go Just for the Purpose of an Update
I haven't updated this blog in a month.
Let me rank the reasons why:
1. Guitar Hero (I, II, and III)
2. Other work on the site Arabianmonkey.com
3. Work
4. Stuff around the apartment
5. School
Yet I digress- it's not like I just chose not to update. I have seriously played less that 12 hours of poker in 2008. Crazy, isn't it? I theorize that I will eventually get sick of Guitar Hero and my playing ability will plateau, leading me back to the poker table.
But since that hasn't happened yet, I purposely sat my ass down with my hand generator and this blog window specifically to write about a Sit-and-Go. So here it is, nothing fancy, just some simply hand analysis of a meat-and-potatoes $5+.50 NL Hold'em 9-player Sit-and-Go. I had to use the old hand generator because I forgot my password to the new-fangled one.
I folded through the first level. I took a flop with 66, whiffed and let it go. The table seemed pretty standard- nothing crazy happening. Then I picked up AsQs in my BB. UTG limped, so did the cutoff. SB makes it 200 to go, 5x the BB. UTG then shoves. What the fuck? Cutoff folds, SB thinks a while and calls. Easy fold for me, right? UTG must be looking for that classic limp and trap play with AA or KK. SB must have at least AK, right? It's been a while since I've played, so I guess I'm impatient. I call. SB has QQ, UTG has 88. Board bricks. I'm out. Did I say I was only going to play one tournamet? Hahahaha... LET'S TRY AGAIN!
ROUND 2
Things started out much the same, playing Texas Fold'em. I took a small pot in my SB with J9. Then in the second level a confrontation arose that nearly made this blog unworthy of posting. Check out the action...
I figured we might be racing. Shit, it was almost 2:30am- sleep isn't such a bad consolation prize.
Two hands later I woke up in the BB with AQ. The short-stacked button minraised, the SB called and I jammed it. It folded to the button, who promptly called, and I was racing again. Here's how it turned out.
With almost 4,500 chips under my belt, I was pretty set. We very quickly became 5-handed and things tightened up. I called a raise on the button with QsTs, hoping to hit a good flop against a pretty TAG player. It came down with the As and the Ks. I had a royal flush draw and a gut shot. He continuation bet, and I called, with the intention of jamming the turn no matter what fell and how he acted. The turn was an 8, giving me an extra 4 outs. He timidly checked, and I decided to push and take it down.
A little while later, this hand came up. I nearly folded the turn; I swear to God my poker senses kicked in and almost saved me some money. He made it so affordable that I had to pay him off though. The short stack played the hand perfectly.
I made it back later though. I wasn't too scared of AK here, so when I pushed I felt pretty safe. He seemed to pretend to think about a call before letting it go.
Ugh. This always seems to happen. I wish he had just folded.
You might say I had a pretty good read on the guy on my right. Check out the river action on this baby.
The blinds got higher and my opponents' stacks got smaller. Out of necessity I called the all in of the 4th place finsher, and the next hand I took out the 3rd place guy for the same reason- he was just too short stacked for me not to call.
After some back and forth heads-up action. I noticed my opponent was getting frustrated. I raised three straight hands and then picked up AA. He raised from the button, trying to steal his thunder back. I, of course, declared that this was my table and re-raised. He cold called and I checked him the flop to see if he would hang himself. Not yet. I even gave him a free river card when he opted out of suicide again. But I jammed the un-important river card and he called VERY quickly with King-high. What a bitch. Check out the hand- there's nothing better than ending a tourney with AA.
-The Gerk-
Let me rank the reasons why:
1. Guitar Hero (I, II, and III)
2. Other work on the site Arabianmonkey.com
3. Work
4. Stuff around the apartment
5. School
Yet I digress- it's not like I just chose not to update. I have seriously played less that 12 hours of poker in 2008. Crazy, isn't it? I theorize that I will eventually get sick of Guitar Hero and my playing ability will plateau, leading me back to the poker table.
But since that hasn't happened yet, I purposely sat my ass down with my hand generator and this blog window specifically to write about a Sit-and-Go. So here it is, nothing fancy, just some simply hand analysis of a meat-and-potatoes $5+.50 NL Hold'em 9-player Sit-and-Go. I had to use the old hand generator because I forgot my password to the new-fangled one.
I folded through the first level. I took a flop with 66, whiffed and let it go. The table seemed pretty standard- nothing crazy happening. Then I picked up AsQs in my BB. UTG limped, so did the cutoff. SB makes it 200 to go, 5x the BB. UTG then shoves. What the fuck? Cutoff folds, SB thinks a while and calls. Easy fold for me, right? UTG must be looking for that classic limp and trap play with AA or KK. SB must have at least AK, right? It's been a while since I've played, so I guess I'm impatient. I call. SB has QQ, UTG has 88. Board bricks. I'm out. Did I say I was only going to play one tournamet? Hahahaha... LET'S TRY AGAIN!
ROUND 2
Things started out much the same, playing Texas Fold'em. I took a small pot in my SB with J9. Then in the second level a confrontation arose that nearly made this blog unworthy of posting. Check out the action...
I figured we might be racing. Shit, it was almost 2:30am- sleep isn't such a bad consolation prize.
Two hands later I woke up in the BB with AQ. The short-stacked button minraised, the SB called and I jammed it. It folded to the button, who promptly called, and I was racing again. Here's how it turned out.
With almost 4,500 chips under my belt, I was pretty set. We very quickly became 5-handed and things tightened up. I called a raise on the button with QsTs, hoping to hit a good flop against a pretty TAG player. It came down with the As and the Ks. I had a royal flush draw and a gut shot. He continuation bet, and I called, with the intention of jamming the turn no matter what fell and how he acted. The turn was an 8, giving me an extra 4 outs. He timidly checked, and I decided to push and take it down.
A little while later, this hand came up. I nearly folded the turn; I swear to God my poker senses kicked in and almost saved me some money. He made it so affordable that I had to pay him off though. The short stack played the hand perfectly.
I made it back later though. I wasn't too scared of AK here, so when I pushed I felt pretty safe. He seemed to pretend to think about a call before letting it go.
Ugh. This always seems to happen. I wish he had just folded.
You might say I had a pretty good read on the guy on my right. Check out the river action on this baby.
The blinds got higher and my opponents' stacks got smaller. Out of necessity I called the all in of the 4th place finsher, and the next hand I took out the 3rd place guy for the same reason- he was just too short stacked for me not to call.
After some back and forth heads-up action. I noticed my opponent was getting frustrated. I raised three straight hands and then picked up AA. He raised from the button, trying to steal his thunder back. I, of course, declared that this was my table and re-raised. He cold called and I checked him the flop to see if he would hang himself. Not yet. I even gave him a free river card when he opted out of suicide again. But I jammed the un-important river card and he called VERY quickly with King-high. What a bitch. Check out the hand- there's nothing better than ending a tourney with AA.
-The Gerk-
Monday, August 13, 2007
The Analysis of a Hand
If you haven't read the comments section of the previous blog post, refer to them first before reading this one. In summary, this particular hand decided a 5-handed NL Hold'em tournament that some friends and I played on Friday. My opponent seems to believe that the call he made was correct, and that I shouldn't "gripe," but the objective of this analysis is to prove that it was not only an incorrect call, but a VERY incorrect call.
In the tournament in question, there were five players and two rebuys, with each player starting with 20.00 in chips. Therefore, there are 140.00 of chips in play. We are heads-up at this point, and I have just doubled up to take a VERY slight chiplead when my TT held up against Ax all-in preflop. After I lost the pot in question, I was all-in with my BB the very next hand- my opponent called in the dark and we played the hand with the hole cards face up. Therefore the stacks were approximately even, with me having a 6.00 (or one BB) chiplead. The hand went as follows.
The Douginator (67.00): Posts BB (6.00)
The Gerk (73.00): Posts SB (3.00)
The Gerk: Moves all-in (73.00 total)
The Douginator: Calls all-in (67.00 total)
The Gerk shows Ac7d
The Douginator shows QhJd
Flop: 9-x-T
Turn: 8
River: Q
Board reads: 9-x-T-8-Q
The Douginator takes the pot (134.00) with a straight, 8 to Q.
Since some of you may not understand what "pot odds" are, let me explain them to you. Pot odds are calculated, generally when making a call with a draw, to determine whether or not a player has the proper equity (or return on investment) to commit a certain amount of money to a pot.
For example, lets said you had a flush draw on the turn of one particular hand, and would thus have 9 outs to the best hand. If the pot was 10.00, and I bet 8.00, you would not have the proper equity (ROI) to call the bet, seeing as calling 8.00 into a 18.00 pot would only be giving you a 2.5:1 ROI. The odds for you to make your hand are roughly 18% (or 4:1), making it improper to call. I would have to bet a maximum of about 3.25 in order for it to be a proper call with your draw (and you should always look for situations when you're getting BETTER than the proper odds on your money, i.e. getting 5:1 on a call with a 3:1 lead)
In our example, The Douginator had committed exactly 6.00 into a pot that became worth his entire stack. In other words, he had to call 61.00 in a 73.00 pot (the BB is considered no longer his). He was getting roughly 2.2:1 on a call, that is to say, you need to be 100% sure that your QJ is AT LEAST a 66% favorite in the hand in order to call (we'll ignore the fact that he is making the call for his tournament life, or 15.00 real money.) Pot odds do not necessarily imply to to this pot, because he is calling off his entire stack before the flop. But if they did, he would still not have the right price to call- QJ is a favorite against only about 50% of hands (Q8 is the exact median), not even close to the 2/3 advantage you would be looking for.
And he certainly wasn't pot committed, seeing as after his BB he still had 61.00 (10+BBs). While this would be a relative short stack in many tournaments, if I had just stolen the blinds, I would only have 12BBs.
You may be asking, but what should he have done with QJ in that spot?
FOLD.
If he had any read on me whatsoever, he would know that I was never pushing with less than QJ. Although I was being very aggressive with the blinds so high, and I was moving with QK, Kx, Ax, any pair, as well as any big hand, I was certainly not going to risk my tournament with a dead average hand. He would need to put me on a completely random hand in order to justify a call (not based in any way on pot odds, as he assumed). My range would have to include smaller Jacks and smaller Queens, as well has hands he had a smaller advantage over, like 8-5 and 3-4. If you would like to input a range of hands to determine whether or not a call was justified, please google poker odds calculator or visit flopturnriver.com and have at it.
In the comment post he claimed he "needed to make a play." A play implies that he is the one doing the betting, not calling off his stack with a very average hand. If he wanted to make a play, he could have very easily folded QJ and pushed all-in in position when he had the button the next hand, and 9 times out of 10 taken his BB back.
And to say that the QJ hand did not decide the tournament is completely ignorant- a hand that gives one player a 134.00 to 6.00 chiplead is a pretty consequential hand. And it would have been avoided had he not fallen in love with two facecards.
I'm not saying QJ is not playable- but it is definitely not playable when facing an all-in. It should be folded in EP and MP at a full table. In LP, it is acceptable to limp with it as long as there are other limpers and hope to flop a set or a straight. On the button, it is profitable to raise with it in hopes to steal, but if you are reraised, you are almost certainly way behind. In blind v. blind confrontations, raising is best since many SBs complete with inferior hands as bad as J2 or 83.
For more on pot odds, getting proper ROI, implied odds, and the minimum starting requirements to call an all-in bet, please look up ZeeJustin's blog (I'm too lazy to provide a link). He goes into great detail about how and why it is not only profitable but essential to push in blind v. blind confrontations. He also breaks down what hands you would need to call such a bet, and QJ is obviously not among them.
And a note to all:
Although I am more than willing to admit my mistakes, especially in a game of incomplete information such as Hold'em, make sure you know that you are correct before you post about it. Before you reply on my blog and accuse me of not knowing what I'm talking about, get your facts straight and MAYBE learn what the terms you're using actually mean.
-The Gerk-
In the tournament in question, there were five players and two rebuys, with each player starting with 20.00 in chips. Therefore, there are 140.00 of chips in play. We are heads-up at this point, and I have just doubled up to take a VERY slight chiplead when my TT held up against Ax all-in preflop. After I lost the pot in question, I was all-in with my BB the very next hand- my opponent called in the dark and we played the hand with the hole cards face up. Therefore the stacks were approximately even, with me having a 6.00 (or one BB) chiplead. The hand went as follows.
The Douginator (67.00): Posts BB (6.00)
The Gerk (73.00): Posts SB (3.00)
The Gerk: Moves all-in (73.00 total)
The Douginator: Calls all-in (67.00 total)
The Gerk shows Ac7d
The Douginator shows QhJd
Flop: 9-x-T
Turn: 8
River: Q
Board reads: 9-x-T-8-Q
The Douginator takes the pot (134.00) with a straight, 8 to Q.
Since some of you may not understand what "pot odds" are, let me explain them to you. Pot odds are calculated, generally when making a call with a draw, to determine whether or not a player has the proper equity (or return on investment) to commit a certain amount of money to a pot.
For example, lets said you had a flush draw on the turn of one particular hand, and would thus have 9 outs to the best hand. If the pot was 10.00, and I bet 8.00, you would not have the proper equity (ROI) to call the bet, seeing as calling 8.00 into a 18.00 pot would only be giving you a 2.5:1 ROI. The odds for you to make your hand are roughly 18% (or 4:1), making it improper to call. I would have to bet a maximum of about 3.25 in order for it to be a proper call with your draw (and you should always look for situations when you're getting BETTER than the proper odds on your money, i.e. getting 5:1 on a call with a 3:1 lead)
In our example, The Douginator had committed exactly 6.00 into a pot that became worth his entire stack. In other words, he had to call 61.00 in a 73.00 pot (the BB is considered no longer his). He was getting roughly 2.2:1 on a call, that is to say, you need to be 100% sure that your QJ is AT LEAST a 66% favorite in the hand in order to call (we'll ignore the fact that he is making the call for his tournament life, or 15.00 real money.) Pot odds do not necessarily imply to to this pot, because he is calling off his entire stack before the flop. But if they did, he would still not have the right price to call- QJ is a favorite against only about 50% of hands (Q8 is the exact median), not even close to the 2/3 advantage you would be looking for.
And he certainly wasn't pot committed, seeing as after his BB he still had 61.00 (10+BBs). While this would be a relative short stack in many tournaments, if I had just stolen the blinds, I would only have 12BBs.
You may be asking, but what should he have done with QJ in that spot?
FOLD.
If he had any read on me whatsoever, he would know that I was never pushing with less than QJ. Although I was being very aggressive with the blinds so high, and I was moving with QK, Kx, Ax, any pair, as well as any big hand, I was certainly not going to risk my tournament with a dead average hand. He would need to put me on a completely random hand in order to justify a call (not based in any way on pot odds, as he assumed). My range would have to include smaller Jacks and smaller Queens, as well has hands he had a smaller advantage over, like 8-5 and 3-4. If you would like to input a range of hands to determine whether or not a call was justified, please google poker odds calculator or visit flopturnriver.com and have at it.
In the comment post he claimed he "needed to make a play." A play implies that he is the one doing the betting, not calling off his stack with a very average hand. If he wanted to make a play, he could have very easily folded QJ and pushed all-in in position when he had the button the next hand, and 9 times out of 10 taken his BB back.
And to say that the QJ hand did not decide the tournament is completely ignorant- a hand that gives one player a 134.00 to 6.00 chiplead is a pretty consequential hand. And it would have been avoided had he not fallen in love with two facecards.
I'm not saying QJ is not playable- but it is definitely not playable when facing an all-in. It should be folded in EP and MP at a full table. In LP, it is acceptable to limp with it as long as there are other limpers and hope to flop a set or a straight. On the button, it is profitable to raise with it in hopes to steal, but if you are reraised, you are almost certainly way behind. In blind v. blind confrontations, raising is best since many SBs complete with inferior hands as bad as J2 or 83.
For more on pot odds, getting proper ROI, implied odds, and the minimum starting requirements to call an all-in bet, please look up ZeeJustin's blog (I'm too lazy to provide a link). He goes into great detail about how and why it is not only profitable but essential to push in blind v. blind confrontations. He also breaks down what hands you would need to call such a bet, and QJ is obviously not among them.
And a note to all:
Although I am more than willing to admit my mistakes, especially in a game of incomplete information such as Hold'em, make sure you know that you are correct before you post about it. Before you reply on my blog and accuse me of not knowing what I'm talking about, get your facts straight and MAYBE learn what the terms you're using actually mean.
-The Gerk-
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