After blowing through half a stack with bad play I have to tighten up my game so I just nit up and post blinds. Turns out that PH runs games at 9 per table like Caesars. I handn't noticed it before but it's nice to have the extra elbow room and a few more hands an hour.
Keke, the guy who raised my pair of 9s on my bad hand play tips me off to Seat 2, Eric, who is a professional. This guy kinda reminds me of an Alan Cunningham with his patience and measured movements. Pure ABC poker, no surprises. Keke and I talk a bunch during the hands and he's been having tough luck at the PH tournies, getting to the final table but finishing just off the bubble.
He gets wrapped up in one hand where the flop comes A68 with two Diamonds. Seat 4 bets a pot-ish sized 10. Keke bumps it to 20. Seat 4 cuts out more chips to raise it 50 more. Keke goes into the tank. Keke flashes his cards to me and he has top and bottom. Seat 6, new to the table also gets a glimpse of his hand is making body language like he can't figure out why the money isn't in the middle yet. I cannot say a word. Keke finally shoves all in and has the other guy covered by about 60. Insta-called by pocket 8s. He has a glimpse of hope when an Six hits on the River but after a short clarification he realizes that his Sixes full of Aces is still losing to Eights full of Sixes. We digest the hand later and I tell him it is like Marshall and Royal's hand where Marsh got in a raising war with Royal in a nearly identical hand. Based on the betting action, both Marsh and Keke were only beating bottom two pair which would be an odd pre-flop holding. He agrees that it was a bad play in retrospect and even said he went against his instinct. He got confused by the action of his friend sitting in Seat 3 who overplayed pocket 7s in an earlier hand.
Hand of the night. Seat 9 can't help but tell me his hole cards whether he folded them or not. He'd make comments like "I folded Ten Five" which would have flopped two pair. He was also complaining about losing with pocket Aces and Keke and I were trying to explain how to isolate with them, etc. So 9 is in this hand UTG+1 after I fold UTG and limps in before telling me that he has Aces. I feel like smacking him in the head but instead say "well, we'll see what happens" as we both watch the entire table limp into the pot. As luck would have it, the flop comes 988. SB checks and limp Aces fires his entire short stack of about 50 into the pot. Seat 3 insta-calls. Uh oh. 9 whispers to me that he thinks that the caller has an 8. Ummm yeah, good guess. Then to my surprise SB shoves! And I am quite confident that AA is no good here. Seat 3 thinks a bit then calls. So now we get to see the carnage. AA versus 68 for flopped trips versus 99 for flopped overboat. That explains a lot. Now the fun begins. Turn is...wait for it...case Eight. Last place takes the lead now. And if to justify horrific play, an Ace on the River comes to put the commanding flop leader into last place behind Aces full. Ouch. The 9s full leaves the table beside himself.
I am still posting my blinds waiting for spots. For the second time in the session I again pick up KK with a bet and a call ahead of me. I pump it to 25 and the initial raiser thinks about it. Then makes a cautious call since he saw my only other big raise of the night when I showed KK. Flop comes out Q high and his eyes are fixated on the flop. I am trying to look into his soul but the line is busy. He makes a pot sized bet and I digest the situation and decide that he does not have a set of Queens. I shove my stack in which makes it about 40 more back to him. He is in semi-shock and eventually mucks showing AQ. I show him my KK and he feels better about his laydown. I commend him for his fold since a lot of people are just making the crying call figuring they losing but wanting to get their money in bad anyway.
I have been at the table for hours and Eric has been there the whole time. I raise one hand and Eric picks up his cards and I can see he is bewildered. He looks at me and calls me out as never raising. He shakes his head in disbelief and and folds his cards. The hand plays out and I bet a Q high flop with my AQ. Eric tells me after that he folded AdKd pre-flop for a bet of 10! Wow. Now that is pro to avoid getting into a situation like that based on previous play from a player. Personally I am calling that to hit a Flush or Straight, especially for only ten bucks but he dumps his potentially dangerous second best hand in the making.
Two gals from the ladies only tournament join the table. They are from Boston and look like burly softball player types. Both very aggressive and bluffy. Not sure if that is East coast offense or whatever but I don't like how they've disrupted a quiet friendly game and I'm glad they are both to my immedate right. They experience some stack swings due to their play but they know what they are doing. Maybe a little rough at some reads but at least they can write it off to a bad read and not d0nk play. One of them is the caller in my KK play above and she knew to get out of the way. They both play a ton at Foxwoods and are complaining about the lax rules enforcement out here. They have seven days of golf lined up, basically the same gig as Ben's shindig.
I get into a pot with one of the softball players with 8cTc. Flop comes 689 to give me a pair and a gutter. I bet it and she calls. Turn puts another 9 on the board and I bet it again. She calls. River is a blank and it goes check, check. She shows 7s and I take down the pot.
Then I get into a hand with Seat 3. A softballer opens for 7 and I bump to 20 with QQ. Seat 3 mulls it over and calls. I know this guy has noticed my play since he's been there for a while and has heard the comments about how few hands I enter. Original raiser gets out the way. I intently watch Seat 3 as the Flop comes out. I don't sense much strength but he leads out for 50 anyway which accounts for about half of my stack. I can't put him on JJ and no other hand makes sense to me. I can't give him credit for flat calling with AA or KK. Maybe he has AK and is just trying to blow me off the hand. I mull it over and don't see how I am losing because the 50 just looks too much like a go-away bet. I shove and he insta-calls which is not music to my ears. He shows AJ for top top and I show my Queens. I guess he knew he was beat but was willing to go to the mat with it before I made my declaration. Turn and River are glorious blanks and I double up to over 200.
Nina from Virginia sits in the vacant 9 seat to my left after busting out of the ladies only tourney. She and I chat it up and she seems to be a fairly solid player. One hand I am in with her I am in the BB with KhXx. Flop comes K high in a short handed limped pot. I bet 5 and she calls. Turn puts a third Heart out there and I check. She fires 15 and I am trying to figure out the hand. I could call 15 more to try to catch a Heart which may or may not be good so I just fold and show her the Kh. She says I was beat. I was saying I thought so but wasn't sure if catching my card would be enough to win. She says no thinking I was talking about another K but I meant catching a Heart since I thought she might be semi-bluffing with Ah. She explains later that she has a set. Ahhh. Got it. Nice hand.
She's very nice and we talk about poker. In one hand a guy makes a big raise pre-flop and then cbets but folds to pressure on a Q high board. "AK never wins" I tell her. Very next hand I pick up AdKd and limp UTG with it. She then bumps it to 7. Folds around to me and I say. Here's a hand I can get into a lot of trouble with and call. Flop comes out Q high and I check. She bets and I run through the options before deciding to fold. I show her my hand and reiterate to her that AK indeed never wins. She shows me her KQ which outflopped me. Would have been very interesting to see a K come out.
Last major hand of the night is me and Nina again. I limp call her raise with KcJc. Flop comes out KQ6 rainbow. I check and she fires 15 into the pot which I cautiously call. Turn puts out 3c which now gives me second nut Flush draw. I check and she fires 45 into the pot and now I know she means business. Every single thing about this hnad tells me that she has exactly KQ again. I am positive that I am behind and am looking at how much of a dent a call of 45 would put in my stack. I am trying to fold but for some reason I instead cut out three stacks of chips each five high and put it into the middle. I had briefly considered a semi-bluff shove but decide against that since we are both roughly even. Turn is a totally undeserved Ac which not only gives me my Flush but the lock hand. I check and she immediately checks behind showing her KQ. I totally soft played her in the end since there is no way she can fold a bet of 20 or I could have shoved and put her to the test but instead I feel bad for sucking out. I apologize and tell her that was awful play and that I had her squarely on KQ. She says it's alright and that it's just poker.
Eric gets up from the table and I walk over to talk with him for a while. He is showing some others in the room a short stack of chips in his hand which I confirm with him that that is his sugar for the night. I asked if he is a professional and indeed his only income is from poker. Interesting. I commend him on his play especially a hand where he limp/flat calls pre-flop, and check calls on the Flop and the Turn against a new aggro guy to the table. Eric had JJ and the other guy had 69 which paired the flop's Nine high. But the Turn put a third Spade and an overcard King which Eric called as well. River goes check/check and Eric sweeps the pot.
After returning to the table I find they are drawing cards to break up the table since we are now four handed. I decide to cash out my chips since it is 12:30, the normal end to Tuesday Night Poker but this time I'm not wheeling off packed up cases of chips at the end of the night.
111 > 279. A good night.
3 comments:
I haven't made it through the whole post yet but:
I OFFICIALLY CHALLENGE YOU TO NOT SHOW ANOTHER FUCKING HAND TO THE TABLE THAT THEY DID NOT PAY TO SEE.
God, you are fucking tilting me with your "so I showed him my KK again to let him feel absolutely great about his laydown that he had been completely unsure of, and to further cement my image as a tight SOB even though I won't ever actually use that image to earn some pots."
Stop it stop it stop it. Stop showing the table your fucking premium hands when they fold to you. Stop showing them any hands.
Glad you had a good night, things seemed to fall in place pretty well. I agree, a free look or two is good to reiterate your image, but no need to do it every hand.
Main thing thought, specifically on the KK vs. AQ hand where you raise him on the flop:
If you think you're getting your money in anyways, and you're in position, why not flat call his initial bet, and shove on the turn? You're more likely to get the "I have to call" with only $40 more on the turn rather than the strength showing raise on the flop. When you're playing your normal tight Vegas game, I think getting max value out of your best-of-it situations is of the upmost importance, and in this particular case, maybe waiting until the turn would've been more ideal.
"...a free look or two is good to reiterate your image..."
I disagree. With his style of play, the only good reason Martin has to show a hand ever in Vegas is if he's using it as a means to hit on an opponent.
Why does he need to "reiterate his image?" To what end? The only reason to show premium hands and establish a tight image is if you are going to subsequently use that tight image to steal pots.
Martin doesn't do that. Fine, whatever. But if you aren't establishing a tight image early to enable stealing later, then you specifically do not want to show the table that you are playing and showing down with nothing but quality hands. You want the table to pay you off a few times before learning the hard way that you are playing and showing down with nothing but quality hands.
So, no. Not even once or twice. If you take down ten pots without a showdown, then it's just getting more and more likely that someone is going to get fed up and call you down to force you to show a better hand.
What's the correct style to be playing in that situation to maximize your EV? Oh yeah, Martin's style. So Martin should be attempting to create that situation by never, not once, revealing his holdings without a call on the river.
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