Sunday, January 8th
EDIT on January 9th: The morning of our very last day, my friend and I also played in a WSOP-qualifier and I finished second (for the 2nd time in 3 such qualifiers). Blow was softened this time by the fact that it was my friend who took first and will be going to this year's Main Event. Sigh...always a bridesmaid...
About to get on a plane, which will spell the end of my 6-day Vegas excursion...I actually didn't play all that much poker...maybe 1,000 hands over the 6 days. The Bellagio poker room was great -- all the dealers and floor people were very friendly and professional, although I was pretty pissed off that the poker rate that was quoted to me over the phone wasn't honored, and we actually ended up paying approx $60 more per night than we were promised by the poker office. Split 3 ways, it's really not the end of the world, but a source of frustration nonetheless.
Poker hand highlight of trip:
I really like this hand -- and of course it's easy to say that when you rake a huge pot, but I like this for so many other reasons as well. I'm at the most unbelievable 15/30 table I've seen all trip. 6 to 7 people to every single flop, and no one has any clue what they're doing post-flop. I have Jh,8h in the SB. EP1 limps, EP2 limps, MP2 raises, Button calls 2 cold, I call for another $20 from the SB. The BB, who was a complete donkey, but on a rush, gleefully 3-bets from the BB (which could really mean anything, but probably nothing more than he was a gleeful donkey on a rush who was happy to pump the action). Everyone calls, including me. 6 to the flop, with 18 small bets in the pot.
Flop: 9h, 7d, 3c.
Not bad, I've got a gutshot, backdoor flush draw, and one overcard (although I doubt it's good) in a huge pot. Here's where things get fun. BB bets, first 2 limpers call, and original MP2 raiser raises, button calls 2 cold. I happily cold-call 2 bets (do the math, it's correct, and really not even close). BB makes it 3-bets, all call, and MP2 makes it 4-bets. Button folds, and I call another 2 cold. Rest of people call. 5 people remain with 40 small bets (20 big bets) in the pot.
Turn brings the 6h.
Outstanding card for me. My straight draw is now open-ended, and I'm closer to my flush. Figuring I now don't mind the action, I lead with a bet into the other 4 players. Strangely, the first 3 fold, and only the MP2 raiser remains. He just calls to make it 22 big bets in the pot. I make the quick decision that (now heads-up) I'm betting the river regardless of what comes, so I toss out 6-chips in the dark, before the dealer even turns over the river. To my delight, it's a Ten. MP2, buying my strong betting act, lets out a sigh and calls my bet, although his resignation turns into anger when he realizes that I didn't get there until the river. He furiously throws his Kings into the muck. I feel daggers coming at me from the eyes of everyone else at the table, as I stack $700 in chips. I'm immediately greeted by a chorus of insults and criticism of my play on the hand. It does not help that a few minutes later, I start talking pretty loudly to my buddy 2 seats away about how expertly I played the hand. Yeah, it was a pretty dick move, but it served a good purpose: I got a hell of a lot of action on my premium hands the rest of the night, and finished up close to $1,500 on that table alone. Not wishing to actually engage any of the perturbed fish in an enlightening discussion of why every street was played properly (argue pre-flop if you want...perhaps a marginal call, but it would obviously be an easy call from the BB, and with the two thirds blind structure in the 15/30 game, it's pretty routine from the SB as well), nor point out my gutshot on the flop (which apparently nobody recognized), I sufficed myself with explaining to everyone that "I was sooooooted". That was fun.
Poker hand lowlight of trip:
Beware the perils of drinking too much at the table. The weakest guy at our 30/60 table who sees about half of the flops limps from early position, and I raise from late position with As,8d to isolate him. Everyone folds, as I had hoped, and it's just the two of us. The flop brings an Ace, he checkraises my flop bet (which probably should have set off some warning bells, since he was typically very passive). I play my A8 strongly on all streets, 3-betting the flop and raising his turn bet. River brought another Ace, at which point I thought I was probably good. I confidently put out another bet, and when he called, I smugly table my cards. Everyone is staring at me. Confused, I look down and see that in my alcoholic stupor, I had mistaken the pointy top of a Four for an Ace. My eight-four offsuit was, sadly, no good. Fishy guy happily rakes pot with A5o. That was an interesting use of $300 on my part.
Wish I had happier news to report, but I actually finished down around $1,000 for the trip. Of course in the grand scheme of things, that's really only around 20 big bets, a pretty routine swing at the mid-stakes games for any player. Hurt my pride more than anything else. I got the Bellagio back in other arenas, though. I friggin' owned them at the buffet -- no way they didn't take a bath on my self-styled 5-trip meal. I also lucked out big-time on the wildest night of the trip, as follows:
My only food all day had been a roast beef sandwich around 4pm. That evening, I played in a beirut/beer pong tournament at a local bar. I won, going 8-0, including beating 3 of the bar owners, who apparently fancied themselves beirut superstars. (I am actually very good at the game.) Only problem was that my 2 friends had left me to fend for myself to go play in a 2am poker tournament, and I very nearly got my ass kicked by the owners of the bar who forcefully ushered me back into the bar to play more games even after I had beaten everyone remaining in the tournament at least once, then decided they were going to card me before paying me the $300 winner's prize (cheap move), then challenging my ID as fake, which, as a 26-year old, I took offense to, and told them that they were being douchebags about it. Apparently, every week they run the tournament, they essentially rig it so that one of the bar owners gets to keep the $300 prize. I guess it bothered them that I wiped the floor with each of them repeatedly. I stuffed the $300 they gave me into my sock, and ran the hell out of there like me ass was on fire. Anyway, as per their house rules, each of the games was played with 3 16-oz. cups of beer on each side. That means that over the course of my 8 games, there were 32 12-oz beers placed in front of me...because I won all my games, I probably only drank around 26 of them or so, but when we pre-gamed before the bar, i had had at least 4 drinks. I think I can confidently state that I have never had anywhere close to 30 drinks in a single night...I remember puking on #19 on my 21st birthday. Combined with the single sandwich that I had eaten that day, it was truly a perfect storm of blood alcohol poisoning. I have never, ever been that drunk. Anyway, back to how I lucked out: as recounted to me the next day, the security guard wouldn't let me up to my room in the Bellagio because i was obviously beyond wasted and it was 4am and I couldn't find my room key. By a true stroke of fate, my buddy was just finishing up his poker session for the night, and was headed up to the room when he saw me struggling. The security guard told him that he had just called the sheriff to come take me away, but my buddy was able to talk him into letting me up to my room. I puked in at least 4 different Bellagio bathrooms for the following 12 hours. I remember thinking the next morning that perhaps a dose of pepto bismol would soothe me slightly. I drank it with a glass of water, which my body summarily expelled within 10 seconds. Not an experience to repeat, but not one to forget either.
So overall the trip was great -- I really wanted to pop in on the adult film and internet porn convention that happened to have been being held during our trip, but nobody really wanted to accompany me, and I thought it would be pretty lame to go by myself. Celebrities were all over the Bellagio. Bobby's Room in the poker room hosted Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Gus Hansen, Sam Farha, Negraneau, Beyamine, and others. Paris Hilton dropped in on the poker room and allegedly donked off chips at the $25/$50 NL game our first night there. Ludacris performed an impromptu 30 minute set at the Hard Rock nightclub, and our $700 bottle service tab was kindly picked up by one of my friend's bosses who were in town for the tech convention.
About to get on a plane, which will spell the end of my 6-day Vegas excursion...I actually didn't play all that much poker...maybe 1,000 hands over the 6 days. The Bellagio poker room was great -- all the dealers and floor people were very friendly and professional, although I was pretty pissed off that the poker rate that was quoted to me over the phone wasn't honored, and we actually ended up paying approx $60 more per night than we were promised by the poker office. Split 3 ways, it's really not the end of the world, but a source of frustration nonetheless.
Poker hand highlight of trip:
I really like this hand -- and of course it's easy to say that when you rake a huge pot, but I like this for so many other reasons as well. I'm at the most unbelievable 15/30 table I've seen all trip. 6 to 7 people to every single flop, and no one has any clue what they're doing post-flop. I have Jh,8h in the SB. EP1 limps, EP2 limps, MP2 raises, Button calls 2 cold, I call for another $20 from the SB. The BB, who was a complete donkey, but on a rush, gleefully 3-bets from the BB (which could really mean anything, but probably nothing more than he was a gleeful donkey on a rush who was happy to pump the action). Everyone calls, including me. 6 to the flop, with 18 small bets in the pot.
Flop: 9h, 7d, 3c.
Not bad, I've got a gutshot, backdoor flush draw, and one overcard (although I doubt it's good) in a huge pot. Here's where things get fun. BB bets, first 2 limpers call, and original MP2 raiser raises, button calls 2 cold. I happily cold-call 2 bets (do the math, it's correct, and really not even close). BB makes it 3-bets, all call, and MP2 makes it 4-bets. Button folds, and I call another 2 cold. Rest of people call. 5 people remain with 40 small bets (20 big bets) in the pot.
Turn brings the 6h.
Outstanding card for me. My straight draw is now open-ended, and I'm closer to my flush. Figuring I now don't mind the action, I lead with a bet into the other 4 players. Strangely, the first 3 fold, and only the MP2 raiser remains. He just calls to make it 22 big bets in the pot. I make the quick decision that (now heads-up) I'm betting the river regardless of what comes, so I toss out 6-chips in the dark, before the dealer even turns over the river. To my delight, it's a Ten. MP2, buying my strong betting act, lets out a sigh and calls my bet, although his resignation turns into anger when he realizes that I didn't get there until the river. He furiously throws his Kings into the muck. I feel daggers coming at me from the eyes of everyone else at the table, as I stack $700 in chips. I'm immediately greeted by a chorus of insults and criticism of my play on the hand. It does not help that a few minutes later, I start talking pretty loudly to my buddy 2 seats away about how expertly I played the hand. Yeah, it was a pretty dick move, but it served a good purpose: I got a hell of a lot of action on my premium hands the rest of the night, and finished up close to $1,500 on that table alone. Not wishing to actually engage any of the perturbed fish in an enlightening discussion of why every street was played properly (argue pre-flop if you want...perhaps a marginal call, but it would obviously be an easy call from the BB, and with the two thirds blind structure in the 15/30 game, it's pretty routine from the SB as well), nor point out my gutshot on the flop (which apparently nobody recognized), I sufficed myself with explaining to everyone that "I was sooooooted". That was fun.
Poker hand lowlight of trip:
Beware the perils of drinking too much at the table. The weakest guy at our 30/60 table who sees about half of the flops limps from early position, and I raise from late position with As,8d to isolate him. Everyone folds, as I had hoped, and it's just the two of us. The flop brings an Ace, he checkraises my flop bet (which probably should have set off some warning bells, since he was typically very passive). I play my A8 strongly on all streets, 3-betting the flop and raising his turn bet. River brought another Ace, at which point I thought I was probably good. I confidently put out another bet, and when he called, I smugly table my cards. Everyone is staring at me. Confused, I look down and see that in my alcoholic stupor, I had mistaken the pointy top of a Four for an Ace. My eight-four offsuit was, sadly, no good. Fishy guy happily rakes pot with A5o. That was an interesting use of $300 on my part.
Wish I had happier news to report, but I actually finished down around $1,000 for the trip. Of course in the grand scheme of things, that's really only around 20 big bets, a pretty routine swing at the mid-stakes games for any player. Hurt my pride more than anything else. I got the Bellagio back in other arenas, though. I friggin' owned them at the buffet -- no way they didn't take a bath on my self-styled 5-trip meal. I also lucked out big-time on the wildest night of the trip, as follows:
My only food all day had been a roast beef sandwich around 4pm. That evening, I played in a beirut/beer pong tournament at a local bar. I won, going 8-0, including beating 3 of the bar owners, who apparently fancied themselves beirut superstars. (I am actually very good at the game.) Only problem was that my 2 friends had left me to fend for myself to go play in a 2am poker tournament, and I very nearly got my ass kicked by the owners of the bar who forcefully ushered me back into the bar to play more games even after I had beaten everyone remaining in the tournament at least once, then decided they were going to card me before paying me the $300 winner's prize (cheap move), then challenging my ID as fake, which, as a 26-year old, I took offense to, and told them that they were being douchebags about it. Apparently, every week they run the tournament, they essentially rig it so that one of the bar owners gets to keep the $300 prize. I guess it bothered them that I wiped the floor with each of them repeatedly. I stuffed the $300 they gave me into my sock, and ran the hell out of there like me ass was on fire. Anyway, as per their house rules, each of the games was played with 3 16-oz. cups of beer on each side. That means that over the course of my 8 games, there were 32 12-oz beers placed in front of me...because I won all my games, I probably only drank around 26 of them or so, but when we pre-gamed before the bar, i had had at least 4 drinks. I think I can confidently state that I have never had anywhere close to 30 drinks in a single night...I remember puking on #19 on my 21st birthday. Combined with the single sandwich that I had eaten that day, it was truly a perfect storm of blood alcohol poisoning. I have never, ever been that drunk. Anyway, back to how I lucked out: as recounted to me the next day, the security guard wouldn't let me up to my room in the Bellagio because i was obviously beyond wasted and it was 4am and I couldn't find my room key. By a true stroke of fate, my buddy was just finishing up his poker session for the night, and was headed up to the room when he saw me struggling. The security guard told him that he had just called the sheriff to come take me away, but my buddy was able to talk him into letting me up to my room. I puked in at least 4 different Bellagio bathrooms for the following 12 hours. I remember thinking the next morning that perhaps a dose of pepto bismol would soothe me slightly. I drank it with a glass of water, which my body summarily expelled within 10 seconds. Not an experience to repeat, but not one to forget either.
So overall the trip was great -- I really wanted to pop in on the adult film and internet porn convention that happened to have been being held during our trip, but nobody really wanted to accompany me, and I thought it would be pretty lame to go by myself. Celebrities were all over the Bellagio. Bobby's Room in the poker room hosted Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Gus Hansen, Sam Farha, Negraneau, Beyamine, and others. Paris Hilton dropped in on the poker room and allegedly donked off chips at the $25/$50 NL game our first night there. Ludacris performed an impromptu 30 minute set at the Hard Rock nightclub, and our $700 bottle service tab was kindly picked up by one of my friend's bosses who were in town for the tech convention.
posted by Blog Administrator at 4:47 AM
8 Comments:
Hey there,
I stumbled across your blog a few weeks ago and I just want to say that I think you're one of the best poker blog writers out there. Always a good read!
As for your J8 hand - like you said, the only marginal play was pre-flop but you gotta think, if you hit or get a draw on the flop or an even bigger one on the turn, you're going to get paid pretty big by at least one of them.
Secondly, not that you need me to tell you but a play like that can work wonders for getting paid in the future.
Look forward to reading your blogs in the future!
Stu
HOLY $HIT!?!?! You're bragging about how "expertly" you played that J8 hand.... You were flopping around like a total donkfish throughout and managed to play it wrong on EVERY street.
Preflop: This hand is trash. SSH says you can play any two suited from the sb in a loose game as long as there is no raise. This is a marginally profitable hand under those conditions. It is not a "marginal call" but a clearly incorrect one in this case.
I understand that you didnt go to the Bellagio to sit on your a$$ and watch other people play poker, and that the pace of playable hands compared to online in mindnumbingly boring, but this is the type of hand that looks real good to fishy players. I am not implying you play fishy all the time, but....
Flop: You have a huge pot, and well youre hand isnt totally dead. The BB put in the last raise, and you read him as weak (good read). Your best move here is to bet, expecting him to immediatly raise you and force the field to call two bets. You're likely behind, but this is the best way to increase your equity in the hand in this huge pot. Your are prepared to call two bets cold anyway if it doesnt work out, so its best to be the one making strategical plays. Just checking and calling two bets cold, while mathematically justifiable in this case, is just a weak passive fishy play plain and simple.
Turn: First of all, you havent done anything but call call call this entire hand and then all of a sudden you wake up with a lead out bet when a brick falls and you wonder why the action dies? Its not "strange" one bit.
Second of all, again, the last bet on the previous hand came from the BB. This is the perfect situation to checkraise and trap the entire field for at least two bets while you have an equitable edge.
River: Betting in the dark is the fishiest play in this entire hand. I thought just about every idiot knows the addage "strong means weak, and weak means strong" tell (apparently not though). I would have called or raised you on that river every time just because of that highly transparent act.
Wow, you've really missed the theme of this blog, haven't you??
If you're into hand analysis, here's a couple decent sites that you might want to check out where you'll get a better response:
www.twoplustwo.com
www.recpoker.com
Good luck to you!
Hi,
I enjoy your blog and you've really inspired me to take my game up from play money to the micro limit games. I'm only at .25/.50 now, but hope to be where you're at in a year.
Don't let him get you down, but I think I agree with the other commentator about the hand you posted. Your turn play was atrocious. Betting out into the the raiser from the last round where you will likely get raised and drive out the rest of the players would be just devastating when you've picked up this huge draw. A check raise here is a far better play, "and its not even close".
We all make mistakes from time to time though, so keep up the good work bro.
Actually, you guys should both re-read the action from the hand. Anonymous #1 wrote:
'Second of all, again, the last bet on the previous hand (sic) came from the BB.'
and Anonymous #2 concurred with:
'Betting out into the the raiser from the last round where you will likely get raised and drive out the rest of the players would be just devastating when you've picked up this huge draw.'
You both misread the action from the betting on the flop. The last bet did not come from the BB, but rather from MP2, who first raised and then 4-bet (with me and then the BB both calling the 4-bets...cap is 5 bets at the Bellagio).
If the BB had been the last raiser from the flop round, I think I would side with you and checkraise the field with a monster draw. But with the last raiser being MP2, the best chance to get 2 bets in from everyone is to lead out, get callers, and hope MP2 raises.
Now I remember why I don't post hands here.
Nice blog. Been reading from the start. But I dont think the flop coldcall is as easy as you think. Yes you're getting 25:2 on a gutshot + backdoor, but what you're forgetting is that you dont close the action. If the flop gets 3-bet (and the EP callers come along) you're going to get 33:3, if the flop gets 4-bet you're getting 38:4, and since this is Vegas, if it gets capped at 5-bets your odds will continue to decline. I still make the coldcall, but it isn't as easy as you said. (I also call preflop).
Thanks, and good point -- first reasonable comment on the hand so far.
you're an alcoholic you know that right? seriously
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