Break? What break? December 18, 2006
Posted by yorkshirepuddings in Cash game, Online Poker, Poker.trackback
Well in my last post I announced that I was going to have a small break from all things pokery as I had a pending withdrawal and fancied trying out some new games like Omaha and Stud on the play chip tables but that changed and I ended playing on Sunday afternoon like the big degenerate that I am! Basically, as expected, the play on the play money tables was ridiculous to say the least and I feel that in order for me to learn the ins and outs of these games it is going to be better to play even the penny tables somewhere and risk losing some cash rather than donking around with pretend cash and losing my sanity. Maybe I’ll have to save learning new games until my roll can support them and my regular game. As it happens I did enjoy the Stud games and also the Omaha but just couldn’t grasp the Omaha H/L (just seems like a big gamble-fest) and didn’t get my head around the Razz games either.I checked my Neteller on Sunday morning and found that my withdrawal from Bowmans / Bet365 had hit my account less than one day after my request which was surprising as Cadmunkey waiting an age for his to hit and is one of the reasons I was going to take a small break. With this in mind and the play money tables mushing my brain I redeposited on Full Tilt and found myself a nice little game of NL10 6-max. I don’t know what it is but the lobby always says the 6 max tables are churning out around 80 hands per hour but I’m only ever getting around 60 at best? Anyway, I logged the huge sum of 54 hands and turned a nice profit of $25.25 and an extra $1.20 in rakeback, LMAO! I swear my first table was just a donkey-fest, I’m sure the whole table was either pissed or seriously hungover and I had a guy 2 to my left min raising every single hand and another guy who as long as he had paint he was going to showdown! Here are a three hands of note, two of which I’d be interested in your line.
Suckout then re-suck out! - Glazierboy (GB) was running at 80/50/0.5 over 40 hands (small sample yes) and had shown down Ace-rag type hands. Lavawalker (LW) was the guy who called any raise with anything remotely resembling a hand, a true calling station. When GB pushed all-in preflop after min raising all his other hands I was very weary of AA but if this was one of the 200+/1 times he was holding Rockets at the same time as me holding Cowboys then so be it. LW’s call didn’t worry me in the slightest/ I was kind of hoping for AQ’s to be show as that’s take care of some of the Aces available but that wasn’t the case. GB preflop pushed with 77 (LOL) and LW called with JJ (questionable). Flop gives LW an set and I’m a bit pissed off about the potential suckout but I do have 10 clean outs (4 Aces, 2 Kings, 4 nines) for the win. The Queen fills up LW and I now have to hit one of the last 2 Cowboys in the deck…..KERCHING, justice is served!
SB vs BB - Is there any way I could have gotten away from this? No reads at all on villain apart from he sat down with $4 a few hands ago. His 3xBB raise could mean anything and holding TT I feel I have to raise here which I do. Flop isn’t the best but he’s more likely to have raised with Ace-x rather than K or J-x and I lead out for 1/2 pot figuring he’ll lay down Ace-rag after my aggression and 2 face cards on the flop. Instead he pushes all-in for his remaining $2.55, giving me odds of around 3.5/1 and those odds for me are too good to turn down when he could be sat their with say A7o. Do you play any different here?
Crying call or easy fold? - Not too sure what to make of this hand, especially as the pot is very small, I feel now I should have let it go but that is easy to say once you’ve seen the result I guess! The Villain (DYlonCSL) was running at 50/20/1.2 over around 35 hands and didn’t seem the best playing I’d ever come across. Flop isn’t great but gives me an OESD but I don’t want to get involved too heavily in this pot with 4 other villains. I feel if I try to steal here on the button I’m either going to get 2-3 callers and bloat the pot or I am going to be raised enough to force me off a potential hand. Turn gives me bottom pair but makes the board even more draw heavy and again it is checked around. River is no help and now Villain bets 1/2 pot offering 2/1 odds. I should fold as I feel like I am beat but I go ahead and call, partly because of the very faint chance I’ good and partly through wanting to know his hand!
Not overly sure what the plans are for the week but they should involved plenty of NL10 action! I might play tonight but I am already shattered after a late night 0230am and an early wake up 0710 so it depends what frame of mind I’m in when I get home after the crazy commute home! Think I’ll have a shower and a bite to eat and take it from there. When I played yesterday I only opened one table and felt everything was much clearer in my decision making so I’ll probably do that again for a few sessions to see how it goes, hopefully they’ll deal me more than 60 hands an hour or I may start to surf / watch TV / MSN etc.
Oh, it looks like I’ve pissed off Blackscribe too for showing a bluff and not “being friendly”. I’ll reply to his post on his blog at some point today to explain my actions etc. Got to love this blogging malarky 
Thanks as always for reading and best of luck at those fish filled tables! 
Back at Full Tilt eh?
If you manage to turn a consistant profit at the NL10 6 max tables there then I’m seriously going to have to re-evaluate my own cash game play. But good luck and stay off my tables! I’m hitting the NL10 6 max games again this week…
Yeah mate back at FT, just wish PAHUD would work properly on the “racetrack” so until then I’m using the classic view.
I wanted to play at a site where I have a bonus clearing and getting rakeback and although the bonus clears at a ridiculously slow rate at FT the 27% rakeback make it more worth my while. I was going to go to a new Prima site but software and overall feel for the place is nothing compared to the likes of Stars and Full Tilt. Plus, this is going to sound strange, there are too many fish! Yeah we all like a few crap players but when the table of 6 contains yourself and 5 donkeys then I can’t play my usual game and have to play shitting ABC poker all the time and can never get anyone off of a hand!
You stay off my tables more like, I have a bad record when you’re their even if I’ve not donated to you! Think your angry monkey attracts trouble!
LOL….don’t expect PokerAce to be updated for the new layout for a long while. Looking at the forums there, Josh’s response to update requests is basically ‘tough luck’. To say the guy must have made thousands out of his customers I think he is being a complete tw*t about this situation and he needs to remember how he got rich in the first place. Moron - it would only take the guy a couple of hours to do aswell.
0/10 for customer service Josh, you dick.
Comment number 2 basically summed it up, at the micro levels you gotta basically play ABC poker. Don’t know why I’m helping you, you little… But check out this great post about making someone fold on FTR. Sounds like you want to play $100 poker on the $10 tables. Good luck with that.
As far as your hands go…
1. At NL10, takes a helluva lot to make me laydown KK preflop and if opponent is 80/50 like you say, I’m making that call all day everyday with my eyes closed. Yeah, easy.
2. For me, this is an easy laydown on the flop. I think most people get it backwards when playing against a shortstack. When you call a shortstack raise you are getting no implied odds, so you want to be ahead, if you think you might be behind it makes no sense to call because if you do catch up there is no payoff for the risk you took.
Your preflop play is great, I would have done the exact same thing. But when he calls you you gotta think he’s either got something or just stupid. Red flag #1.
He checkraises all in on the flop. Big red flag! It’s obvious he wants a call here. If he was trying to bluff, he would have led the betting, but he checkraises you. I don’t like your bet of 10 big bets on the flop ($1) because you basically committed yourself. Of course you can’t get away from the hand now. I like a smaller bet here like .50 (or 5 big bets), to see his reaction. And if he calls, check it down or fold to a raise. With the $1 bet, you are just jumping off a cliff, “Here goes nothing!” (Note: Small stacks pick up hands, too.) And this guy looks like he can actually play a little.
What can you beat here? I rule out a smaller pair. The only thing he might make this play with that you can beat is an open ended straight draw or flush draw.
3. I don’t like the limp on the button with JT. Raise that shhh up!!! You have position, abuse it, baby. That will help you define other peoples hands, too. I would make it bet .50 here. Then maybe you take it down preflop, but as you played it…
Easy checkfold, MAYBE call a min bet on river.
See it’s these little calls that are -EV over time. And they add up.
Wow, that was cool. Actually discussing hands. Cool.
Thanks as always for the comments. Scribe, you summed it up saying I’m trying to play $100 poker on a $10 table, maybe a by product of all the books and forums I read and hands I discuss with decent players like yourself! I posted the JT hand because I knew it was wrong from statrt to finish and wanted another set of eyes to look it over, thanks for doing that.
Back to thinking like a donkey to beat a donkey. HEEE HAWWWWWW
I agree with Blackscribe I find it difficult to fold Kings there. I dont like his push with 7’s nor do i like the call with Jacks.
Next hand (10’s) easy fold for me with 2 overs on the board. Smaller c-bet on the flop means you can get away for the hand easier.
Last hand crying call. I have made worse calls than that. Villain will get himself in a whole lot of pain slow playing. It’s raise or fold for me on the button there with J10off.