TalkFlop.com Blog

Being on a roll, especially early on in a tournament, can be wonderful thing. Not so great however when the well runs dry and you’re left defending a nice large chip stack with nothing but junk cards and increasing blinds. Read on…

The first few hours of the night were beautiful. Good cards, some luck thrown in, and a table that didn’t change players and allowed me to get into a rhythm. I was getting favorable cards and was able to establish some aggressive play early on (*note: not exactly my style of play, but what the hell it’s fun to mix it up when you can). I took out two players (the person to my left took out the other three as the game wore on) and was sitting behind a nice pile of chips. I even found a Q-high straight flush (read about that hand in a later post) on the river to really hammer home the fact the cards were falling my way!

And then…

Then what? Well, let’s take a 15 minute break, grab some food, up the blinds (throw in an ante), add a new player to my left who likes to start each hand either folding or raising AT LEAST double the BB, and suddenly I can’t get a decent hand of cards to save my life! Plus we were playing four-handed so the blinds were coming around awful quick. I spent the next several hours looking for something to play with and not getting much.

Anytime I had something half way decent, like somebody to my left would throw down a monster raise, or the occasional maniacal pre-flop “all in” and I would end up folding – and usually after seeing the flop I was glad I did. My whole game went from attack mode to defend mode, and from there it was all downhill. I suppose I could have represented some better hands, but anytime I tried to use my chip stack to bully someone, they raised into my weak-assed hole cards and I ended up throwing away chips.

Looking back, I think this is the first time I’ve left a game where I didn’t win and still I wasn’t in a bad mood. I had fun, got some good cards for a while, put some players on hands, and paid more attention to things like pot odds and hand odds to help me make some decisions on whether to stay in on a hand or not. And it even seemed to work for a while. The way I figure, if you can spend a night getting even a little bit better at your game then it’s all worth it!

So if you’ve been reading my stuff lately you know that I’m really down on my game.  I just don’t feel like I’m playing very well and I’ve lost a lot of confidence that I had last season in the CPL.  Going into Saturday’s tournament the best finish I’d had was 9th – and I’d been playing bad (read My Final Hand from the last tourney).

Hand #1 – Get In There And RAISE!

In any case the tournament started and I was in the big blind on hand #1.  I normally don’t like to play the first couple of hands at all just cause I’ve got so much going on at the beginning of a tournament (taking pictures, getting people bought in, etc.) that I’m not ready to “think” just yet.  So of course, when I look down at my hand I see:

There were 3 limpers in front of me and everything in my mind told me that I should be in there raising, but for some reason I didn’t.  Like I said, I just don’t feel ready to play those first couple of hands (which is a HUGE leak that I need to plug).  The flop comes out and things don’t get any better:

I figure that with all the limping someone’s got a piece of this flop but I figure to make a feeler bet to see where I’m at.  I bet the big blind and I’m quickly called by two players.  The turn comes a rag and the action is checked around.  The river comes and I’ve got a decision to make:

Do I make a bet and represent a hand or check and hope to show it down?  I can’t imagine that my par of Tens is good here and I don’t want to donk off a big chunk of my stack early so I check.  Of course the next guy makes a bet and I’m forced to fold.  I got out of the hand losing the minimum but I can’t help but wonder if I’d started off with a raise there what would have happened (and how it might have changed my day).   Verdict: BAD PLAY

Hand #2 – Another Round With Jacks

A few rounds later I look down to see:

.  I’ve got a history with this hand and it’s not good.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen in love with Jacks only to have them be second or third best come river time.  That being said, I think back to the first hand of the tournament and force myself to make a raise here.  The table folds around to the player on my right who makes a call.  She’s a good player who always seems to have the goods when it gets to a showdown.  I don’t have a great read on here but I figure her for a medium pair or a decent Ace.  The flop comes out Ten high:

I figure that this is a great flop for my hand unless she’s flopped trips with Eights or Duces.  I make a bet and she calls immediately.  The two sets are possibilities at this point as are Ace/Eight and Ace/Ten.  The turn comes a blank and we both check.  Either she’s slow playing set here or I’m in great shape.  I figure her for Ace/Eight.  The river comes and I couldn’t be more pissed off.  The final board reads:

Everything in me says that my Jacks just got rundown on the river.  She bets and I make a crying call and sure enough to flips up Ace/Ten for two pairs.  At the very least I read it pretty well and looking back I’m not sure that I could have done much better.  Ace/Ten is one of her favorite hands and I wouldn’t have been able to get her off the hand once she flopped top pair.  Verdict: GOOD PLAY

Hand #3 – Scary Flop For Aces

There are few things that look prettier than bullets in the hole.  They look ever nicer when you’ve got the button in front of you as well.  I make a raise with my bullets to get one caller (the big blind).  The flop comes:

and I figure I’m in pretty good shape.  The big blind checks to me and I make a pretty strong bet hoping that he doesn’t have his favorite hand (Fours) or a pair of Eights.  He calls and we’re off to the turn which is a blank.  Another bet and call and we’re off to the river where the final board looks like this:

Talk about a card that I didn’t want to see.  Now I’m worried about Fours, Eights, Ace/Four & Ace/Eight.  He makes a bet but I just have to see what he’s got at this point.  He flips up Ace/King and my Aces take it down.  In retrospect that Four was just about a perfect card for me as he figured to be good if I wasn’t holding an Eight or a Four.  I suppose that a King would have been better but I won’t complain.  The result was good but I’m playing scared… at least I recognize it.  Verdict: GOOD PLAY

Hand #4 – My Day Is Done

The blinds had just gone up again and people are starting to drop.  I’m hoping to make it to 5th place so that I can get a jump up in the Player Of The Year points.  I look down at King/Jack and decide that it’s time to make a move.  We’re at $50 antes with $250/$500 blinds so there’s already a good size pot out there.  I move in for $2,150 and get called by a good buddy of mine (who I consider the best player in the field).  I know that I’m up against a pair and I hope it’s not Kings.  Sure enough he flips up Jacks and I’ve got three outs.  Sure enough the Kings are absent and I’m on the rail.

I ended up in 7th place which is my highest finish this season.  I’m not happy with it, but I’m making progress.  I think my game is starting to come around and I’m hoping that a couple of high finishes are right around the corner.  As they say… “that’s poker”.

See you after the flop!

Tags: bad luck, good luck, progress, reading well, scary flop

I play this game for fun and to make money (Still working on the making money part). I would prefer to do both at the same time. Sometimes I get trapped in an SNG with an Assclown. You know the type. They can’t stop telling everyone how poorly you are playing and what a poker god they are. I know some people do this as a tactic to get others on tilt, it works on some people. It still does not change the fact that it ruins the game for me. I personnaly do not engage them as this normally makes one a target. I find it is best when people do not know who you are until it’s too late.

Yes, there is the option of turning off chat. I pay attention to the chat to gain information. When I turn it off, I feel awkward, like I’m missing something in my game. I should not have to turn it off because of someone’s lack of civility.

In one of my games, the Assclown hooked a guy into getting into a pissing contest with him for the entire game, That is until he got kicked in the junk with one of his horrid plays. He did have about 70% of the table shakin in their boots. It just made for a miserable game. I don’t like that. (I won it by the way.) The guy who engaged him in the pissing contest came in 2nd. He was a good player and apoligized for losing his cool. We went 148 hands to finish it, normally these are over in 80. He was good.

The only thing worse than having an Assclown at your table is when they turn into a RailTurd after they are kicked to the curb.

Moving along.

The weekend report;

Speed bump. 5 4 off is the new nuts. Or so I have been shown. Some crazy play this weekend. No, not all of it by me. Stuck to the $20 SNGs, Good me. Rarely saw a cheap flop this weekend. Which means TAG, survive, bubble shove, coin flip, oops I lost. Had too many go the other way. I did not play great but I did not play poorly either.

P.S. I have noticed a pattern. I usually donk off the first two or so SNGs. Then I reel myself in and concentrate. Then I take down some pretty good wins at the end of a session. (Looks like it takes me a few to get the engine warmed up) I think I may have stumbled onto a major leak of mine. possible solution; I am going to try to play the first several games at lower buy-ins. My concern is that the play is slightly different between the buy-ins and this may also hurt me if an adjustment period is needed.

Done rambling.

GL at the tables.

We all know that when it gets down to the last couple of players in a tournament starting hand restrictions go WAY down. A hand that’s complete garbage from late position at a full table suddenly becomes a potential goldmine. Here’s an example of one such hand.

We’re down to three handed (I’d been out for quite a while so I was just watching at this point ) and the players are trading chips back and forth. Tony is a slight chip leader at this point over Judy and Kathy who’s on the short stack (but not by much).

Judy calls on the button, Kathy calls from the small blind and Tony checks his option from the big blind. The flop comes out:

Kathy makes a bet from the small blind, Tony calls from the big blind and Judy moves all in from the button.  Kathy thinks about her hand for a moment and calls for all her chips.  Tony looks at his hand once more and he calls as well!

Judy shows for top pair with top kicker.

Kathy shows for middle pair.

Tony shows for bottom two pair.

The turn comes a giving Tony a full house.  Both Kathy (Jacks) and Judy (Kings) are drawing to 3 outs which don’t come on the river ending the tournament with Tony as the champion.  You can see a picture of the hand here.

Looking back on the hand now I can’t find a whole lot of fault with any of the plays here.  Judy’s call on the button with AK possibly should have been a raise, but she most likely would have won the hand right there winning just the blinds.  Of course hindsight is 20/20 and this would have been the play to make but I would probably call in that spot with AK as well.  Once there is no raise, Kathy has an easy call and Tony has an even easier check.  I suppose if Kathy read weakness she could have made a raise out of the small blind with suited semi-connectors but I like the call here as well — there’s too many hands that may have limped (QJ, J10, AJ, etc.) where she’d be in really bad shape.

After the flop has come out the hand pretty much plays itself.  I might have checked with middle pair if I were in Kathy’s position but I certainly can’t fault her for making a feeler bet to see where she was.  Tony’s obviously calling with two pair here really only being afraid of a flopped set of Threes.  I supposed KJ is a possibility here as well, but I simply cannot see getting away from bottom two pair in an un-raised three-way pot with three players remaining in a tournament.  Judy’s all in move here is aggressive but I actually like it.  I’d be thinking that she may have caught one of them with a Jack and the other one with some kind of a draw.  This is the one time that I can see Kathy getting away from her hand with middle pair and no draw, but she may have felt priced in at this point with so much money in the middle.  Like I said before Tony is pretty much committed unless he thinks someone flopped a set of Threes and at this point it would be a near impossible laydown.

With the third Jack coming on the turn there’s absolutely no way all of the money wouldn’t have gone in anyhow.  There is just simply no way that Judy with top two pair with an Ace kicker, Kathy with trip Jacks and Tony with a full house could ever get away from the hand at this point.  The fact that they got it all in on the flop might have been a bit soon for the reasons listed above but like I said, I can’t find too much fault.  Also, keep in mind that while I’d been standing there watching for while I wasn’t actually playing and I hadn’t picked up any tells that might have lead me to read the hand differently.

As always… That’s poker.  See you after the flop!

The Holy Grail of poker hands is the royal flush. It’s a 1 in 649,740 shot. When and if you ever see one you just hope and pray someone has something… ANYTHING to play with so you’ll win some kind of pot. (Exhibit A is this hand where Tony G flops a royal and has nothing to show for it).

I find myself in the small blind with . It’s an unraised pot and I while I really don’t like calling with this hand cause I typically either win a small pot or lose a big one (ominous foreshadowing). I call and the big blind checks behind me so we go to the flop 4 handed which comes:

I figure I’m in pretty good shape even against a flopped flush. I make a pot sized bet to try and scare some folks with no diamonds away. The big blind and the player to his left fold and the button goes all in for nearly all of my chips. Like I said before I figure I’m in pretty good shape but it’s relatively early in the tournament and I’d hate to be down so low so soon. I decide to go with my gut and make the call with my two overcards and nut flush draw.

The button turned over for an overpair and a flush draw of his own. The turn and the river brought blanks for my hand leaving me near the felt but on the button. The antes hadn’t kicked in yet so I figure at the very least I can play another round waiting for a good hand before I go broke. I’m already to the point where I’m low stack at the table so I know I’m going to get action from just about any ace if I move in. The action folds around to an aggressive player who makes a big raise. I look at my hand and see:

I’m still steaming a bit from my last beat but I know that the raiser is aggressive and I figure this is probably as good as it’s going to get in the next round before the blinds hit me so I move all in for less than the big blind (which is always so imposing). The blinds fold leaving me heads up with the raiser. After he takes back the portion of his bet that I can’t cover he flips over his hand:

which is actually right around where I figured he’d be.

The flop comes out and I’m feeling pretty damn good about my hand:

and it just keeps getting better from there. The turn comes a giving me a royal flush.

The river comes a giving my opponent a sucker straight that didn’t matter. So with my best hand of my life I collected a pot that still left me as the short stack at the table. Such is life… that’s poker! You can see a picture of the hand here.

See you after the flop!

Tags: bad luck, good luck, royal flush

It was the end of a long day of cards and I found myself head’s up. This was a 15 player tournament so I was feeling pretty good about getting this far. I entered heads up on a very short stack against a pretty tight player who had been catching quite a few cards that day. I told myself that I’d play tight aggressive poker and try to outlast him. I could tell that he was getting tired at the end of a 5 hour tourney so I figured I could just play tight and outlast him. Finally after about 15 minutes I was getting closer to even (though was still down quite a bit) and I found my dream hand on the button:

I moved all in on the button thinking that he’d call with any pair, AK, AQ or AJ and I’d be in GREAT shape. Sure enough he called and showed:

I definitely can’t fault him for his call here as any pair heads up is definitely playable. I was feeling just great about myself until the dealer pealed off that first card:

What a dagger to see that third 8 hit the board. There’s a line in Rounders about how taking a beat hits you in the gut. We can talk about how “that’s poker” over and over again, but it never softens the blow when it happens.

The final board read:

Losing to boat is fine but the fact that I was chasing two cards after the flop was really what it came down to. I did pick up a few more outs when the Q fell on the turn but it just wasn’t meant to be. Would I play it any differently if it happened again? Hell no. Pair over pair is about as good as I could have hoped for in this case (OK. I suppose if he had a non-paired ace that would have been better).

See you after the flop!

I was thinking the other day that there is just SO much poker on TV these days. It’s actually difficult to go through the entire channel lineup and NOT run across poker at least once. It got me to thinking about why that is. Obviously the “poker boom” is beyond it’s apex but I don’t think that means that poker is on a downswing – hence the reason it’s ALWAYS on. Television (along with Chris Moneymaker’s WSOP victory) brought poker to the masses. Being able to see players holecards is the #1 reason people like watching poker on TV but it’s not just that. The game itself (typically no limit holdem) is great but the players make watching SO enjoyable. I suppose I’ll refer to them as “characters” as well cause let’s face it — Phil Hellmuth Jr. just CAN’T be that big of a dick in real life right?

All of that said, it got me to thinking about my favorite players/characters to watch on TV. By no means is this a list of “best” players. It’s just what it says it is — my favorites. So in the coming days (or weeks or however long it takes me to get through them) I’ll bring you my “favorites”.

• Honorable Mentions

Anyone who has read TalkFlop.com knows that we’ve got a variety of categories that we put our posts into. One that I feel I need to define/address is the Questionable Plays category. This by NO MEANS is a negative term in my opinion. Let me explain.

There are literally thousands of poker books, blogs & websites out there that talk about the “numbers of poker”. If you’ve got top pair and a flush draw then you’re X percent to win the hand after the flop blah blah blah. While I’ve certainly read a lot of poker material I’ve always maintained that poker is a game of not only knowing the numbers but knowing who you are playing against. It’s been said time and again but in poker many times you’re playing the man just as much as you’re playing the cards.

Everyone buys into a poker game the same way. They put their hard earned money down and buy into the game (be it a cash game or a tournament). I will NEVER talk bad about someone’s decision to play a hand. I might wonder why they’re playing the hand the way they are but they’ve paid their money and they can play any two cards they like. Hell, one of my favorite hands is 74 suited. It’s garbage but I’ll play it just about every time I get it. It’s infuriating to other players but it’s my hand and I’ll play it however I like.

I guess that’s my point – The term “questionable play” is questionable to me only because I wouldn’t play the hand the same way. It’s either cause I don’t have the guts to make that play, don’t see the genius in the play or just plain don’t agree.  The other time that I may classify a play as “questionable” is when I’m reviewing my own play and just plain don’t agree with it.  I tend to analyze the hell out of myself and I find that I make quite a few “questionable” decisions at the table.  I’m trying to get better… day by day.

Everyone has the right to play their cards anyway they see fit. I may bitch about the result and wonder why they play the way they do, but when I take an objective look at it (normally after the fact) I come back to one thing — that’s poker. And quite frankly, that’s part of why I love the game.

See you after the flop!

Okay, okay.  No need to panic.  I’ve had basic first aid.  (Stop the bleeding, Start the breathing and Treat for shock.)  Got the first two coverd.  Still working on the shock part.

Still recovering from the size 14 steel toed work boot that was kicking my arse all up and down the tables over the latter half of the weekend.  It was ugly.  So ugly, it woulda made a train take a dirt road.

It seems like all the sharks, Donkeys, calling stations and just plain Idiots were at All of the tables all the time.  No matter where I relocated, and I did quite often, I could not find a good game.  But I kept playing (Mistake #1).  I remained at several tables with the crazies for far too long trying to pick them off, bleeding along the way.  (Mistake #2).  I was not focused and actually I think I was bored.  (Mistake #3).  Okay, Blah Blah Blah, I won’t bore you with the gory details, (Your Welcome.)

Summary

I played over twenty $20 SNGs and only cashed in a handfull.  Came very close Most of the time but no CeeeeGar.  The cash tables were no better.  I put a guy all in with AAAJJ.  Of course he had AAAQQ.  Cooooooler hand.  Ouch! I don’t think I played too terribly but that aforementioned boot was allways lurking in the shadows.

Strangely I’m quite relaxed about it.  But this does not mean I won’t be anylizing my play from the weekend.  I took alot of notes on players, Some of them not so kind.  Here’s hoping this was just a downswing and not the full blown start of the dreaded “Running Bad.”

All Is Well.  The Sky is not falling and the sun will come out tomorrow.  The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar.  And for those of you who say you weren’t just humming that song, YOU LIE.

Done Rambling, GL at the tables

So the other night I was playing in a super tight game (6 handed) at my place. I was sitting in the big blind where it was limped around to me (I.E. tight game). I looked down and found:

Not too bad for an unraised big blind hand. Off to the flop we went which looked like this:

Now based on the way the game was being played I wasn’t too worried. I was obviously not in the lead here but I figured if I made my flush I’d be in great shape. The small blind checked to me and I decided to try and take a free card to catch my flush so I checked. The next player checked. He was followed by a small bet, a call and a call from the button. The small blind folded and I thought for a moment before calling. The only reason I thought for a moment was because this was SUCH a tight game that any betting was out of the ordinary.

The turn came a and the betting was on me. I decided to make a bet to see just where I stood in this hand. The player to my left folded followed by a call and a raise! (remember, I’m surprised by this only because of how tight the game was). I immediately threw my hand away knowing that I was up against either a bigger flush draw, trips or at the very least a Q making my J no good if I hit it. The player who had called my original bet called the raise and we were off to the river.

The river came a making me feel very good about my laydown and VERY interested to see the cards that remained in play (2 players). The first player bet (very small bet in relation to the size of the pot) and the next player called.

I simply could not believe my eyes when the cards were flipped…

for a flopped quad 3s and for a flopped full house.

Remember that this hand was LIMPED AROUND TO ME IN THE BIG BLIND!!! I really can’t fault limping with a pair of 3s but for my money I’d be in there raising with a pair of queens in a 6 handed game. Not sure that a raise would have forced the threes to fold before the flop and there wasn’t anything in hell that was going to get them to fold after flopping quads. The best thing that I can say for the gentlemen with the queens is that he didn’t lose his entire stack on this hand which I definitely would have.

Just goes to show why I love this game… you never know what you’re going to see!

Tags: bad luck, full house, pocket queens, pocket threes, poker, quads