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I my previous post I talked about how I had a specific plan going into a tournament even though this is not typically a good strategy.  Prevailing ideology says that you should roll with the punches and be able to change up your game based on how the table is breaking and the cards you’re being dealt.  I decided to take a set of hard rules and stick with them throughout the tournament.  Without any further adieu, here were the rules that I played by:

1. Do not utter the words “all in” unless I absolutely felt I had the best hand.  That said, do not use an all in move as a bluff or even a semi-bluff.
2. Raise with any paired hand regardless of position or previous action.
3. After applying point #2, fold to any re-raise when holding 88 or lower.

So… how did things go.  Was I successful in my strategy?  Well, it depends on how you define success I suppose.  I did not win the tournament so I suppose ultimately I was not successful.  That said the odds of winning every tournament you enter is slim to none so I’m not sure I’m comfortable rating success or failure just on whether I won the tournament.  I can tell you that I followed my rules to a “T” and did not deviate from this strategy… with one exception (see Hand #7).

As for rule #1.  I only said the words “all in” once in the tournament.  Unfortunately I was outdrawn and was out of the tournament.  I am happy to report though that I had far-and-away the best hand when I did make my move (telling me that I was at least reading the situation correctly).  Part of the reason that was not successful in that particular hand was that I had allowed myself to get so low that I had two callers.  Had I made the move earlier in the game I would have had a larger stack and might have been able to scare some people into folding.  As it was my stack was just too small to do any damage.

As for points #2 & #3.  I was faced with this situation twice.  Once with 22 in the big blind and once with 66 in the small.  I was reraised when I had my duces and per rule #3 folded immediately.  When I held my sixes I raised and promptly flopped top set!!!

All in all this was a good little experiment.  I plan on putting some new rules in place the next time I play.  I’ve been doing this type of thing all season long and have only just recently been sharing it here.  My results (winning and losing) have been TERRIBLE but I think it’s making me a better player.  Time will tell.

See you after the flop!

I don’t want this to turn into a “bad beat bitching session” blog, but I played a couple of hands this weekend that I just have to relay.  It was a small game (6 handed) with a very aggressive blind schedule (double the blinds every time around the table).  We had been drinking quite a bit so it was a pretty loose table to begin with.

The poker Gods were laughing at me this night and continued to give me Seven/Three off suit.  As I stated before we were playing 6 handed and I must have had it 4 times in the first 3 rounds of the table.  Well I finally decided that I was going to take a stand (against who I have no idea) and make a raise with my garbage.  I looked down and saw the aforementioned Seven/Three in first position and bumped it up to three times the big blind.  Only the button called and we were off to the flop.  As it should, the flop came down:

The blinds had folded to my pre-flop raise so I was first to act.  I led right out and went into my standard “I’ve just made a bet” mode where I’ve got my head down so I can see the cards and my opponent’s hands but he can’t see my eyes.  I obviously didn’t think I had the best hand but figured I could represent a big hand with my pre-flop raise and if he hadn’t caught anything I’d be good to go.  He had the call in his hands and I was already determining how much I was going to have to bluff off on 4th street when he folded his hand.  Whew.  VERDICT: Good play for the wrong reason.

The second hand of note was once again Seven/Three (this time suited in diamonds).  I decided not to press my luck and checked this hand in the big blind.  Someone made a comment a hand earlier about how Seven/Duce and Seven/Three where such crap hands and why would anyone ever play them.  The flop came and I couldn’t believe my eyes:

The player in the small blind fired out at this pot and I just called hoping he’d hit a flush on the turn.  The turn came a non-heart ten and he checked.  Not sure why but I moved all in on this street and he immediately folded.  I showed my hand and got a big “oooh” from the players at the table.  He ended up having nothing so my play here wouldn’t have mattered (as he said he was checking it down and folding to any bet) but in retrospect I should have given him another free card.  VERDICT: Bad play that didn’t matter.

The third hand of note came when we were heads up.  I had built up a small chip lead and was prepared to grind it out playing pretty straight forward poker.  I looked down and saw Seven/Ten on the button and just called.  My opponent checked and we were off to the flop:

Pretty much a dream flop unless I was up against a set.  Opponent bet and I moved all in over top of him.  He picked up his hand and said “I’ve got a sucker hand”.  I figured he had something like King/Ten and was loving life.  He called off all his chips and showed Ace/King.  The turn came a Queen and put me WAY behind.  The board unfortunately didn’t pair up and I was down to the felt.  We made a deal here and started the next game. VERDICT: good play – bad result.

About 3 hands into the second game I woke up with Queens on the button.  There were two callers and I put in a standard size raise.  The big blind moved all in on me and the guy to his left folded.  I immediately called figuring that in a 6 handed game I had to be good.  He of course flipped up Aces and ended my night.  In retrospect I probably should have thought about it a bit more but I don’t see how I could have gotten away from my ladies in that spot.  VERDICT: good play – bad result.

See you after the flop!

Poker is a game of decisions.  Sometimes you make good decisions and sometimes you make bad ones.  Many times the decision not to play is the best decision you can make.  Unfortunately there are also times where you decide not to play a hand and it turns into a monster – that you let get away.

At the start of the hand I was by far the short stack at the table though I wasn’t in the “all in or fold mode” quite yet.  We were four handed at this point in the night and I was under the gun.  I limped in with Queen/Ten off-suit and the guy behind me who was third in chips moved all in.  The big stack at the table thought for a few minutes and called and the guy to my immediate right folded.  This left me with a pretty difficult decision.

One one hand I could potentially triple up if I put my money in the pot and won.  On the other hand I was pretty sure that my hand was not good at this point and I’d need to improve to stay in the tournament.  There was already one person in the hand at risk of being knocked out by the big stack which would theoretically move me from 4th to 3rd place (and into the money).

I decided to play it safe and fold my hand.  As I’m sure you can tell, the flop was an interesting one.

followed by a turn of and a river of leaving me looking down at what could have been.  Looking back it was a hand that would have tripled me up as the original raiser showed JJ and the big stack at the table showed AK.  I still think that I made the correct play in this situation but it just goes to show that watching a flop after you’ve folded can give you quite a bit of heartburn from time to time!

See you after the flop!

Last Saturday night I hosted a monthly CPL game with 17 players.  For those of you that have been following along this year you’ll know that I’ve been pretty down on my game for a variety of reasons.  The last game that I played (which was nearly two months ago) I did feel that I was making progress but still had little to show for my efforts.   I believe my best showing to date this season (prior to Saturday) was a 7th place finish.

Well Saturday’s game started out VERY slow for me.  So slow that I played a total of ONE hand in the first two levels of play.  I’ve often said that one of the biggest leaks in my game is that I defend my blinds to my detriment.  This night I didn’t even do that – partially because I had such garbage hands that I couldn’t and partially because I had a couple of really aggressive players at my table so when I was in a blind it was raised and often times re-raised before it got back to me.  The one hand I did play went something like this.  I was in the big blind and looked down to find this monster:

The action came around to me and I was more than happy to check my option with this garbage.  Of course I couldn’t just get a nice little 662 flop to give me a boat and I had myself a decision to make when the flop came:

The small blind had folded before the flop so it was on me to act first.  I thought about firing a bet to see where I stood but I had 3 limpers in the pot and I was guessing one of them may have limped with a big pair or at the very least something like Jack/Ten, Queen/Ten, King/Ten or Ace/Ten.  After I checked the hyper agressive player to my left fired out a medium size bet which took down the pot.  I suppose I could have called and tried to catch trips on the turn or river but I was so used to folding at this point that it just felt like the right thing to do.  He didn’t show so I can’t be sure but I’m guessing I made a good laydown (especially with such a garbage kicker).  Looking back I probably should have made a bet after flopping middle pair but based on my read I just couldn’t pull the trigger.

After the break I did manage to wake up with a pair of red Nines in early position.  I raised before the flop and got a few “oohs and ahhs” from the table cause they noticed that I’d been playing super tight (very perceptive bunch at my table that night).  Of course the flop came out TERRIBLE for my hand:

With my luck thusfar I was just sure that I’d been outflopped but I stuck to my guns and followed up my pre-flop raise with a bet.  I took down a small pot and got a little bit of confidence from there.

After that I went back into waiting mode and played REALLY tight poker.  I still wasn’t getting too many hands and when I did I was playing in mulit-way pots which for my position was a bad thing.  After another hour so or I got to the point where I playing “all in or fold” type of poker.  I won a race with Sixes against Ace/Jack.  I had one big hand where I picked up Kings in the big blind and managed to nearly triple up.  From there I manged to just stick around and stay out of people’s way.  I had a couple of big stacks at my table and they were picking at one another rather than at me.  Through no fault of my own I managed to find myself heads up with a nearly 10 to 1 chip deficit which quickly ended the night.

In the final analysis I don’t think I had any right to be in second place but I do have to say that I played MUCH better than I had been all season.  I stuck to my game and even managed to fold some hands when in the blinds that I KNOW I should have but in the past would have stuck around with.

See you after the flop!