Cash games

I've been active in cash games lately and running fairly well. Let me throw an interesting hand from last night's $1/2 NL game at you all and I'd be interested to hear how you think I played it (or should have played). For the most part I play pretty tight, so factor that in for what it may be worth. The hand starts with me having about $300 and both the guys in the hand having me covered by a good amount.

I hold J,10 and call a standard raise to $6 from the cut off. 5 players in, I've got position on everyone. Flop comes K, 9, 7, giving me the double belly buster draw. The beauty of this is how hidden it is on that board. A lot of people will rightfully only consider the cards that make a straight work with the 7 and 9 as scare cards come the turn, so I like my spot here should the high end hit. So check, check, someone bets out to $8, guy to my right calls. While I'm contemplating my move, guy two to my left accidentally raises out of turn to $25 (after checking from the SB). Being a friendly enough game, he is allowed to draw it back in. At this point, I just call the $8, which makes everyone laugh and throws him off. "You knew I was planning to raise and you flat call anyway?" The reality was that I was cutting my chips for the call and missed his accidental action altogether but he didn't realize it. He thinks it over and finally just calls. Other hand mucks. 4 ways to the turn. Q ball hits. Board now K, 9, 7, Q and I have the nuts (2 flush cards on board) and because of the accidental action on the flop, my resulting bizarre play and the inside nature of my made hand, no one has me on it, of that I'm positive. Check, check to me. I bet out $40 and guy who tried to raise out of turn calls and guy to my right also calls. River brings another Q but the flush misses. Board is K, 9, 7, Q, Q. Inadvertent raiser bets $65, guy to my right folds.

What do I do?

Queens Boulevard

Please allow me to be the six millionth person to write about pocket queens. I offer up the lame excuse that I have been getting them often lately, so it made a natural, if often discussed, topic to cover.

Personally, I feel that some players are completely irrational in their beliefs about pocket queens - i.e. that they will definitely cost you more money than they will win back, that they always lose, that they would rather have pocket 10s, etc. I always love that last argument from players, that they prefer lesser pairs. Not lesser hands like suited connectors or something that might have better shot at cracking A,A or K,K, but lesser pairs, like 10s. The argument being that lesser pairs are easier to fold, I suppose. Well, go ahead and fold them preflop if you're so eager to get away from good starting hands and save yourself the decision and the few extra chips.

The thing that is precisely so interesting to me about pocket queens is that I feel it is a hand that is emblematic of what poker is all about. It's a hand that forces decisions, tough ones, ones that can separate winning sessions from losing ones. A made starting hand that can run into resistance in a variety of different ways and is often put to the test, forcing a decision, occasionally for everything. Not such of a no-brainer as aces, or a resignation hand as kings (as in "Well, I've got kings, if you've got aces you've got me") but a hand that forces a player to think, that allows his opponent a chance to make plays on him, and vice versa.

Twice I have lost recently with queens and I wouldn't have played either hand too differently in retrospect. One of the hands I didn't play at all, in fact. I folded pre-flop with Q,Q, after anguishing about it and almost giving myself a brain hemorrhage. The situation was actually easier than I made it to be at the time, but as anyone knows, at a table when things aren't going your way, it can be easy to just ship it and blame fate (see the resignation hand k,k note above). With my starting stack in a cash game whittled from $300 to $135, there was a raise to $10 and a call before me. I looked at Q,Q and bumped it to $35. Another guy behind me went all in for $37 total, then the initial raiser made it $135 to go, which set me all in. The initial caller folded and I stewed but in the end, something about his comfort level was too easy, so I released it and he showed A,A. Play, playback, decision. That is queens in a nutshell for you.

The other hand was slightly more interesting because of how it unfolded and the possibilities therein. Both my opponent and I may have misplayed this hand (so maybe I would have played it differently), or perhaps neither of us did. In a different cash game, with Q,Q I opened to $10 and got a couple callers, including a tight player who had position on me. Flop came all clubs, with my queens as an overpair and with me holding the Q of clubs. Checked to me and I led for $15, getting a call from the tight player and no other action. Turn was a rag and I went for $31 and again was called, after some deliberation. River was more garbage and I went for $62. Again she deliberated but then called and turned over a set of 5s, which surprised me somewhat. What I found interesting about holding queens in this situation is that the flush draw seemed to me to be no good throughout. Her style was tight enough that she wouldn't have necessarily raised with the nut flush draw if she hadn't paired the board and again, I was forced to think through all the different hands she might be holding and think about my play if the flush did hit. Would the Q be good? If it falls, how do I play it? What is my play if she then comes over the top of that play?

I'd be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on how they like to play Q,Q against various styles of player.

Typecasting

While many poker dictionaries already exist, I hope someone eventually puts out some kind of Facebook for poker players. Not just an ordinary social networking of games and players in local areas mind you, but something that applies avatars to each member, one that is consistent with their play, bankroll, regard for the game, knowledge of how to play and experience. Some of the avatars could be things such as:

Old Sal - the old rock at the table who grinds away and plays only winning hands, yet still manages to get bet into on the river. He makes $53-$55 per session, like clockwork. He often mutters under his breath about how to play real poker.

Johnny Poker - A guy, usually in his 20s or 30s, who plays perfect poker 100% of the time. According to him, that is. He plays winning hands and sets others up for his big move later on. When people make moves on him and they work, show bluffs, don't respect his carefully cultivated table image, betting patterns or otherwise play non-perfect poker, he immediately goes into Self-Tilt. He often speaks (condescendingly) to his end of the table about how to play poker, then moves tables to find the Mecca of poker, the table that will treat him and his savvy play with proper respect.

Coach - Middle-aged guy who shows up in some sort of windbreaker with a High School logo on it. His son plays, or played, or perhaps he was the coach. And as every coach knows, hard work and dedication equal success, even when natural instinct or aptitude for a game aren't inborn. He'll play hard, win a few pots from some drunk guys and donate chips to the players he feels are better than him, often as a measure of respect for their ability, if nothing else. He often speaks to anyone who will listen about backing up the cutoff man, free throw percentage or making a textbook block on the free safety but never about poker.

Subway Joe - the crazy guy who appears to have come up right from the subway circa 1977 New York City. That is, he's crazy, wild and talkative. You might think he's drunk but he's not. He will play 50% of pots to the river and then fold or shove, regardless of the action. Subway Joe's stack varies between $12 and $1000 several times an hour. He speaks out loud to everyone but usually not anyone in particular about anything and everything possible before he mysteriously disappears from the table, leaving his stack behind and forcing the floor to bag it up for him after an hour or so.

The Corona Brothers - these guys, usually friends, always show up together, they don't care about playing as much as getting a free drink or two, usually bottles of Corona. They put the table minimum out there and play super-small ball. They talk only to one another, usually about finding the waitress and getting some more Coronas.

Russian Ivan - Russian Ivan is often German or Czech, it doesn't really matter. He plays a Vivid Video loose style and forces winning hands to fold for about the first five hands until the table realizes he is playing every hand and forces him to show down. He often turns over air but stays at it until he loses all his money. He speaks to the dealer, who explains how he can't take his cards off the table or string raise and also talks to his friend who hovers behind him, but since no one else speaks his dialect, no one knows if he cares about playing poker, making money or even if he knows the hand rankings. His presence at the table is desired until he does give someone all his chips and then both he and the beneficiary leave the table, taking a ton of money off of it. NOTE: he is not to be confused with Petr, the shrewd Nordic player who will actually take all your money. Sometimes it is difficult to make the distinction right off.

OK, I know I am stereotyping a liberal amount here, but I am just off of a 15 hour cash session at Caesars where I did run into multiple versions of all these players as the table turned over three or four times. I had gotten into the game at about 11:30 p.m. on Friday night and as the night/morning progressed it was interesting to see who would show up off of the craps table to donate some of their winnings back to others, which players had no interest in actually playing poker and the various styles exhibited by each, which were unsurprisingly very similar.

For instance, Coach, after never once raising, bluffed off his whole stack with a very hearty "All In!" obviously designed to scare off his opponent. The problem? His opponent had bet $50 into him and Coach only had $77 left, so the extra $27 didn't do its scare work. Coach did not rebuy.

Johnny Poker, after making some good reads, like laying down his 8,8 on a board of 8,Q,Q (Q) after a turn bet and raise, knowing the turn Q had just given someone quads, patted himself on the back for awhile before supremely tilting himself based on a hand he was not even in, after the B,B min-raised the UTG raiser, who of course re-raised, forcing the rest of the table out of the pot, which he would have apparently connected to, big-time. Then he attempted a play in which his opponent didn't respect his turn raise on a dangerous board after a flush card came on the turn after an ace high flop. "Doesn't he see the flush out there?" he asked me. Well, yes, Johnny, he does. He has the nut flush actually, which is why he called you and then bet back into you on the river. And you called him. Johnny Poker left the table for another, only to return with a big stack about 8 hours later, Tilt himself again and depart again. But we were all a little smarter for having sat with him.

Old Sal showed me pocket Qs on a J high flop as he folded them into a $17 bet. "I only got $2 invested in that pot, why do I want to risk it?" Good point, Sal. Gotta keep that profit range within the street's expectations or the markets will react poorly. Also, good job limping in with queens.

Ivan, well he forced me off of a hand the 2nd hand he sat, as he raised, c-bet and then bet big on the river as my A,K never connected. Then he doubled me up on a flop of J,Q,K when he had Q,4. Then he stacked up (playing roughly 27 of 30 hands) until his friend showed up and lost it all in 2 hands and left. I was card dead, unfortunately

I'm sure there are others that I've forgotten at the moment but should they come to me, I'll be sure to recount them. Be sure to keep an eye out as my new PokerFace project gets startup money.

Of Mice and Men

Well, my rebuy tournament didn't go as I planned. It went so poorly, in fact, that I can recap it in only a few sentences. Basically, I caught a brutal table draw of good players and add in 3 wild card players who redefined the term loose and it became a terror zone. Any pot entered was likely to become a decision for my stack after one of the wild guys tripled up and then subsequently doubled up again. He politely donated back to a few strong players around me but I had dreck to look at. He then busted me twice in quick order when I got it in with A,J against his 8,8 (8s played well for him in the time I was there) and then when I had As10s against his A4 off. An ace flopped for both of us and gave me a four flush to the nuts. Unfortunately, he turned a non-spade 4 to best me again and that was that. Barely played any hands, didn't make it out of the 3rd level, even with 2 rebuys.

Moving on to a more successful tale, I have run well in cash games for a couple weeks and had hands hold up in big pots. K,K in multi way action and no ace hit the board, a set faded a straight draw, top pairs have been good for small/medium pots. Only time I can remember even throwing a moderately bad beat on a guy was when I had K,J and the flop came K, 8, 4. I bet at it the whole way and the board threw a J on the river for me, which was enough to best a guy's 4, 8 two pair flop.

One hand that I lost for a decent amount is one that I question if there is any way to avoid losing the amount I did. I'll put it out there and see what everyone thinks. Preflop, I raised to $10 and was called by 2 players when I held AhQh. The flop came with an ace and one heart. I felt I was likely ahead and had just accumulated a few big pots so decided to mix up my play since my opponents were both playing a bit tight. I checked-called the flop for $15 with one of the players dropping out. Turn brought me the nut flush draw to go with my aces. I check-raised a $20 bet to $60 and was then set all in by my opponent for an additional $65 or so, an opponent who, again, was playing tight previously. I called and she had flopped a set of 7s. Now, I don't think that there probably would have been any way I could avoid doubling her up (I missed my flush on the river) since I'm not going anywhere on the flop or the turn unless she raises me out of the pot (likely on the flop) for some reason, but I have been running through various scenarios that might have allowed me to perhaps make a big laydown. I'm not saying that I believe that I could have or should have done it, as I had her easily covered at the time but am just speculating and wondering if there is any way that hand could have played out to allow me to scram.

Any thoughts?

Controlling Pot Size

As the title of this post suggests, I have been focusing on the aspect of controlling pot size, be it trying to play small ball or trying to maximize winning hands. I noticed that I tended to always make a continuation bet post flop after raising preflop and on the occasions that I missed the flop entirely, that is, almost all the time, I was getting myself into situations where the size of the pot was making decisions for me about my play, rather than my holding or my read of the situation and opponent. Basically speaking, I was forcing myself to play hands by creating bigger pots, whether or not I was ahead or behind, and in doing so, was systematically whittling my stack in the event of a no-draw/bluff only type of situation. Now, I am not saying that I am not a believer in making continuation bets, only that I realized that I was doing it systematically, as if by rote and as with any mechanical, repetitive type of play, it becomes obvious to opponents what is happening and they adjust and react. So in talking with a friend about my play, he suggested trying to control pots with check/calls and check/raises to mix things up, to make the 3-bet or 4-bet preflop to weed out speculative hands when playing from ahead and go back to playing a more fundamental game from position. He also suggested that in the rebuy tournaments that I play often, in trying to trap a lot more with the big pairs early on, as the structure is such that the starting stack size can get committed to a pot awfully quickly early on. In essence, using that to my advantage, as opposed to seeing it as a hindrance. The same with trying to play small ball and keeping pots reasonable when flopping something like middle pair or a decent draw.

In any event, I am playing one of these tourneys tonight and will report back on how it goes.

The Four Aces

I should have won, no doubt. The cards ran me down in the way that I always dream they will, in the way that I always complain that others always luck into, but never me, unlike every other card player in the known universe. The way that always leaves me assuredly stating that "if I had gotten run over like that, I would have won too."

But I didn't.

How good was it for me? Really good. Really, really good. I got pocket aces four times in the span of four and a half hours. And regardless of what else may have happened the rest of the night, that should be enough.

But it wasn't.

A brief description: forty-some person home tournament, 30 minute levels, two rebuys available. I won the first hand of the night opening standard 3x from mid-position with king high and getting no takers. A harbinger, perhaps? Just two hands later I look down at my first pleasant surprise of the night, A,A. Unfortunately, it gets folded to me in late position. I again make a standard 3x raise, certain that at the very least one of the blinds will look me up this early on.

But they don't.

And I again sweep only the blinds. This early on, it didn't really bother me too much. Sure, I always want action, lots of action, lots of big action, with aces but with everyone at the same stack and generally just settling into the tournament, it was easy enough to take it in stride and move on to the next hand.

And sure enough not twenty minutes later, still in the first 30 minute level, I look down again at A,A. This time, under the gun limps for 50, second to act also limps and third to act, I raise to 200. The button and the BB both call, as do the two early position limpers. Five to the flop, we see 8, 9, J with two spades. The BB checks, the initial limper bets 250 and the guy next to him calls. At this point, with 1500 in the pot and about 1250 in my stack, a standard raise could price in any and all draws and leave me pot-committed regardless of the turn card. So I put it all in, knowing that if someone has a made hand like Q,10 I can just rebuy and not really be shortstacked, as we're still at 25/50. But it gets folded around to the guy next to me, who chews on a call for a minute or two before finally pitching his hand and I drag a decent pot.

I win a few more before I run into some bad luck, when I raise preflop and my A,J hits a J high flop and I bet at it, get one caller and then shove for about 1100 when the turn brings a rag and again get a call. The caller turns over 9,7 for a pair of 9s (second pair on the flop) and I'm in great shape until the river brings a 7 to felt me. Arg. Rebuy.

I tilt a little and right away shove my stack in when I connect (perhaps middle pair, don't remember specifically) on the first flop post-rebuy. Luckily, no one calls and I remember feeling happy that no one did and recognizing that I had gotten away with an awful play. But winning that hand did settle me down a bit. It went a bit choppy afterward, as I again lost a good-sized pot to a river card but then immediately doubled back up when I lucked into a set with pocket 3s against pocket Ks.

I hover for a level or so and then the big guns come back. A,A on the button at the 300/600 level. Juicy, right? Well, not so much when everyone folds to me, I raise and the blinds (one of which was the chip leader) fold as well. Sweep the blinds, not insignificant, but unlike the earlier fold to my raise, at this point in the tournament, a big pot could indeed propel me to a cushy position, as there are only about 15 players remaining, so not being able to capitalize with them stings.

So not long after, I incredulously stare down at yet another A,A, this time from early position. Under the gun folds, I again raise, this time varying my raise a little, perhaps worried that I am tipping my hands, so I make it an even 2000 to go (still 300/600). No one takes my raise variation as a read of a middle pair or a weak ace and again, it gets folded to me and now I just am dazed. Four times with aces and no flops on three of them? Ouch.

My daze continues when the very next hand I see 9,9 and limp from under the gun, as the button is on a very good, aggressive player. And it folds to him and he shoves. I call, as his range is very big here but he has AcQc and he turns a queen to win a very big pot. I have him covered but now I'm a short stack and the blinds are moving to 400/800 momentarily. I shove shortly thereafter and lose but rebuy again in hopes that perhaps, just perhaps, I can pick up A,A one more time and get back in it.

But I don't.

Bombs away...

Been playing more frequently the past few weeks, mixing in cash games with home tourneys and generally feel like I'm getting back into step. Of course, I have made a couple of boneheaded plays in each game to go along with some quality moves so I feel like I have come out about even in terms of my overall play.

Here is a key hand to note from one of my cash games (home game, NLHE, 1,2 blinds).

From early position a player raised the $2 BB to $7 and got an early position caller, a mid-position caller and a call from the button. In the BB, I looked down at A,J off and raised it up to $21. Both early position players folded, the mid-position player called and the button folded. Now, I have played with the caller previously and know him to be a very good, smart player. I suspected that his call (both of the $7 and then of the $14) was a speculative one, as he is definitely the type who would have raised the early position raisers with any good holding and absolutely the type who would have come over the top of my reraise with a premium holding. Though out of position, I felt good about my read and all signs told me that I was ahead.

Flop brought out 9,9,x and I continued for $25 into $64. He immediately came over and upped it to $75 and I broke the play down. And here is where I needed to perhaps adjust my thought process a bit and I'll point out why. Having put him on nothing preflop, and based on our past playing history together, I felt he believed he could take the pot away with this raise, even with what I suspected was a nothing hand. He knows me to be a conservative player and figures that this raise will make me go away unless I have a 9. Well, let me out play him this time, is what I thought. So I called the $50, intending to scare him into thinking I had the 9 and was trapping. When an ace hit on the turn, giving me a pair of aces, I led out for $70 and he went into the tank and I thought I had him. My conservative style was paying dividends and he was giving me credit, convinced I had the hand.

Until, that is, he said the following: "I can't believe an ace hit" and my stomach lurched. Why would he worry about an ace? He didn't have an overpair to the board, he would have raised preflop with it. Which could only mean...

...that he has the 9 and is putting me, because of my tight game, because of my call of his $50 raise post-flop, on pocket aces and thinks he just got outdrawn by the ace on the turn. All the while I had him on nothing, because of my preflop read, and I was right, but I never varied my thinking to consider that his nothing may have included that 9. That he was playing off my style and using it against me, that I was the one being trapped. My only hope now was that he would consider himself beaten and fold to my $70 bet and $95 behind it, not wanting to toss $165 at a one-outer if he really had convinced himself I had the bullets.

So I wait for his decision, chagrined at my mistake, and eventually he called with a resigned "I have to see what you have." The river brought a blank and I checked, certain I was beaten and knowing not to put any more into the pot, as he would certainly call, and he checked behind, certain he was beaten, content not to risk any more money against what he felt I must be holding.

Only one of us was correct. And sadly, belatedly, it was me.