I spent a couple days at Harrah’s (they recently expanded their poker room–I’ll write one of my casino reviews for them one of these days) on my most recent Atlantic City trip, and while there, wound up making a play that I’m certain I’ll never forget. The play actually covered two different hands, with roughly 20 unimportant hands playing out in between.

It all started quite innocently when a young guy with way too much energy sat down at our $1-$2 No-Limit table. My initial opinion of him was that he had seen too much poker on TV, and my second impression of him was that he had learned his game playing online. As time went on, however, my impression of him gradually improved, and I began to realize he was a solid, tricky, and very aggressive player.

I was playing quite tight, and hadn’t been getting many good cards, when I looked down to find King-Queen of hearts. I was 4th to act, and no one had yet entered the pot, so I raised to $15. King-Queen is a hand that can get you in a lot of trouble, so I tend to prefer either playing it as cheaply as possible, or making it as expensive as possible so that I can cut down the field, ideally to heads-up.

The new guy (Aaron was his name–you’ll see how I found that out in a bit) then raised me to $30, which was rather disturbing. He had been re-raising pre-flop fairly often, though, so I didn’t worry too much. The flop came Q - 6 - 5, rainbow. With $60 in the pot, I decided to bet just over half the pot–$35. I had a very good hand, but had to worry about A-Q or an overpair. In all, though, I figured Aaron would probably have to fold at this point, unless he had something really good.

He raised to $125. Yeah. That one surprised me a bit. I thought about it for a while, but realized that, lacking any additional information, there was no way I could call him. At that point, I did something strange. I showed him my cards before folding. Usually I don’t like to do much advertising, and that goes double for when I’m making a (relatively) big lay-down. Doing that only inspires weaker players to shots at you.

I’m still not quite sure what possessed me to show him my cards. I think that, on a subconscious level, I was pretty sure he was bluffing. I showed him my cards, then, in hopes that he would show me his.

He smiled, and asked me, “Do you want to see what I had?” This struck me as odd. If he wanted to advertise, he’d just show me the cards. Anyway, I definitely did, and in a humble, polite voice, said, “Yes, please.” He showed me a pair of 7’s. Yeah, he had bluffed me all right. “Good bluff,” I said, sincerely. Everyone at the table let out a collective “Ooh…”

At this point, my brain went into high gear. Everything about this hand felt weird. Why would he make this huge bluff, especially in a situation where I’m showing a lot of strength? Why would he show it off early? He had clearly pegged me as a tight player, and was clearly thinking several steps ahead. He had mentally set this bluff up from before the cards were even in the air. So I needed to think several more steps into the future.

He had run a huge bluff at a player he perceived as too tight. He would run the exact same play at me again, only the next time, he would have a great hand. I knew it. He was going to trap me for all my money by “bluffing” with a monster. And I knew just what I was going to do. I was going to walk right into his trap. Loaded for bear.

Roughly two orbits went by when I found pocket Kings. A couple cowboys in the hole, and this Texan was ready for a showdown.

But everything would have to be perfect. For one thing, Aaron would have to catch some luck. A lot of luck. Just not quite enough luck. For another thing, I had to draw him into the hand.

I was second to act and raised to $8. It wasn’t much of a raise (relative to the norm at that table), but I wanted to show that I was strong, yet still allow him to get in cheap with a trapping hand. One person to my left called, then Aaron raised to $15. It was go-time.

One more person called–a raging moron who evidently thought that it was somehow fashionable for men with hairy chests to wear their shirts with the top several buttons undone (I see this all the time in Atlantic City on men between the ages of 38 and 55. I think it must be some left over 70’s thing that a few people just haven’t gotten the memo on). I called, and the first caller called. I did my best to think dark thoughts and have a dark look on my face. I wanted to look like I was steaming, without looking like I was trying to look like I was steaming.

Then I hit my dream flop. K - 7 - 4 rainbow. I had the nuts. There was only one problem. Aaron had quite likely missed this flop entirely, and I knew he wouldn’t make a play at me unless he had a hand. Still, I had to chance it. I had to play out my roll as the dupe walking into a trap.

I bet $15. I figured this was the least I could bet without looking suspicious. I figured that if Aaron had caught a piece of the flop, maybe he would call one bet, hope to catch up on the turn, and make a play then. The guy on my left folded, and Aaron raised to $60. I may have been imagining things, but I’m pretty sure at that point that I heard the Hallelujah chorus begin playing in the background. But maybe that was just inside my head.

Then something annoying happened. The moron loudly and lengthily considered calling. “I want to call it so much!” he opined. I sat there wondering what in hell the fool was thinking–even if he was naive enough to think Aaron was bluffing a second time, what in hell did he think I had??? At this point, I started doing an acting number, picking up some of my chips and banging them down on some other chips. Aaron, however was caught up in the moron’s decision, smiling and laughing and generally encouraging a call without actually saying so. So I banged a bit harder, and saw–out of the corner of my eye–Aaron finally look over. At that point I realized I was overdoing things, and settled down.

Finally, the moron folded, showing an Ace-Queen in the process. A - Q? The guy HAD to figure he was dead to 3 outs at the very least for crying out loud. Some people… And then Aaron turned his attention to me.

I started things off with the stare-down. You see this all the time when someone thinks they’re being bluffed. They stare at their quarry, hoping to discover some twitch that will give up the game. Aaron just smiled calmly, and I realized I was going to have to change gears.

You see, I wanted to be absolutely sure Aaron actually had a hand. If he didn’t, I needed to call. If he did… well, you know what I needed to do then. I wanted everything to be perfect.

“You bluffing me again?” I asked. “Maybe,” he glibly replied. Then I asked my favorite question of a person I’m feeling out.

“What’s your name?”

You should try this some time. A person running a bluff is so caught up in the necessity of not behaving oddly that they have a hell of a hard time switching gears to do something so challenging as, for instance, remembering their own name. You’ll hear stuff like, “Huhwhaa uh, buhh, Dave. Wait, what? Erm…”

“Aaron,” Aaron answered without a moment of hesitation. And then I knew it. I had him. He had a set or some strange two pair.

“Hi Aaron. I’m John. Nice to meet you. I’m all in.” Stack up the chips. Pound them in the middle of the table. Tilting, steaming John walking into Aaron’s trap for all the world to see, handing $150 in Harrah’s chips out for the taking. I didn’t even have my chips in the middle of the table before he shot back, “I call,” and flipped over his cards.

7 - 4 offsuit. I shit you not. He re-raised me pre-flop with nothing but rags (the classic trapping “Gus Hanson hand” kind of cards), and hit what he must have thought was a miracle flop, catching two pair. Like I said earlier, luck played something of a roll. I was prepared for just this scenario–I had thought the steps ahead–but I still needed the scenario to actually occur for the chance to take action.

I flipped over those two cowboys, looked at Aaron, and didn’t say a thing. The kings did the talking for me.

The turn was a 5.

I’ll grant Aaron one thing, he had class. “Wow man, great play. Seriously. Great play. I did not see that coming. That was a really great play.” That was probably the most impressive thing about this guy–he immediately realized what I had been doing, that I had figured out his game, and that I had used his own plans to set him up. Definitely a dangerous poker player.

Are you wondering what the river was? First of all, shame on you if you haven’t figured out that Aaron was drawing dead at that point. Any 7 or 4 would give him a full house, but it would give me a bigger full house at the same time. His only hope had been two running 7’s or two running 4’s (a roughly 0.25% chance). The 5 on the turn finished any hope he had.

Still, the river was pure poetic justice.

The river was the 4th King, giving me the mighty Four Of A Kind.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 1:50 AM PDT

6 Comments »

Are you looking for the New Blog Showcase Carnival?

You aren’t the only one.

I volunteered to host the Showcase Carnival, but it appears there aren’t any new blogs who know about the new blog showcase.

Carnivals are a great way for new bloggers to gain exposure and new readers. It’s free, and best of all, you get this warm fuzzy feeling when you participate!

So, step right up! Come one, come all and submit an entry to the Showcase Carnival! This carnival features blogs less than 3 months old. Have you stumbled across a great new blog? Send them here, and they can be featured in the carnival next week at Basil’s Blog.

Posted by Jaxia as Pimpin, Reviews at 11:13 PM PDT

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During my trip to Vegas in early June, there were three notable calls that stood out in my mind which I’ve been meaning to blog about. All three happened during play at $1 - $2 no limit tables; two of the plays involved me personally, the other I merely witnessed.

The first was just a random, vaguely amusing event that only happened because I had just come from winning a tournament. I was still in a tournament mindset, and the failure to switch strategy to something appropriate for a ring game proved very expensive. The good news is that the person who gained from my mistake was the friend/co-worker I had gone to Vegas with, so at least the cash stayed within the group.

Anyway, my friend Pat raised to $15 from early position, and I looked down to see pocket queens in my hand, so I re-raised to $45. At that point, Pat raised me all in (I had sat down with $200, and this was literally the first hand I’d played since coming to the table). Having just come from a tournament, where I was the chip leader, and you see these sorts of plays all the time, I quickly, unthinkingly, unworriedly called his raise.

Of course, Pat and I usually would soft-play each other when we were heads up. Neither of us had much desire to take money out of the other, and we’d only bet monster hands–typically as a signal for the other to just give up and fold. Pat, naturally, was raising me all-in with pocket aces. He figured there was no way I would call. Oops. Lesson learned.

The second call occurred in a hand I was sitting out during a hand which proved to be one of the biggest pots I’ve ever seen in a cash game. This was at the Sahara’s relatively new poker room, and a moderately good player (who seemed to have some judgment problems, yet was still a decent post-flop player) went all in as first to act after a 3-spade flop.

His all-in bet was for just over $200. He got three callers. The first was an Asian guy I didn’t have much of a read on. The second was a professional poker player sitting just on my right (great guy, learned a lot talking to him–once he discovered that this was only my second day of playing no-limit and that my usual game was limit, he started asking to see my hand any time he had folded and would critique my play afterwards). He clearly didn’t want to call, but mathematically, as we will see, he had to.

The third caller was a below-average player to my left who probably would have called in that situation with just top pair. Since everyone was all in, everyone turned up their hands. The initial all-in better had a made queen-high flush. The initial caller had top set, giving him 7 outs on the turn and 10 outs on the river to make a full house. The professional player had a draw to the ace-high flush. Being all-in, he would get to see two cards for certain, and he was getting slightly better than 2-1 to call with 9 outs twice–a roughly 2 in 5 draw. Since the pot odds were greater than his drawing odds, he felt he had to call. The final caller was calling with the bottom set, so while he may have thought he had 7 and 10 outs, he was actually drawing dead to the one card that would get him quads.

So who was making a mistake? Answer: everyone but the all-in better.

The all-in better had a made flush, but had to be worried that a higher flush draw was out against him. As such, he needed to bet enough to destroy the drawing odds of anyone who wanted to see additional cards; going all-in is a good way to do that, and make people pay as much as possible to draw against him.

The person calling with top set was likely gambling that his hand was good, that he was only against a flush draw. Still, he should have assumed that the all-in bet was a made hand, and as such, he didn’t have enough outs to justify a call. His opinion was likely impacted by an earlier all-in play by the bettor (which happens to be the third story in this tale of three calls), but still, I’d argue very tough, yet ultimately bad call (especially as he had no cards of the appropriate suit in his hand, and thus couldn’t benefit from a flush draw)

As I just explained, the second caller was getting proper pot-odds to over-call after the first caller turned the pot into a 2-1 situation. The thing is, he wasn’t really. He should have assumed that the all-in bettor had a made flush. You don’t bluff all-in into three people. At least not if you’re intelligent. That takes away two outs. Further, it was safe to assume that the caller to his right might well be on a flush draw, potentially eliminating another out. If you reduce the guy’s outs from 9 to 7 for the nut-flush draw, he’s getting LESS than 1 in 3 to draw. The pot odds were enough to justify a call for 9 outs, but not enough for 7 outs. Unfortunately, the guy only had a few seconds to make up his mind, and didn’t have the time to adjust for the likely reduced number of outs.

The third caller… well what can you say? He was a moron to be the third caller of an all-in bet with a three flush flop. It’s people like him who make poker so profitable for people like me.

And how does this story end? Two blanks came off. No flush for the pro. No full house for the top-set. No quads for the moron with bottom set. The initial bettor took down a pot worth over $800. And then he took his money and, wisely, left the table.

Now, for the final story. It starts with me looking down to see pocket aces and raising to $20 before the flop. I got one caller–the very same guy who made the all-in bet in the previous story.

The flop was 2-2-3 rainbow. With $40 in the pot, I bet $30, and the other guy called. The turn was a 3, for a board of 2-2-3-3. I bet $35 (arguably too little, but this was my second day ever playing no limit. Today I would have bet $50-$75 at this point).

And the other guy raised me all-in.

It was going to cost me everything I had in front of me–about $125–to call. Any 2 and any 3 would make my opponent a full house. Anything else I had beat. This was the longest I have ever spent thinking about a call.

Looking at this situation now in the comfort of your home, this may seem like an easy, straightforward decision. It’s neither easy nor straightforward when being confronted with this decision for all your money in a live game against someone you know to be a decent player. As it is, it took me about 3 minutes to make up my mind. At one point I apologized, saying, “Don’t worry, I won’t be much longer,” at which point everyone assured me that there was no rush. They were fascinated too, and wanted to see what I would do.

Three things made up my mind. The first was that the guy was too cool. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone so cool under pressure. He was able to answer my questions with confidence and ease (I always try to ask people questions when I’m confronted with a tough decision–their tone of voice and ease of answering tells a lot about their hand). Then he leaned over to the table behind him and picked up a chicken finger he’d been nibbling on, took a bite, and calmly went about eating it. At that point, I decided he was literally putting on a show of just how calm he was. It was a ruse.

The second thing that made up my mind was that he called my $20 raise pre-flop. What possible hand would he call that big a pre-flop raise with? None of them included a 2 or a 3. Had I made it $10 or $12 pre-flop, I could see him calling with a low pocket pair or an Ace-2/3 suited. Maybe. But not for $20.

Finally, his bet was wrong for someone holding a 2 or a 3. Someone with a 2 or 3 so clearly had me destroyed that he’d be a fool to not try to milk it for every dollar possible. The correct play here for someone with a full house would be to call, and then raise me on the river. His play was more like someone with a middle pair that didn’t want someone with two over cards to have any more chances at drawing out.

So I called. And flipped over my aces. He never showed me his hand. Just tossed it in the muck and said, “Nice hand.”

I ran into him a day later, and he made a point of complimenting me on what a great call I had made. He told me that he had figured that without a 2 or a 3, there was no way on earth I could justify calling for so much money, but I had read the situation correctly. Regardless, it was definitely a defining poker moment for me.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 9:15 AM PDT

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For those of you in the Dallas area, are you planning to attend the Lone Star Poker Expo? It will be in Addison on September 10th and 11th. Guest speakers will be Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Clonie Gowen and Bob “The Coach” Ciaffone. Tickets are $18.

Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 10:59 PM PDT

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Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed my time spent in the Showboat’s poker room. It has a feel to it that’s hard to describe–a cross between a hunting lodge and a smoky New Orleans blues house. The fact that it’s literally across the hall from the House of Blues helps, and the music in the background is the best you’ll find at any casino world-wide.

There are two major negatives for Showboat though. The first is that it’s new–they opened the same weekend (about a month ago) that Caesars opened their poker room (my Caesars poker room review is here, and I’m appending an update at the end of this post). As such, many of the dealers are brand new and have no idea what they’re doing. The presence of shuffling machines greatly speeds things, but dealer errors, and general dealer slowness are both irritating.

The second problem is that they have a hard time getting enough people in the room to have many games going. Part of this is by design. Unlike Caesars, Showboat has done nothing (yet) to advertise their new room. They’re doing this on purpose to give their dealers a chance to get more comfortable, and to work all the kinks out of their operation. I heartily applaud this decision of theirs.

Did I mention that Showboat has the second-best looking cocktail waitresses in Atlantic City? No? Well they do. (The best looking, by a wide margin, are to be found at the Borgata).

I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent playing at the Showboat’s poker room, and I will definitely be back. Word-of-mouth already seems to be drawing people into the room, as it’s just a wonderfully nice ambiance. I wound up leaving eventually, because the room’s reputation had drawn a lot of AC’s best no-limit players. Fish coming to the table would leave broke in under an hour, and then it would be back to circling sharks.

Caesars Update: Two weeks since my original visit to Caesars, and I can honestly say they have improved significantly. The dealers have benefited from the 2 weeks experience, and they’ve added shuffling machines to the tables, greatly speeding the pace of play. The dealer with Parkinson’s is still there, but even he has become substantially faster and more competent.

Also, the action is quite good at Caesars. It seems to attract a large number of fish, and my biggest profits came from playing there. In my last session (I was in AC for six days), playing $1-$2 no-limit (max buy-in $300), I walked away over a $600 winner.

Posted by Beck as Poker, Reviews at 12:27 PM PDT

3 Comments »

Hmm. So I get home from PetSmart (yes, I saved a poochie from my local animal shelter) and see that someone’s gone and set Maudie off.

After following the link to this article, I can see why. I will never understand why women want to separate themselves from the men. We are still fighting to break down barriers and the “good ‘ol boy” mentality, and some women are struggling to keep them intact. Sure, guys are better at some things - like lifting heavy objects. But as a woman, I know I am fully capable of holding my own in any skill important to poker.

Last night while playing poker, I raised a preflop bet. I commented to the guy next to me (who was not in the hand) that the guy would call me just because I’m a woman. He laughed and said, “Yes, but just wait until you get that monster hand and use it to your advantage.” He’s right. So what that the guys don’t respect my raises when I first sit down at a table. They’ll regret it when I show them the nuts!

Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 11:31 PM PDT

3 Comments »

Man! What’s up with UB’s new sit n’ go tournaments? I hate this new format. I don’t want to get on a list to play SNGs. I just want to click and play.

Fix it!

(please?)

Posted by Jaxia as Poker, Reviews at 7:29 PM PDT

1 Comment »

I cannot believe we are almost to the end of the 2005 World Series of Poker. Seems like I’m not the only poker blog getting crazy hits (although none for slut poker) because of all the interest in the main event. Too bad people dash off to Pauly’s site without checking out mine. I know, I know! Greg Raymer’s chip count is much more important than any bad beat story I could tell.

Speaking of chip stacks, I think it’s awesome that Raymer is still in this thing. And in 5th place, no less! Wouldn’t that be crazy if he won it again?

I’d rather see Phil Ivey or Greg “Fossilman” Raymer win over Mike “the mouth” Matusow. Poker already has too many jerks. If Matusow wins, there’d be a crazy rash of players trying to out-mouth him. /shudder

For live blogging updates direct from the 2005 WSOP, be sure to visit Pauly. Where else can we find out the latest on what’s happening at the Rio Casino, Binion’s Horseshoe and the Redneck Riviera? The 2005 WSOP Main Event Final Table is near! Buckle up, folks!

Posted by Jaxia as Pimpin, Poker, WSOP at 3:11 PM PDT

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Is being a calling station worse than being a fish? I wanted a change in my status, but I don’t think that’s the direction I wanted to go. Since I can’t keep the donkeys from drawing, I kept winding up with the wannabe nuts instead of the real nuts. By being aggressive without the nuts, I lost a lot of money. Now that I see that in writing, it seems like a rather “duh” statement, but it’s really not that obvious. Very rarely does someone have the stone cold nuts.

Eh, anyhow…After a brief review of 2k hands, I play to the river too often. When people are betting Q4o all the way to the river with nothing, I can’t seem to stop myself from clicking on the dadgum “call” button with middle pair.

Here are my stats at .50/1 limit texas hold em. Opinions/tips/suggestions (brutal, if necessary) are appreciated/welcomed.

VP$IP: 32.19 (coming down, it was in the 40’s)
PFR%: 11.09
WSD%: 52.34 (scary, isn’t it?)
W$SD%: 62.67

Any other stat I should mention?

Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 2:18 PM PDT

8 Comments »

Do you have a rake back account?

Do you think that a player playing .50/$1 limits should sign up for a rake back account? Is it worth it?

If so, which is the best site to go through?

Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 10:08 PM PDT

2 Comments »