Just in case you are surfing the Net, trying to find something to do this evening:

What: WWdN: penner42 Invitational
Where: PokerStars
When: Tuesday, January 31. 8:30 EST
Password: monkey
Tournament number: 18610753
Buy-in: $10+1

Don’t miss it!

Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 7:31 PM PST

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Wicked Chops Poker, in their latest edition of The Toke, reports on this little nugged from the latest poker club bust in NYC:

The Farmingdale in Long Island is the latest underground poker club in New York to get busted. The 5-0 confiscated $10,000 when they folded the club. Said the Police Commish in Suffolk County, “If anyone has any questions about what is and what is not legal in regard to ‘Texas Hold ‘em’ and other games of chance we encourage them to call our public information office at 631-852-6308.” So just for spite’s sake (a distant relative of pete), we encourage everyone to call that number and ask hold’em “legality” questions like, “If the first hole card is accidentally exposed, is that a misdeal or is that just the first burn card?” and “If two people are eliminated during the same hand during final table play, how do you determine who receives more prize money?”

A little Civil Disobedience is a good thing, and remember kiddos: the state is not your friend.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 5:16 PM PST

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This hand is relatively simple & straightforward, and unlike the first two I posted, it’s more a matter of finding yourself in a potentially very good situation as opposed to a potentially very bad situation. Still, there are a number of ways a person might approach it, and I’m curious to see how people would handle it. And so, without further ado:

The situation: I’ve been at this $1/$2 NLHE table at Caesars for perhaps 6 hours, and have a tight aggressive image. I’ve managed to accumulate a substantial chip lead and have turned my $300 buy-in into just shy of a thousand dollars. I have the entire table covered. The table is playing a little loose, but not ridiculous, and a little aggressive. Standard raise is $10-$15.

The cast of characters: Two players that matter in this hand along with a couple pre-flop donations
Little Asian Man (LAM): This guy is VERY tight and is a Caesars regular. He’s usually a winning player, but has been on a run of very bad luck this evening. At the start of the hand he has $185 in front of him. He’s UTG +1. Did I mention he was tight?
Two Random Pre-flop Donators (TRPD): Self-explanatory.
Me: I have the table covered, and am on the button. I have a good table image.

The action: UTG folds, and LAM raises to $15. TRPD call. I look down to see Ad Kh and choose to just call. The blinds fold. There is $60 in the pot

The flop: Ah 8h 6h

LAM bets $35, leaving himself with $135. $95 is in the pot. TRPD both fold. Action’s on you sir.

The question: What is your strategy, and how do you play your hand from this point forward?

Update: Be sure to answer the question prior to reading the comments. Others’ comments will invariably impact your thinking and distort your answer. The idea behind this whole “Action’s on you sir” series of posts is to try to make you think in the same manner you would have to while at a table: i.e. making big decissions relatively quickly with just limited information.

Update II: OK, you’ve had enough time. I put the resolution to this hand in the comments along with my own thoughts. No fair reading ahead if you haven’t already posted your own solution in the comments!

Posted by Beck as Poker at 11:31 AM PST

18 Comments »

I had an outstanding December playing cheapo limit tables online, so, right on cue, the poker gods decided that this would be the week when it would all come back to bite me. The killer was yesterday afternoon, when a guy who played about three-quarters of all his hands and raised about three-quarters of all of those decided to raise from EP with 4/3 offsuit. He flopped quads. That guy was personally responsible for a significant chunk of my loss.

I looked to be exacting my revenge on the poker gods in a $10 + $1 limit hold’em tournament with a $236.80 first prize. After getting lucky by avoiding bubbling out when my Ace-high held up, I went on an absolute tear. With five players left, I held more than half the chips on the table. And that’s when it all started to fall apart.

Down to three handed, and still with a significant chip lead, I held A/2 offsuit in the big blind and called the button’s raise (2500/5000 level). The flop came 5s/6h/Ah. I bet and he raised, which made me worry a little; I had top pair, but absolutely no kicker, so if I were behind, I was drawing to three outs at best. But earlier at that final table, he went wild with pocket Kings after I outflopped him holding A/J. Since he started with less than 4 big bets, I reasoned he would find a way to get all his chips in with any reasonable hand, so my Ace was probably good. I was right; after the turn came 8h I put him all-in and he showed red pocket Jacks.

The river was Kh. He outflushed me: AKJ86 vs. AK862. That cost me nearly one-third of my stack.

Next hand: As/Ad from the small blind. Yee-ha, let’s ride. The button raised and I reraised, forcing the big blind out. The button called to see a flop of 4d/6c/Jd. I bet; he called. The turn was 9d; I bet again and he raised. This was troublesome, but I called, because I had a redraw to the nut flush. The river was a dud, Kc. I checked and paid off his hand: Qd/10d. It could have been worse, I guess. If the river King were a diamond instead of a club it would have cost me the entire tournament right then and there. But as it was, I stacked off nearly 90% of my chips in two hands and went out with a whimper in third place.

I still collected $103.60, which made up for nearly all that I had lost this week. But know this: in the end the gods will get you.

Posted by Mike as Poker at 3:00 PM PST

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I’ve noticed that a number of other bloggers are planning on heading down to the Borgata this weekend for the action during the Borgata Winter Classic. Pauly, in fact, has been hired by the Borgata to do some live coverage.

I’ll be down there too. Most likely I’ll be heading down Saturday morning, staying up all night, then leaving Sunday (I have to catch a plane to Houston on Sunday, so the departure time is rather inflexible). I might decide to head out Friday night, but I’m not planning on getting a room, so that’s kinda unlikely unless someone comes forward with a crash pad.

An all-nighter Saturday night goes without saying.

I won’t be there long enough to enter any tournaments, but poker will be played in plenty.

Anyone else who’s going to be down there, feel free to leave a comment, send me an email, or just look me up there. I’ll be the late 20s white guy wearing a baseball cap.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 1:46 PM PST

3 Comments »

Another weekend, another trip to Caesars Atlantic City, another winning session–even better than the last trip.

Something amusing happened on the trip. A player across from me (in the 1 seat) was wearing a single string of Mardi Gras beads. It turns out he had won them from another player at the table. He got up after I’d been there about an hour, running fairly card dead and down a small amount. As he departed, he tossed the beads into the pot for the winner of the next hand.

Everyone limped in except an older fellow to my immediate right. I was lucky enough to be dealt A-9, a hand I thought had a decent chance of winning in what was likely to be a low action hand. The flop was Q-7-6, and I figured for certain someone would have a queen. Somehow, though, it checked around. The turn was a 9, giving me a pair. One player bet out a weak $10, and two of us called him. The river was another 6, pairing the board, and this time it checked around. The bettor had a pair of 7s. The first caller (who happened to be the beads’ original owner) had a 9-3. I showed down my own 9, and triumphantly called out, “Ace kicker!”

The pot and (far more importantly) the beads were mine. I then went on a luck streak which was to make those beads legendary.

OK, maybe not legendary, but it was good for a lot of running jokes. Numerous people offered to buy them off of me, but there was no way I was selling ‘em. The luck in them was good enough that I managed to break 4 different people over the course of 10 hours of play. I probably used up all of the luck in those beads, though, catching the biggest suck-out of my poker career. All I can say in my defense is that with the way he played his hand, the other guy deserved what he got.

I raised to $15 in LP with A-Qo and got two callers. The flop was 5-6-6 and a player in EP bet a whopping $10. The other player folded, and I decided to take one off & called as well. At this point we both had deep stacks, and getting better than 5:1 to call . The turn was an Ace, pairing me up. The victim bet $20 into the $65 pot, and I called. There were a decent number of hands that still had me beat, so raising didn’t seem wise. The river was a second Ace, giving me aces full. The other guy was quite clearly upset by this turn of events and checked. I thought for a while about how much I could bet and still get paid off & decided on sending a $20 back at him. He thought about it but ultimately seemed to realize he had to call as there was $125 in the pot at this point.

He had pocket 5s. He had flopped a boat, and I had hit perfect runner-runner to beat him. On the flop, I only had a 2% chance to win. On the turn, my chances had improved to 9%. The guy’s mistake was letting me in so cheaply, especially when an ace came on the turn. At that point he should have bet much bigger & made me pay for my draw. I’d been playing tight, and my pre-flop raise & flop play suggested I had a big ace (or a hand that couldn’t call even $20, in which case the size of his bet didn’t matter). As such, he could and should have realized his hand was vulnerable AND that he could make a lot more money. Instead, his passive play allowed me to catch runner-runner to steal a pot I certainly didn’t deserve.

That, and he shouldn’t have messed with the guy wearing the beads.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 4:36 PM PST

10 Comments »

Just before Christmas, my job contract was non-renewed. After talking with SK, we decided that this was the perfect time for me to focus on school full time.

It would be nice if I could consistently contribute with poker winnings, so I’ve been really working on stepping up my game by moving up in limits and not being such a friggin calling station.

So, how bad did I butcher this hand? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 3:51 PM PST

7 Comments »

So I finally got to ask Chris Ferguson about his Halloween party in Full Tilt’s $24 + $2 tournament, running right now, with an $8,000 guaranteed prize pool.

He wouldn’t dignify me with a response. Well, good, quite frankly. I wouldn’t, either.

But if you make him mad, he can bite back. Witness this exchange between a shortstacked Jesus and the table chip leader:

Leader: chris, go all in on my big blind, I’ll call
Leader: you need some chips
Chris Ferguson: how about if you just fold.

Leader: don’t get crazy now

Good stuff.

I’m currently at the low end of the middle at Break #1. I’ve been as high as the top 20 but a couple unlucky hands brought me sputtering down. I’ll update if anything exciting happens, or if Jesus zings anybody else.

Posted by Mike as Poker at 2:07 AM PST

8 Comments »

I made it down to Atlantic City this weekend, and can happily report that my first session of the year was a solid winner. I played for about 12 hours, but everything really came down to 4 big hands.

The first hand was not a good one. I managed to bluff off my entire buy-in against a LAG who happened to find a solid hand. My second $300 buy-in was starting to dwindle as well when a LDA (loose dumb-ass) doubled me up when I flopped a set and turned a boat.

The third big hand was the real defining moment of the game. It also constituted, for me, the biggest pot I’ve ever played. Plenty of you, perhaps even a majority, will have played larger pots than this, but it was still quite a happy milestone for me. Those who don’t like long narratives detailing how poker hands played out might as well skip to the end.

I was in the small blind with 4-4. It was a $1-$2 NLHE game, but it played like a $2-$5 game, and there was a lot of money on the table. The player UTG open-raised to $20. This player raised perhaps 25% of his hands preflop, and paid no attention to position. One MP player called, and it folded to me. When I’m playing for a set, I generally like to see flops cheaply and have plenty of people in the hand, but $20 was about as cheap a flop as I was likely to see. I could fairly safely assume the BB would call as well, and that decided it for me. I called.

The BB was a close, long time friend of the UTG player, and would play almost any hand his friend was in. I could tell they were colluding to a limited extent, but they were creating so much action that it was worth it to stay at the table. $80 was in the pot, I had started the hand with just under $600 in front of me, the BB and UTG both had me covered, and MP had about $350 in front of him.

The flop came down 4h 8d 9d. This was a mixed blessing–I had hit my set, but there were some painfully obvious straight and flush draws. I decided that I needed to take the pot down right there, and lamented that I wasn’t going to make the money necessary to justify having paid $20 to take the flop.

I overbet the pot and put $100 out. Imagine my surprise when the BB, without too much hesitation, raised to $200. The other two players folded.

At this point I had a very tough decision to make, as I had to assume that I was playing not just for $100, but for all of my money. I started staring at the BB. He sat there calmly. His friend quipped, “It doesn’t matter how long you look at him, he ain’t gettin’ any better lookin’.” I started asking him questions. I was genuinely concerned that he had a larger set. It seemed like the only thing that would explain how quickly he raised me.

I had been playing very tight so far, and the BB was an observant player. I engaged some third-level thinking and surmised that he would HAVE to put me on a big hand. As such, his raise represented a VERY big hand. “You have a set?” I asked him. He sat there. “Let me rephrase. How big is your set?” He sat there.

I’m not really positive what finally convinced me to play the hand out. Just a vibe I guess. I think if he’d had a set of 8s or 9s he would have been more relaxed, perhaps even talkative. He would have been trying to get me to call. Instead he was methodically polishing his glasses and pointedly ignoring me. Once I decided to play the hand, I thought for a bit longer about how to get all my money in. I was pretty obviously uncomfortable with what I had, so he might think he could blast me off the hand later. I decided to just call.

The turn was a black 8. Another mixed blessing. It gave me a full house, but if he had been raising with top 2 pair, he now had a higher full house. Even if he just had a pair of nines or trip 8s, he’d have a draw to a higher full house. Regardless, I’d decided to commit to the hand, so I stuck with my strategy.

“I check,” said I.
“I’m all in,” said he.
“I call,” responded I. “You have a boat?”
“Nope,” he sighed. “Just top pair.”
“Oh,” I remarked, “cuz I do.”

He didn’t even have a good kicker with it. He had 9h -10h.

I don’t even remember what the river was. The total pot came to a hair over $1200.

There was a 4th big hand of the night as well, though it wasn’t nearly as significant (but it was very interesting). I had 8h - 9h and the flop gave me an OESD and a flush draw. I was very suspicious that my flush outs were no good though, but went ahead and paid the price to draw. I turned the nuts and pushed, successfully bouncing out a player who did in fact have a draw to a higher flush. I was called by a short stack ready to leave, and pulled a decent pot.

And that was my night at Caesars Atlantic City.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 5:48 PM PST

4 Comments »

Razz.

No, not that Razz. Seven-card stud lowball.

(Note before continuing: in this post, I make it sound like Razz is simpler than Go Fish and anyone with a brain bigger than an acorn can make a killing in this game. It’s not. F-Train ripped me a new one in the comments, so if you’re really interested in learning this game, consider getting advice from someone who actually knows how to play — as I admit, I have as much Razz experience as Paris Hilton does in molecular physics. Until then, consider this Chapter One: Pride Before The Fall.)

One of the reasons I like playing at Full Tilt Poker is the opportunity to play with their pros. I discovered that one $20 + $2 tournament last night had Andy Bloch, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and Huck Seed all playing.

Just one problem, though: it was Razz. I’d never played Razz (at least not for real money), but it seemed simple enough. Five lowest cards win.

So having never played a real game of Razz in my life, I registered, in the hopes that I could be at the same table as Jesus so I could ask him about the Halloween party he attended.

I discovered something . . . I’m pretty good at Razz. Not only was I chip leader for a substantial part of the tournament, I wound up cashing, finishing 18th out of 172 players and winning $34.40. (If I hadn’t got unlucky on one hand then fallen apart at the end, I could have contended for the near-$1000 first prize.)

It’s just common sense, though. Many times, you don’t even need to bother with trying to read your opponents’ hand: you can look at their board and know you have them beat. Here’s an example:

At this point in the tournament, levels were 300/600 with a 50-chip ante and 100-chip bring-in. Seven players were sitting at the table, arranged like this:

Player A: 5,454
Player B (me): 11,897
Player C: 7,473
Player D: 718
Player E: 2,904
Player F: 6,655
Player G: 6,692

Just as in seven-card Stud high, all players get two cards face down and one face up. The players’ hands looked like this:

Player A: (x x) Jh
Player B (me): (Kh 3c) 5h
Player C: (x x) 10c
Player D: (x x) 7s
Player E: (x x) Qd
Player F: (x x) 2d
Player G: (x x) 6h

(Since suits don’t matter, as neither flushes nor straights count against you in Razz, I’ll leave them out from now on.)

In Stud, the low card brings it in. In Razz, it’s the opposite, and Player E put in 100 due to his door-card Q. In clockwise order, the remainder of the table then must decide whether to call the bring-in, “complete” to a full small bet (300 in this case), or fold. Here’s how the table looked as it came around to me:

Player E: (x x) Q — bring-in 100
Player F: (x x) 2 — folded
Player G: (x x) 6 — called 100
Player A: (x x) J — folded
Player B (me): (K 3) 5
Player C: (x x) 10 — yet to act
Player D: (x x) 7 — yet to act

My K in the hole was a bad card, but with a 5 as my door card, and with the players yet to act after me having higher up cards, I thought I could safely call this 100-chip bet into a 550-chip pot and see what happened on later streets without it being raised behind me. (Unlike in Hold’em, the bring-in player in Stud is not a live bet, so Player E couldn’t have raised even if he wanted to, unless it was completed before him.) So I called, and Players C and D folded, as expected.

Fourth street looked like this:

Player B (me): (K 3) 5 8
Player E: (x x) Q 4
Player G: (x x) 6 6

This was a great street for me. I’ve caught another low card. Player E probably has a dud hand, despite the good card on fourth street, since he’s yet to voluntarily put money in the pot. And Player G caught a terrible card. Pairs are the devil in Razz.

In Stud, the high hand showing is first to bet after third street, so in Razz, it’s the opposite. My 8-low board was lower than Player E’s Q-low and Player G’s pair of sixes, so I had first action. I bet, Player E folded, and Player G called.

Fifth street brought this:

Player B (me): (K 3) 5 8 7
Player G: (x x) 6 6 A

The A was a good card for Player G, so bad for me. But here’s what I meant earlier about “reads” being unnecessary. Player G could not have a made hand yet. You need to have five unpaired low cards, so the absolute best Player G could have was a draw: 6-x-x-A. Fifth street bets and later are doubled, so I bet 600 and Player G called.

Sixth street:

Player B (me): (K 3) 5 8 7 9
Player G: (x x) 6 6 A 10

Another great street. (And to be honest, I did catch a lot of good cards, but I’d like to think my quick adaptability to Razz gameplay was the primary ingredient in my success.) I now have a made nine low: 9-8-7-5-3. But Player G can only have, at best, a ten low: 10-6-x-x-A. I bet; she called.

Seventh street, like Stud, is dealt face-down:

Player B (me): (K 3) 5 8 7 9 (K)
Player G: (x x) 6 6 A 10 (x)

A rotten card, but I still have a made nine. Player G could have overtaken me with a good card, so I checked. Player G checked behind me. She had (5 5) 6 6 A 10 (3), for 10-6-5-3-A. I won a healthy 3650-chip pot which put me in the tournament lead. She seemed to be disturbed by this outcome:

Player G: nice catch
marchron: i’m pretty sure i had you all the way
Player G: hell no
marchron: my 7th was a K
marchron: K 3 5 8 7 9 K
Player G: yeah right
Player G: like i said

Well, whatever. I don’t know what she was doing in the hand with two pair after four cards, but I didn’t jump her case about it.

She somehow managed to wind up finishing 7th, so I’m not sure what her problem is. The player who finished 2nd owes me some of his $670.80 prize, since I doubled him up twice. None of the pros cashed: Huck Seed busted out pretty early, in 126th; Andy Bloch finished in 70th, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson finished in 55th. (I never got to ask him about his pimpin’ Halloween.)

If you decide to take up a game of Razz just for variety’s sake, remember a few things:

1.) Low hand wins. If you have two cards bigger than a 9 in your hand, or one big card and a pair of low cards, you should probably fold. You need five good low cards, so if you have two worthless cards, you have to catch perfect on every subsequent street to make a good five-card low. An exception is if your bad cards are both in the hole, in which case you can . . .

2.) Exploit your “smooth” boards. “Smooth” means low up-cards. If you’re heads-up and your board is A 2, a bet will probably make your opponent holding 8 Q fold, even if you have K-K in the hole.

3.) Remember position. Position isn’t as important as it is in Hold’em, because it could potentially change on every street. But on third, if you’re first to act after the bring-in and you hold (5 7) 8, take a look at the players left to act. Phil Hellmuth says in Play Poker Like The Pros that virtually any starting hand with unpaired cards all 8 or lower is worth playing unless it’s been raised, where you should tighten up to a three-card seven or lower. (Insert your favorite Phil Hellmuth insult here, but it was the only strategy guide on Razz I had at hand.) But if you find yourself in early position with (5 7) 8 and see a lot of A and 2 door cards behind you, you might as well fold. It will probably cost a lot of money to see fourth street, and your opponents figure to have better starting hands than you. (Plus, you’re less likely to catch aces and deuces to help you, since they’re already out of the deck.)

I think any of you who devote a lot of thought to poker play will do well at Razz. Much of it is simple common sense. If I can cash in my first-ever tournament, you should all do very well.

Good luck and good hunting.

Posted by Mike as Poker at 3:18 PM PST

14 Comments »