Pat (12:30:08 PM): you playing poker today
Beck INCITE (12:30:21 PM): si senor
Beck INCITE (12:31:02 PM): played at foxwoods yesterday
Beck INCITE (12:31:07 PM): made 2 big calls
Pat (12:31:16 PM): do tell
Beck INCITE (12:32:06 PM): ok, i’m 3 off the button
Beck INCITE (12:32:24 PM): a weak-tight old man UTG limps, folds to me. mostly tight people behind me and i have pocket aces.
Beck INCITE (12:32:38 PM): i decide to raise light to get at least some action. raise to $10 (standard has been 12-17)
Beck INCITE (12:32:47 PM): one fold, cut-off and button both call
Beck INCITE (12:33:07 PM): cut-off is tight and straightforward. button is quite loose preflop but a solid post-flop player
Beck INCITE (12:33:11 PM): blinds and limper fold
Pat (12:33:44 PM): so old man folds
Beck INCITE (12:33:55 PM): right
Beck INCITE (12:34:07 PM): $35 in the pot (no rake at foxwoods, just time charge)
Beck INCITE (12:35:00 PM): flop comes 3-3-6 rainbow. i bet $25. CO calls, which is a bit scary, since he’s straightforward and i’ve pegged him as a folder. button folds. $85 in the pot
Pat (12:36:06 PM): he has 9-9 to j-j
Beck INCITE (12:36:18 PM): could be AK
Beck INCITE (12:36:28 PM): also, he’s shown a willingness to put in a little money with suited connectors preflop
Beck INCITE (12:36:36 PM): so 34s 45s 56s 67s
Beck INCITE (12:36:59 PM): and really, any pocket pair JJ or lower is possible
Beck INCITE (12:37:53 PM): turn is a ten, putting 2 clubs on the board
Beck INCITE (12:38:44 PM): I decide to check. that’s the most questionable action i take, as he hasn’t really given me a reason yet to think i’m behind. but i only have a pair at this point, and i dont think there are too many likely draws against me, so i’m either way ahead or way behind. here i’m trying to manipulate pot size to keep things reasonable
Pat (12:39:04 PM): you should have just folded
Pat (12:39:08 PM): not even checked
Beck INCITE (12:39:13 PM): lol
Beck INCITE (12:39:17 PM): CO thinks about it for a few seconds then bets $55. i make a pretty easy call
Pat (12:40:03 PM): so river you check.. he value bets.. you call.. he flips over full house?
Pat (12:40:17 PM): made it on the river… he knew it was coming
Beck INCITE (12:40:23 PM): river is an offsuit King. i check. opponent thinks. he bets $125 into the $195 pot
Beck INCITE (12:40:38 PM): which really really really smells like a value bet by someone who knows his opponent is strong and wants to get paid off
Beck INCITE (12:41:00 PM): so i decide to try to get him talking. which has worked very well for me in the past
Beck INCITE (12:41:05 PM): “you have sixes full?”
Beck INCITE (12:41:29 PM): he gave me a sympathetic smile and said simply, “I think I have the best hand.” his voice was even and not high pitched at all. very confident.
Pat (12:41:39 PM): so you move all in.. he thinks about for long time.. but calls and shows you 3’s buried for quads?
Beck INCITE (12:41:44 PM): at first, i was a bit shaken, but then i started to think about what he’d actually said. made me think he had a middle pair
Beck INCITE (12:42:01 PM): i decided to table my aces (legal at foxwoods when heads up) ["Table my aces" means turn them face up for all the world to see. --Beck]
Beck INCITE (12:42:06 PM): the whole table gets interested
Beck INCITE (12:42:17 PM): i’m wasting a lot of time at this point, but they dont seem to mind
Beck INCITE (12:42:28 PM): “you see why i have such a hard decision now?”
Beck INCITE (12:42:34 PM): he nodded again, but was no longer speaking
Beck INCITE (12:42:41 PM): 15 more seconds and i notice he has gone statuesque
Beck INCITE (12:42:52 PM): he’s petrified. i call. he mucks. i win.
Beck INCITE (12:43:06 PM): the table erupts. “Good call!”
Beck INCITE (12:43:31 PM): the emporer shows a thumbs-down. i deliver the mortal blow. crowd goes wild.
Pat (12:44:36 PM): you rock star
Beck INCITE (12:44:50 PM): i talked to him later. said he had a hand but knew i was stronger but thought it was the right moment to take away a pot. said he almost never bluffs, but when he does, he likes to go big. turns out even straight forward players can get out of line now and then
Pat (12:45:22 PM): prob 7-7 to 9-9 then
Beck INCITE (12:45:38 PM): yeah

Posted by Beck as Poker, Poker Strategy at 1:21 PM PST

1 Comment »

Whenever something outlandish or unlikely happens in an online poker game, someone inevitably feels the need to say something like, “Welcome to Poker Stars,” or, “Only on Full Tilt.” Well I just played the $100 daily tournament at Foxwoods, and had a run every bit as stupefying as anything I’ve ever endured online. I’ll put the moral of the story up front: weird, unlikely, crazy, unpredictable stuff happens all the time. Online. Live. You name it.

Or to put it another way: Live poker is rigged!

I started off well, picking up a few small pots. In the second level, with blinds at 50/100 (starting stacks 5000), I called a pre-flop raise with pocket 5s, flopped a set, and took half of the pre-flop raisers stack. It would have been more, but I hadn’t realized just how strong he was: he had pocket aces. The very next hand, the same player raises, and I call with pocket 9s. There’s not much action, but the pre-flop raiser pushes all-in on the river. I read him as being pretty weak and called with my unimproved 9’s. He had pocket aces again. After the hand he actually asked, “Did I do a good job of faking being weak?” He had done a terrific job. He didn’t act weak, he just seemed weak. The nervous swallow finally sold me.

Times running into aces: 2
Times cracking aces: 1
Times running into back-to-back aces: 1

The next level, with blinds of 100/200, I open raise to 600 with pocket jacks. The player to my left re-raises to 1500, it folds to me, and I have a decision to make. The raiser has put half his stack in. Ordinarily I’m going to slow down here, but a little while ago, he had re-re-raised all-in from the button with pocket 7s, so I have to put him on a pretty wide range here. I decide to push. He calls. He has pocket aces and they hold up, leaving me with only 650 chips. The very next hand, I look down to see Qs Js and with an M barely over 2, I push all-in. The player to my left calls. He has pocket aces again. The flop is 5s 6s Ad. The turn is a brick, but the river is a spade, and I double up to stay alive.

Times running into aces: 4
Times cracking aces: 2
Times running into back-to-back aces: 2

And that’s in less than an hour.

An orbit later, with 100/200/25 blinds, on the big blind, one limper, small blind calls, and I get a strong feeling from the first limper that 1) he’s aware I might push here, and 2) he’s prepared to call. I look down at pocket 7s, push, and he calls (SB folds). He had pocket 6s and I double up.

We go off to the break, come back to 200/400/50 blinds, I’m again in the big blind. It folds to the weak player in the cut-off who limps, the small blind calls, and I push all in with 3000 chips. There’s 1700 in the pot to be won, and I think my opponents are weak. They are. But the cut-off calls. With A9 off suit. He calls all-in, in fact, leaving me with about 700 chips. I have 69 off suit. The flop comes 3-6-9 giving me a miraculous two-pair. The turn is an ace, giving my opponent a miraculous better two pair. I am crippled.

The next hand, on the small blind, one player raises, another goes all-in, and a third calls. I look down to see J4 off suit, and sadly fold, despite the chance to nearly quintuple up. I think there’s just no way I have enough equity to call here. The three players in the hand hold AT, AQ, and AK, the board comes all low, and I would have won with a pair of fours. The next hand after that, a player with only 150 chips left (AQ from the previous hand) calls all-in for less than the BB, the cut-off calls, I call all-in for 350 chips from the button with A5s, the small blind calls, the button checks. There wasn’t any action until the river when the cut-off bet a weak 500, the small blind raised to 1000, the cut-off went all-in, and the small blind called. The SB had pocket 7s for 7s full. The cut-off had pocket 9s for 9s full. He also had the most chips to start the hand, and in a single hand, eliminated three players at once.

So don’t tell me that live play can’t be every bit as ludicrous as online.

Posted by Beck as Poker, Tournament Poker at 11:43 PM PST

3 Comments »

From an online $1/$2 NLHE game, the BB seems like a weak player, the cut-off is new to the table, as is the UTG player who posted to be dealt in immediately.

UTG checked his option, I limped from MP with pocket deuces, the cut-off limps, SB completes, and then the BB spoils the party by raising to $10. UTG folds, I call, the cut-off calls, and the SB folds. $34 in the pot.

Flop: 6 4 3 rainbow

The BB bet out $10, which screamed weak, scared bet to me. I decided to just call, see what the cut-off did, and take the pot away on the turn. Then the cut-off went all-in for $11.05. I’d made a mistake by not noticing until that point that the cut-off was very short stacked. Not much I could do at this point, and both I and the BB called the $1.05 extra. ~$65 in the pot

Turn: K

The turn was a card that could have improved a lot of the big blind’s hands. I needn’t have worried, however, as he checked. While I couldn’t take the pot without a showdown, I could at least increase my chances of winning by knocking out the BB, and I confidently bet $35 into the $65 pot; the BB confirmed my read by folding promptly. Then up went the cards, and I discovered I was in better shape than I imagined.

The cut-off was holding Ace-five offsuit for an OESD and one overcard. Better yet, I was holding two of his outs, and while a five would improve his hand, it would give me a straight.

The river was a 5, and I scooped the pot with a 6 high straight.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 3:45 PM PST

3 Comments »

I love to check-raise. I just can’t help myself. I think it correlates to how much I hate playing hands out of position. If I’ve committed the money to play a hand out of position, it’s only because I want to make substantially more money than I’m putting at risk pre-flop, and the way to get that money is to check-raise. Check-raising is fun. It’s scary. It puts your opponent to a tough decision. Tougher than if you simply bet into him. Bet into a player and all he has to do is call & wait to see what transpires on the turn. When you check-raise, your opponent has to fear that the remainder of your chips will soon be flying into the middle of the pot. It’s such a declaration of strength.

I hate getting check-raised. Of course, it happens. If I raise pre-flop, I will bet the flop damn near 90% of the time. So I’m setting myself up to get check-raised. It doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, I have to really re-evaluate my hand. If I have a strong draw and the implied odds are there, I can call and take one off. After all, calling a check-raise in position is a pretty scary move too. It declares to the raiser, “I wasn’t fucking around with that bet buddy.”

But mostly, I love check-raising because of the look on the face of the check-raised. I love that look. That probably suggests some rather unpleasant things about my personality. But it definitely qualifies me to be a poker player.

I love the smell of check-raise in the morning… smells like… victory.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 7:13 PM PST

2 Comments »

Some randomly chosen interesting hands from a good weekend playing NLHE at the Borgata:

Out of the big blind, I call a small late position raise with pocket 5s as do 3 other people. Flop comes all clubs with the 5, giving me middle set. It checks around to the pre-flop raiser who bets about 80% of the pot. I raise big. Everyone folds, and after a lot of thought, the pre-flop raiser goes all-in for about 50% more than what I’d raised to. I call. He has AJo with the ace of clubs. Club on the turn and I lose the 71-29 shot.

It’s always hard playing on three suited boards. My standard procedure is to assume that no one has a made flush yet, but that several people are drawing to them. I play my made hands very fast, occasionally to my detriment. In this case, I was a big favorite, and in the long run will make good money here. It just didn’t work out this time. Incidentally, even if my opponent already had a made flush, I was getting the right price to call the all-in and draw at a full house.

Next hand: seven people limp in, including the button, who seems to be playing in a casino for his first time ever and who tends to underplay his hands. I call from the small blind with Q3o and the big blind checks. The flop is 3 3 7 with two diamonds. I had checked in the dark (a move I’m quite fond of from the small blind against large fields of limpers). The UTG player, who bets any pair and any draw, bets the pot. It folds to the button, who min raises. I check-raise big, UTG folds, and the button goes in for a small amount more. I have to call, asking him as I do, “You have me out kicked?” He shows A3s and takes down the pot.

Once the button raised, it was safe to put him on a 3. The question is whether he has me out kicked. I think over half the time I’m ahead here, and that my raise is defensible, especially if UTG was betting a flush draw. Still, you can argue a number of different ways to play it. Thoughts?

Final hand: I had a very tight table image at this point, as much because I’d been card dead as for any other reason. But an image is an image. It folds to a tight-aggressive player with high pre-flop raising standards who made a decent sized opening raise. A loose player who makes good reads but often pays too much to see the flop–and sees far too many flops–called. The button called, and from the small blind I see QJo. Ordinarily I muck here–I don’t want to pay a lot of money to see a flop with a likely dominated hand out of position. This time I decide it’s time to make a play, so I call. The flop is T65 rainbow. I had checked dark (again), the TA player bet about three quarters of the pot, and the loose player, after some thought and a few random comments finally folded. The button quickly folded, and I check-raised slightly just under pot. TA thought about it, but not for too long, and folded.

There isn’t that much that’s special about this bluff. It’s just a case of leveraging my table image against a tight, thinking player. What was most interesting was some commentary between TA and the loose player next to him.

Loose: What?! You folded?! I should have come after you. [This all in friendly, joking fashion.]
Tight: Hell, I wasn’t worried about you. I had a hand, I know I had YOU beat. It was HIM [pointing at me] that I was losing to!

A good bluff should tell a story, and evidently, mine was telling the right one.

Posted by Beck as Poker, Poker Strategy at 5:28 PM PST

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Sometimes I’m in the mood for poker, but not, for whatever reason, for my money game–good old fashioned no-limit hold’em. Maybe I’m burned out on NLHE. Maybe I’ve hit my stop loss for the day. Maybe I’ve been drinking and have the common sense not to play for more than pennies. Maybe I just need a change of pace.

Whatever the reason, a favorite thing of mine is to sit down at the lowest stakes H.O.R.S.E. table offered (.25/.50 on FT, .50/$1 on Stars) and donk around there for a while. The thing is though, I’m very much playing to win. I’m not just raising at random and tilting the table. Even if I’m in a vodka addled fog, I’m still trying to win it. And I think it’s a great way to flex your poker muscles.

Hold’em can quickly become very routinized, and thus, uninteresting, after you’ve played enough hands. There are still poker fundamentals to think about though–things which apply across all forms of poker–and taking some time out to exercise and apply those fundamentals in unfamiliar territory is great for your poker I.Q. Myself, I know very little about Razz (I hear pairs are bad), Stud (I hear pairs are good), or Stud/8 (I hear… ummm… uhhh… I got nuthin’). Still, I flatter myself that I can outplay the people I typically encounter at those low stakes tables. Still, it’s much more of a challenge than beating the equivalent staked hold’em game would be. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s fun.

Finally, you can all thank me later for overcoming the incredible temptation to title this post “Horsing Around.” ‘Twasn’t easy.

Posted by Beck as Poker at 12:16 AM PST

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