More Poker ramblings and some lessons in hand reading...

Another one for my Poker friends: Did the $20 tournament @ Ebro on Saturday with John P. Sr; we talked strategy etc. on the drive up and one of the subjects was how hard it was to play (or at least profit) from pocket Aces in the first couple of rounds. You can't afford to let a bunch of people see the flop (AA is at least an 80% favorite against any other hand, but drops to 50% 3-way and 35% with 3 callers - 65% chance it WON'T win). Sure enough, I get AA the fifth hand (blinds 25/50). I am on the button and there have been some limpers ahead of me so I raise to 300. I get a caller from middle position and also from cutoff (1 player to my right). The cutoff player had been active but we had not seen him show down, so either he was loose aggressive, or he had been dealt some good hands earlier, but I was leaning LAG.

Flop comes 679 rainbow. It checks around to me and I bet 1200; both players call. I figure one of the 2 with A8suited or 88, and (since it was a cheap tournament) the other with overcards or an overpair (bigger than 9s). Because the board is pretty draw heavy, I did not put either of them on a set, although they could have been letting me bet their hand for them. The turn is a K, which probably hit some one calling with overcards. Check to me again, so I bet 2400 and get called by both of them. The river is a 10 (I get a little sick since any 8 just hit a straight). Middle position checks and the cutoff goes all-in. I replay the hand in my mind for about a minute looking for a reason to call with Top Pair, but had to go with my initial read and I folded. There is a saying that you should never put your tournament life on the line (especially early with a full table) with just top pair, because you are almost assuredly beat. Middle position practically snap-called, showing KK for a turned Set, and of course, the cutoff had J8 offsuit and won with the nut straight. I guess he felt he was priced in when middle position called.

I ran the numbers and assuming I raised from the button with a generous top 30% of hands, and the MP called with 15% (Gap principle - you need a much better hand to call than to raise), then his J8o was only about 22% equity. Sure enough with 850 in the pot, his 250 call was right about 4.3:1 or 23% pot odds. I guess I should have raised more, but it was fortunate that I did not, since the MP was not going anywhere with KK and I would have lost once the K came on the turn. As it was, I still had 1225 out of my initial 5000 (thank goodness I paid the dealer-toke of $5 for an extra 1500 in chips).

I got a little healthier when I pushed All-in the next hand with AQs and then had KK. I thought about raising normal and then going All-in if an A did not come on the flop, but decided to push all in and see if anyone would get tired of my action and decide to "fight-back" against my monster hand, because the action looked like I might have been on tilt from losing the AA hand.

Moral of the story is I did not give up. However, cards did not come I lost some close hands on the river and I wound up with 125 chips when the blinds were 100/200 with a 25 ante. I could not afford a full big blind and I was going to have to pay it next. I looked at my first card, it was the A of diamonds, so I knew I was going all-in and I did not look at the other one. There were 4 callers to my all in (really just 4 limpers, since I did not raise beyond the big blind). I flopped an A, and rivered and 8 as insurance, so I increased my stack 5 times. I doubled up several more times - mostly from the LAG player to my right (who cracked my aces) who kept calling my raises when it got back to him. I was always ahead when he called and the hands held up and I made it to the final table.

The real beauty of the story is that the LAG player was moved to my left when we re-drew for seats on the final table which set up the following hand. I was in the Big Blind with AKo, we were still a full table with 10 players - only top 5 would make the money payouts. The LAG was UTG+1 (second to act) and went all in with 66. It folded to me - by this time I had more chips than he did - and I snap called. I got a lovely K in the window (first card to be seen on the flop) which held up and I eliminated him in 10th place. I think I smiled for about 5 minutes straight, lol. The bubble eventually broke and I finished in the money in 5th ($54 for my $25 buy in) when I went all in UTG with 33 for 16000 with blinds at 2000/4000/300 ante and was called by the big blind who, I guess, felt he had to defend his 86o. A 6 came on the flop and I was out of there.

Blah

Brought home more from Biloxi than I bargained for, got my first cold in over 4 years.  My problem is that I thought it was just alergens kicked up by all the winds, so I did not do my usual pre-treat with zinc and xylitol.  Learning point, for sure...

Tournament Success!

Yesterday, I won a $1 rebuy + add-on ($1K guaranteed) "Dollar Frenzy" Turbo tournament on Aced (used to be Poker.Com/PDC) for 385.51 profit. I told myself that I would only buy once and let people "Billy" my stack up for me (Billy Winkle loves to push and rebuy). 3k initial stack for a dollar plus 30K add on for another dollar, after the rebuy rounds. Prize pool was $1938 all told, but I spent $2.10. Several times I recalled lessons from the Jonathan Little coaching that helped. Of course I still had to get lucky a couple of times, but hit the final table about 5 to 2 chip leader to my nearest stack. 3 hours 59 minutes to win it.

There were 554 players all told with late registrations, etc.; 959 rebuys; 425 addons.

B'ham

Trip report:  Stayed at Baytown Inn and Suites on Montgomery highway.  Adequate room, free breakfast and Wi-Fi.  About 17 minutes from Airport and absolutely no issue with traffic @ 0600 on a Sunday Morning.  Rented from Enterprise, a Chevy Sonic.  Adequate car, tight suspension (made I-65 feel like driving over a cheese grater.  Found a Sam's Club within 3 miles of the Hotel and filled up Saturday night.  Sam's is not 24/7 fuel.  Wound up paying 3.33 a gallon, which 4 cents less than the "fill it up" rate from Enterprise.

Got copies of Mary J. Hudspeth's probate documents but will need to analyse further if there is any help within.  They wre on Microfilm and the process was reasonably easy to get copies at a buck a page, but I recommend going at 0800 for the future if you want happy probate clerks (they were pretty slammed when I got there).

Also did Birmingham Library (very nice), Museum of Art (not the best but nice, with a great turkey sandwich in the cafe), Vulcan park and Museum, as well as the Southern Museum of Flight, which has some very good exhibits including some on the tuskegee airmen.  They also have on loan from Wright Pat/AF historical a TF-102A side by side trainer.

Biloxi Day 3

No cash in today's games, but paid for them with Video poker winnings. Overall, 6 tourneys played, all paid for with action from video Poker while waiting for them to start (plus some extras), won 2 out of six, was eliminated from the other ones ahead when I pushed 2 out of 4 times (there is no way the small blind should have AQ when I have A9s on the button, or the Big blind should have TT when I have AQs, lol). Every casino in Biloxi visited to "reactivate" my players club status from Treasure Bay to Margaritaville. Hard Rock said I wasn't going to have a view room for my comps, but I fooled them - the only view I cared about was being able to see my Mitsu in the Parking Garage when I got up! What a great trip!

Biloxi 2nd day report

It is after midnight, so this report will be dated the 7th, but for the 6th.  Did the noon tourney @IP again, this time without an overlay. Made it to the final table, but after break time, had less than 10 BB, so I pushed on the dealer button with A9s (diamonds) and bot the blinds woke up with hands, SB was AQs (spades) and BB was a pair of Jacks.  And George the dealer had even mentioned that he was a tournament killer - puts pair v. pair v. pair out there.  Anyway, I hit the flop with a 9, but the turn was a q and the river a blank, and the SB had both of us covered.  Almost any other time, A9s would be pretty strong vs the random Blind hands, but not this time

I then went to the Isle and did there Wednesday night tourney. I remembered it being a bounty tournament, but not a rebuy as well, although as we played it, it got more familiar.  I bought for one entry, hit a couple of hands early, but got felted when I drove 44 a bit to far.  Did a double re-buy up to 6Kt$, and then was moved to another table shortly after.  I finally put an ugly bad beat on someone (not really - it was still in rebuy time, but only a few minutes left, so I wanted to double the stack or be able to top off) when my open ended straight draw hit the river and knocked out top pair.  I did the add-on for another $25 = 6kt$ and we were off to the races when the real poker started.  Real early, the same guy I sucked out on limped in on the button with AK suited and I had A7s in the BB and checked, the flop came an A, I checked and he did a strange min bet.  I figured he might have felt he had kicker problems, but then again, I was the BB and should not have had an A if he had one, so I probably would have bet more.  A 7 came on the river, I bet about 2/3 pot and he went all in.  I had him covered (and thought he might be steaming anyway) so I called with aces up and a J on the river sent him packing.  Way too emotional - he had ranted and raved (silently by pacing around the poker room) after the beat and I knew eventually I could get him to commit to a bad bet sequence.  That was my first bounty, but not my last, I would up taking out 5 others.  I was even pot committed in the BB with 87o and called for just over a another BB to knock out AQo from an UTG AI.  Was the dominant chip lead when we got to 7, but I agreed to a chop, since I had quite a few bounties and I almost always will chop to kill the variance if everyone else agrees.  I probably could have counter offered with a hold out for the 7th place player to cover a buy in and add on, since I had enough chips to weather the action until another player was knocked out, since I usually will suggest a hold out for the bubble when we get down to that point in other tournaments.

Rolled into Biloxi @ 1130, just in time for the noon tourney At IP.  14 people, $70 buy in with a $2000 overlay from the casino.  Last one that they are going do without at least 30 entrants.  At the end there were 27 entrants which meant that the overlay raised the pot from  1350 to 2000.  4th place was an even 200.  When we got down to the final table, a vote was made to chop the pot 10 ways, so each of us would get 200 instead of only 4th and everyone agreed.  I was one of the lower stacks, so of course I said yes, but I always chop with a fair offer anyway.  We saved probably at least and hour more play for someone to get just to 4th place and make the same money and 6 people got to take home cash that they would not have, even if we have no idea who those 6 people would have been in the long run.

Finished 11th in the Beau 1800, ran AQs into TT in the BB who had me well covered and no help through the FTorR.