Saved by the river

Like a lot of poker players, I think I fall prey to the idea that the luck always bounces the way of the other player.  That it's always my aces getting cracked by the donk who calls with 6/8 and catches two pair.  But the truth of the matter is, of course, that while streaks can happen, they are purely random, and "luck" in the form of catching winners on the river doesn't always happen to my opponent.  Sometimes, it happens for me.

I'm sitting in a tourney right now, the 1 p.m. 5.50 (15K guaranteed) on PokerStars.  One of my favorites, actually, because the blinds don't increase too fast, and of course the pay-off for advancing deep is nice compared to the buy in (first place today is almost $3370).   I'm only still in this thing because I, too, have been a benefactor of luck.  For instance...

5th level (75/150 blinds), and I'm already relatively short (about 1600).  I catch AKs on the button.  Early middle position raises to 500, the guy right next to him calls, everyone folds to me.  I have to put one of them on a pair at least, possibly a big one (from the first raiser - since the caller didn't reraise, I don't have him on a premium pair), but there's a lot of money in the pot relative to my stack, and AKs is a good hand.  Expecting that both will call, I push, and both do call (putting one of them all in as well).  The hands turn over to reveal QJs from the first raiser (I wouldn't raise with it from that position, and I was grateful not to see AA-QQs) and 99 from the caller.  Flop is Kxx, but the two smaller cards are both clubs, the suit of Mr. QJ.  I'm dismayed when the K of clubs hit the turn, giving me trips but the other guy a K high flush.  But the river brought an ace, giving me Ks full, and I live to fight some more.

Much later now, I call an all in for about half my stack (9th level, I think), he turns over AJo to my 99.  A jack hits the flop, and I'm mentally grousing about being reduced to all in or fold mode, but a 9 hit the river to give me 9s full of Ks (K on the flop and turn).

Finally, on level 13 (600/1200, 125 antes, I have about 16K), I'm again looking at an M of under 10 and I catch QJs in the big blind.  There's a minraise from the cutoff, both the small blind and myself call.  The flop is A/Q/x (nothing in my suit), and when the small blind checks I bet 5000.  He raises me all in, and I call, hoping that he was bluffing the ace to pressure a short stack to fold (something I try occasionally).  Sadly, I was wrong, but a J on the river gave me two pair.

Of these hands, I only regret the way I played the last one (I considered shoving preflop, which I prefer now to the semi-bluff on the flop).  The others were just decent cards and luck.  I think it's important to remember that luck happens for me, too.  

For example, not one minute ago I caught AKo to a short stacks AQs, and my hand held up.  Statistically, it's supposed to, but surviving these scenarios is crucial to getting deep into tourneys.  Like earlier, when I got my first (and only pair, so far) of aces and got pushed on by 77s, who failed to improve.  I haven't gotten as many premium pocket pairs this tourney so far (only once each with the big three, although I have had AK at least 3 times, and AQ a couple more), but I think I'm making decent decisions so far, and getting the bounces when I need them.

Well, I ended up out in 146th place (out of 5265 entries) when my pocket fives ran into aces.  I'm up for the day, anyway, and that's always nice, and I think I played pretty well.  Best of luck to one and all, and I'll see you at the tables.

SGT RJ

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Hangin' in there

I definitely had a better weekend this time around - I'm back on the plus side of the column for my online poker career after a 2nd place finish in a 20 table, 4.40 SNG tourny. And as much as I like to bitch about bad beats (for instance, dealt pocket rockets, I got called on my preflop 4BB raise by two people; the flop is T/8/x rainbow, first guy bets 350 into a 600 dollar flop, other guy folds, I raise to 800, he calls; turn is a 9, and since the straight draw is now much more likely and because my remaining stack is only about 65% of the pot, I push; he calls and turns over...T/9 offsuit, for two pair - you cannot make this shit up), I know that luck is a factor. And I also know (and my boyfriend loves to remind me) that while it FEELS like the luck always bounces against me, sometimes it saves my hide.

The fact that I even made final table at this tourny was relatively impressive. I was down early and managed to scrape and claw my way back. Nothing luckier than surviving a couple of coin tosses, but even that is luck. I was always near the bottom of the stacks, but people kept busting out ahead of me, until I found myself in the final three with the short stack.

The big stack was, for lack of a better description, a confusing player. He was routinely raising odd amounts, then immediately folding to a reraise. I ended up in a pot with him holding K/6 offsuit. The flop was pretty junky, Q/x/x rainbow with no straight draws, so when this guy bet, I decided to push. Not because I had a great hand, of course, but since he had been raising and folding so much in previous hands, and because I know most flops miss most hands, I thought this would be a good steal opportunity. Bad read, because he turned over Q/x for top pair, and had me more than covered chip wise. I laughed and shrugged, ready to appreciate my better than expected finish, when runner runner 6s hit the turn and river to give a highly improbable set.

Heads up was odd with this guy, and I was ahead at one point, but I ended up crippled when he caught a small pocket pair the same hand I landed A/Q suited and failed to improve. Still, I think the lesson here is to try to focus on those times when you do get lucky (even if that luck is surviving a coin toss) instead of constantly focusing on the improbable beats delivered by the donks who don't know to fold top pair, weak kicker and end up getting lucky on the turn or river.

Anyway, I'll be able to play live in a couple weeks (AC, but only a day trip so it will probably be ring game). Good luck, and I'll see you at the tables.

SGT RJ

Hard times

I actually reached a point this weekend where I felt like I really hated this game. It seemed like I could not catch a break. On Saturday, I ended up calling with small to large pocket pair on five separate occasions against a short stack that pushed. On all of those occasions, the short stack turned over a smaller pocket pair - 9s vs. 8s, 8s vs. 7s, Qs vs 8s, 9s vs. 4s, and another I can recall. On FOUR of the five times, the lower pair flopped their set to win the pot. Now, I know sets happen. About 1 out of every 8 times, which is 12.5%. Not 80%. Couldn't catch a straight or a flush (unless I had already folded of course), close to bone dry on big pocket pairs and A/K or A/Q combinations. When I got busted out of another tournament (again) holding pocket jacks to A/To when the board came A/K/J/A/K (and yes, that was the order, so I filled out my full house before he did and got counterfeited on the river), I was seriously on tilt.

Oddly enough, I actually did okay on my last tournament of the day (9th out of 180), but I don't think I have ever been that frustrated by this game. I know, the bad beats and bad runs happen. I guess it just seems like it happened at a time when I thought I was improving, and now I'm doubting that pretty seriously. I'm rereading (or listening, actually, since I have it on audiobook) to Gordon's Little Green Book, so I am feeling a little calmer, but I actually feel a small hint of dread about playing right now. When is my (technically) better play going to pay off with better results? Is there still a serious gap in my play I need to plug? For the record, I believe there are smaller holes that still need work, but I thought I was making solid advancement in my core skills, and this recent relatively dry spell is seriously sapping my confidence.

The best of luck, the worst of luck

Now that school is back in session (I'm a graduate student), the vast majority of my poker playing will be on weekends. While I've been keeping records of my tournament play for the past couple of weeks to try to get a handle on some patterns, I experienced two recent runs that I think will be positive learning experiences for me down the line.

The first was two weekends ago (the weekend after Christmas), when I ended up on a dry spell. No matter what tournament I played (all at micro or low stakes), I could not seem to catch a break. Small pair? Either someone raised a large amount and I was forced to throw away the hand preflop, or I would limp in and be forced to throw the hand away when the board brought nothing but high cards. Never filled out a straight or a flush if I'd been playing with proper odds to draw. Coin flips all seemed to break towards my opponent. I remember starting to get immensely frustrated, and in retrospect that would seem to argue strongly for taking a break, no? I won/placed in one or two small table SNGs, but overall a went dry for a solid two days, the first time that has ever happened to me. I've read it's all part of the game. Not a part I can say I enjoyed much.



Then, this past weekend, I ended up with the best hour of cards I can ever recall seeing. $5.50 large tournament, $15,000 prize pool guaranteed (actual prize pool - over $28,000). 3000 in chips to start, 15 minute levels with five minute breaks after each hour. In the first hour of play, I experienced the following: 9 sets of pairs preflop, including three times with pocket aces and one time with pocket kings. Twice with my aces I had someone push on me (both times post flop); the first the flop came Jxx, and my single opponent pushed with J/Q unsuited. The second time the flop was 884, and my single opponent pushed with pocket 6s. I didn't make anywhere near as much on any of my other pocket pairs (everyone folded to me preflop with my kings, one of my two sets of pocket 9s lost to A/Q, my other set of pocket nines flopped a full house with 9KK and my opponent folded the instant I bet the turn), but between those two huge hands, my good reads and good cards, and my ability to keep my losses when they occur ed to a relative minimum, I had more than tripled my chips in the first hour. I was feeling really, really good about my chances to make a deep run. I was well over double the chip average, had no need to fear the blinds or take huge risks, and could use my position and chip stack to continue building. While I certainly didn't expect my rush of great cards to continue (or my good luck in not having my large pairs cracked), I was feeling confident.



Maybe too confident.



All that work and luck was completely undone by a single hand in the second hour. I'm holding J/9 suited in the BB, there was a single min raise a multiple limpers, meaning I had more than enough pot odds to put in the extra big blind with pretty much any two cards. The flop brought a J with no obvious straight or flush draws. I bet out (my tendency when I possibly, but not absolutely, have the best hand and I'm first or almost first to act - I'd like to buy the pot cheaply if no one else hit the flop, and will hopefully get some information based off of what subsequent people choose to do - call, fold, or raise) just under half the pot. I think 4 of the 7 people folded right then, with two callers. Flop brought another rag as far as I could tell, so I bet again (first to act now) more strongly now, about 3/4 of the current pot. Next person to act folded, final person left in the hand raised.



I don't really know what I was thinking at this point. I try to constantly remind myself not to overvalue top pair, especially with a weak kicker. As far as cards on the board went, if the other person didn't have a straight or a flush (neither of which was possible at this point, if I remember correctly), then only the other two jacks with better kickers, or a paired kicker, or a lower pair of pairs, or trips, could beat me. Still, that's a lot of possibilities, and my opponent was certainly telling me he had a good hand. He hadn't raised preflop (this person was not the minimum raiser), so I didn't put him on any of the premium pair or trip jacks. Still, if I had actually sat and thought, really thought rather than just blindly ride the wave of good fortune I had had up to that point, I think I would have folded at that point. Instead, I reraised, was reraised again all in, and like the donk I soon felt like I called. At which point my opponent turned over A/J, and all but just under $1000 of my chips was gone, just like that.



I managed to last until just after the second hour break - a couple of fortuitous all-in pushes that allowed me to double-up, a couple of all-in blind steals, but I ended up busting in 1407th place, well back off the money. I like to think I learned something from this (or relearned it as the case may be):



1. Top pair, weak kicker is a hand just asking for trouble. Optimally, I should have tried to keep that pot small, as my hand was relatively small. Even if the aggression by my opponent was a bluff with middle pair or top pair with an even weaker kicker, was it really worth my entire tournament to make that stand right there? Obviously, no. Small hand, small pot. I need to add that to my list of things to tell myself pretournament (something I had done with some success earlier, I might add).



2. Good fortune in a previous hand (or hands) has no bearing on the current hand. Just like all bad runs come to an end, so do all "rushes". Just because you are feeling lucky doesn't mean you are. I do believe that I let my optimistic outlook for my overall tournament prospects override my common sense on this hand.



3. One hand can make all previous work vanish. It usually takes many hands, and much patience, to build a chip stack (especially since my default style is pretty tight). Trying to focus and maintain that patience, while not losing all aggression or letting myself get pushed around, may be a tricky thing for me to balance.



Definitely a learning experience, and a harsh one, for this poker neophyte.



See you at the tables.



SGT RJ

The following is a slightly edited rewrite of a note I wrote the day after my best ever finish (monetarily) in an online tournament, which occurred on Sunday, December 14th, 2008.

So yesterday (Sunday) I decided to wait to bake cookies and do the dishes until after Ian got up; with all the banging around, I figured it was the least I could do. Plus, this gave me a built in excuse to do something quiet - play internet poker. I figured I would enter my last tournament around the 1 pm kick off of the Redskins game, which would be the earliest Ian would emerge from the bedroom, and take care of the random things I needed or wanted to do after I busted out of the tournament.

The best laid plans often do not go according to plan.

Eight hours later, I finally busted out of the tournament. It is telling of our relationship that this poker marathon didn't irritate Ian one little bit (or if it did, he certainly hid it well). Anyway, there were a couple of hands I felt were key. I almost busted quite early (well before places started getting paid, which started at 810th place) when I ended up all in with pocket 10s vs big slick (Ace/King). I was relatively short stacked, and so opted to push with this hand after a standard 3BB raise from the player UTG, and everyone folded around to the original raiser, who called. When both the flop and the turn produced a king, I figured I was toast, but when I spiked a 10 on the river I realized, after the chips had already been sent my way, that the resulting full house beat his trips. Catching that two outer allowed me to stay in and rebuild my chip stack.

In my next big hand, I ended up with A/Q in the big blind. UTG raised a standard amount, and everyone folded to me, and I called. I opted for the call here rather than a reraise because of the position of the raiser, wanting to play cautiously under what I assumed was a pretty strong hand; the big pairs down to Jacks, possibly A/K through A/J. In retrospect, I might have wanted to attempt to raise him off the hand; A/Q is a strong hand, but can be tricky to play post flop (as was the case here), and if he didn't have a premium pair I might have been able to scare him off. Still, I called, and the flop came Ace, Jack, Ten. I bet (around half the pot, I think), and he raised all-in. A scary decision, as Ace/King, Ace/Jack, Ace/Ten, or Js or Tens would have me beat (as would aces, but the odds of that, with one on the board and one in my hand, seemed minuscule). I had top pair, second best kicker, and a gut shot straight draw, but what could he have? Two pair or trips scared me, but I decided that his most likely holding was pocket Kings, rationalizing that if he (or she) had actually flopped either two pair or a set he'd bet lower to keep me around. I don't like this rationale as much now - while there were no flush draws that I recall, there was certainly a blindingly obvious straight draw, so someone with two pair or a set very well could opt to push to punish a possible draw. Still, I decided I wasn't beat, took a deep breath and clicked the call button, and was elated when he turned over Ace...9. This hand allowed me to start playing with a relatively large stack, which is definitely a good thing.

I ended up with enough chips to survive a long dry spell at one point. Otherwise, the next couple of hours seemed to be a steady progression of waves - I would peak, then lose a bit, then surge back with my next peak being higher than the last. I was helped a couple of times by short stacks that I called (with proper pot odds to do so) who didn't catch what they needed on the board (or I did). I was also helped immensely by a dream hand - small blind, and the antes were such that it was mathematically correct to call with just about any two cards, so I called with 5/3 suited and the big blind didn't raise, allowing me to see the flop cheaply. The flop - 3, 3, 3. Quads, and when I checked-called his flop raise, then check-called his turn raise all-in, I suddenly had a very healthy stack.

It was a pretty weird experience for me at that point. I've won online tournaments before, but only small ones. My best place in a largish tournament to that point was 3rd place in a 180 person tournament. I had never even gotten into the money in one of these giant tourneys before, and had never played with over 1 million in chips. The growing potential to actually win such a large tournament would seem, to me, to confirm that I have at least some vague idea of what I'm doing, poker wise. You do not win a tournament that size on blind luck alone. Alas, it was not to be. Down to two tables, and I'm in third or fourth place overall. The table is pretty tight, with most pots being won preflop or on a bet after the flop. I'm in the big blind with Q/8 offsuit, and the small blind, a pesky guy who has seemed to be catching cards against me since we ended up on this table, just completes the small blind. I decide that Q/8 is good enough to try to push him off, so I raise 3 times the big blind, and he calls. The flop - Q/9/8. Two pair, which is pretty close to a dream flop. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think the betting sequence went like this - he checked, I bet, he raised, I reraised all in, and he called with...Jack/Ten. This hand didn't bust me, as I had more chips than the other guy, but it did cripple my stack, as I lost around 1.75 million. I managed to hang around until the final table and was the first to bust from that group for 9th place and a payout of just under $200. I outlasted 5,571 other players, making final table when there were 620 tables to start.

A disappointing result, given how close I came to potentially making top three, or even winning, but not if you consider that I could have easily busted out of the money all together. Luck is a factor, and this was the one hand where the luck didn't break in my favor. It had in other hands, or I had missed flops in pots that couldn't cripple me. All in all, I thought I played very solid poker for a relative amateur. I obviously wished I had finished higher, and that I had gotten around to baking those Christmas cookies, but all in all it was a great learning experience if I'm serious about getting good at poker. And I think I am.

Introduction to a Poker Neophyte

Who am I?  I am, among many other things, a poker neophyte.  While I learned the very basics of poker when I was still a child (nothing beyond what hands beat what, which I usually needed reminding of every time us kids would play penny ante poker, a rarity in and of itself), I still knew next to nothing about the game when I would play low stakes games with other soldiers while I was in the Army.  These games were nothing fancy and hysterically played, with plenty of alcohol and some variations of the game (like "midnight baseball") that I've never seen before or since.  Poker at this level was just a fun way to pass the time, and occasionally earn a few bucks, but I knew nothing about starting hand requirements or pot odds.

Fast forward to this year, when I went to Vegas for the first time with my boyfriend.  We played only at the $1-2 tables, but I was hooked.  Looking back, it's amazing I only lost as much as I did, but I had a lot of fun with it, and starting thinking about how much fun it would be to go back, only with some actual skills.  This attraction to poker only deepened when I watched the final table of the 2008 WSOP Championship, and started reading some of the books my boyfriend has (including Harrington).  After we went to Atlantic City this fall and I improved on my results (I didn't go through my entire bankroll; in fact, I placed in the money in one tournament with 110 people to start), I decided that I'd like to improve my skills on a regular basis.  Since we live not particularly close to Vegas or AC (or any other place with legalized gambling), I turned to the internet.  

I've been playing online at Poker Stars for about two months now.  After an extremely rocky start ($1-2 tables online are NOT the same as $1-2 tables in a casino), I think I'm starting to make progress.  If that first disastrous day could be wiped out, I'd actually be ahead, but as it is I'm only slightly behind.  I've found the level that is generally comfortable for me ($3 and $5 dollar SNG tables) and seem to be competitive in pretty much every game I enter.  I also like entering some of the larger tournaments with small buy-ins ($5 to $11 dollars).  My best finish so far is 9th place in a $5.50 tournament that started with 5,280 people.  This, coupled with other finishes in the money or at least close to it, have led me to believe (erroneously?) that I may be developing some skill, and that with the proper patience, discipline, and luck, I could actually win one of these tournaments at some point in the foreseeable future.

The purpose of this blog is to have a forum to discuss my journey as I learn this incredibly complex game.  I'm still new enough to be making some pretty basic errors, and I hope that by putting things in writing I'll gain some insight into the areas I need to improve in most.  I welcome any and all people who stumble across this blog to post or e-mail their own interpretations of my plays.  

See you at the tables.

SGT RJ