13 October 2009

The Demise Of Poker – Greed

We all know how to play certain hands in particular position against different opponents, yet some times for some unknown reason (soon to be explained) we don’t. I’m not preaching on some soap box from afar as the finger is also pointing at me!
Let me set the scene...
I'm in a tournament over an hour into it with well over the average stack. I'm in the BB and have a very tight and aggressive image I also have QQ. The fellow to my left (UTG) limps into the pot (100/200 blinds) he has been limping into and calling small raises in about 75% of all the pot since the beginning then he is followed by two folds and a raise to 800 (AQd) the action folds back round to me and I re-raise to 2800 UTG folds original raiser dwells, counts his chips and decides to go all in for an additional 4975 (this player has raised a few times before in this tourney and has shown good hands but not great hands so I elect to call) leaving myself with just under 4000. Of course he spikes an Ace and takes the pot – standard. I don’t consider myself on tilt as I am happy that I got the Neanderthal to put his balls on the table only to discover that mine were bigger and being held by the lovely ladies Judith and Argine, the Queens of Hearts and Clubs. Anyway half an hour passes by and I have manages to double through when I find myself staring down at Charles and Cesar The two red kings – Cesar is the one with a knife in his back – and then it hits me I feel like I am owed a lot of chips where the ladies have let me down the men will surely stand and be counted so it is time to get greedy, the table has had a raiser neigh on every hand for the last round so I decide to limp expecting a raise. We end up going 3 handed to see the flop me the BB and the Button as there was no raise. The flop decides to give me a flash back to the two ladies which earlier fail to help me along with a suited deuce (QhQd2d) BB checks I figure I have to check as I need to see if the Button has a Q and if he does then he’ll surely raise to push out the flush draws. so the flop ended up being checked, the turn brought a blank (7c) BB checks so I decide to bet (1400 in the pot) and I bet 1800 Button folds and BB re-raises because of the double check with the flush draw present I do not believe he has the Q and I re raise All in only to hear an instant call and Q8os shown leaving me drawing to 2 outs, standard. All I can do is congratulate the player for his well timely check and head back home giving myself a telling off for getting too greedy – if I had pushed preflop then I would still be in but I got greedy

08 October 2009

Baby Needs A New Pair Of Shoes

Tonight I got invited to a new potentially regular poker game. The room is no bigger than a prison cell and we still manage to squeeze two tables in so 18 players could play.
It is a £10+3 freezeout with a starting stack of 4000. 15min blind levels with the "option to re-register" (including vig) within the 1st hour thus allowing the organisers to gain maximum profit! Hosted by the next roulette nation girl or so I'm told.
Ok not perfect but as long as you have a good run of cards and are playing against reasonably competent opponents then you have more hope of lasting longer than a chocolate fire guard. Unfortunately tonight was not the case;
In the forces they have an expression "red arse" meaning to be so new that their bottom is still red from when their mother smacked them as a child. Tonight I was on a table full of red arse's the only problem with playing players who have absolutely no Idea is that they have no idea. When in such circumstances there rules which I believe you must follow in order to survive:

1. Never bluff
2. Never bluff
3. Value bet at every opportunity
Now, following these rules, I stack my chips off to 94os and J7c respectfully. I rebuy and then lose my entire stack as I move all in with AKs having two pair and get called by A 10 who hits a runner runner for a flush.

I would like to remind you of what I wrote in my first blog entry...

“Perfect poker play is; knowing what everyone else has and playing accordingly”

My question to you now is can you play perfect poker against players when they don’t even know what they’ve got. How are you supposed to know if they don’t? If you can’t then should you go to such evenings, upon reviewing tonight I feel that if I were to venture to another night out like tonight then I will not be able to play properly so why put myself into situation where I might as well be rolling dice hopping to get lucky.