lakeoffire says

Great report! I agree with you on the AK hand. Sorry to hear you ended up negative for the trip, but your reads seem pretty good. Keep it up.

06/04/07

EdmondDantes says

Nice post! Next time you're up against the guy with the hand tells, I think you should be more confrontational. "Hey, quit picking your nose when you have a good hand!" should do the trick and really make for a lively session. That 1-outer to rain on the trip was a bummer, though. On the plus side, the next 40 or so times you're in that position, you'll be scooping the pot. Trust the math!

Edmond

06/05/07

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I went to play cards at my favorite location this weekend, the Horseshoe- Bossier City. I actually rented a room this time and was able to play some shorter sessions. I really like staying at the place where you are playing because it is so convenient to take a break. The hotel room was awesome, though I did get a smoking room instead of a non-smoking room.

The poker room was up to its usual high standards. They created a new $1/2 NL table for us when we got there around 7pm and soon enough the entire poker room was schooling with fish. The table this trip was much softer than the previous trip and a lot more talkative which makes playing that much more fun.

The only two big pairs that I had all weekend came semi-early. I had 9-9 and K-K, both of which won uncontested with my continuation bets. I know 9-9 isn’t a big pair, but when it is the 2nd biggest pair that you have all weekend is 9-9, you can call it a big pair.

I put in an image play early to try to break up the image that my card deadness was building. I raised 10s-9s UTG to $6, which didn’t deter anyone from calling. I think the hand was checked down and I flipped over a 9 at the showdown for a pair of nines for a losing hand.

Playing AK, especially from the blinds, is a very slippery slope. I see people taking it to the river unimproved all the time and losing their whole stacks with Ace high at the showdown. I play AK from the blinds in a very simple way, if it is limped around to me, I make a big enough raise that no one wants to play with me unless they have a very premium hand which they have slow-played. If they reraise my bet, I can get away from my hand pretty easily, since AK doesn’t play well into a 3-bet pot in cash games. In tournaments, it plays very differently, but in cash games, AK is usually behind to a 3-bet pf. I played one hand in just this manner and sure enough won the limps uncontested.

Up until this point I have just broken-even as all of the pots that I have won have been small ones. Then comes the tricky stuff that either makes you or breaks you. A LAG raised it up to $7 pf from UTG and I elected to call in MP with 6s-5s. A few more players called the smallish pfr and we saw a flop of Ks-Qs-5h. The raiser led out for the standard $10 flop bet and I of course call with my flush draw plus bottom pair. I might could have raised here, but I had a lot of people left to act behind me and I wanted good odds on my draw as well as information on what everyone else was going to do. Only the player to my immediate left called and the pot was good. The turn was a beautiful Js to complete my flush draw and once again the raiser bet out again, this time for $20. Something about his bet seemed strong and I still had another player to act behind me who has acted like he was on a draw so far. I elected just to call and see what the player behind me was going to do. Something smelled fishy about this hand and I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I’m not laying down a flush with this action and a non-paired board. The guy to my left, Jerry was his name, also called which really started to make me nervous. The river was actually a bad card for my hand as it made my flush much weaker. One of the two remaining 5’s fell off on the river and I now had to worry about full houses out there besides bigger flushes. Once again the pfr’r led out again, this time for $40. With the paired board and the gnawing feeling in my gut, I just called the $40 and held my breath as Jerry contemplated his action. I was very relieved when he just called. The UTG raiser turned over A-10o for a broadway straight, (I knew he had a little something) and Jerry turned over AK for two pair, Kings and Fives. I took down my first big pot of the night and was now playing with the houses money!

Not too much later I caught an auto-play hand, which worked out great from the SB. I love to check blind on the flop from the SB with all kinds of hands and situations as it conceals the strength of a slow-play when you flop a monster hand. It was once again a limped pot and I had 8s-4s in the SB, I completed for $1 and Jerry checked. I checked blind as the dealer was preparing the flop, and oh what a flop it was. K-8-8 and Jerry immediately pushed all in for $37. The other 3 players in the hand folded out to me and I insta-called Jerry’s push. He turned over Kx and I had him drawing to 2 outs. This wasn’t a big pot, but it does illustrate the value and uses of checking blind into the flop.

As my game has improved, I’m starting to play more hands from good position. In the past I have always folded A-9o and other similar hands because it is just so hard to figure out where you are at after the flop when an ace hits. It’s a little easier when 2 aces hit the flop because there is only 1 other ace out and high cards may fall on the turn and river to counterfeit any kicker trouble that you may be in. Also, if the board pairs then you are likely splitting the pot with the other Ace or you are taking the whole thing down yourself uncontested. If you are fortunate enough to hit your kicker, you are usually good.

One man had already left the table once due to a case of the busts and had just sat back down to try it again. It was another limped pot and the flop was A-A-Qr with me holding an A-9o in the CO. Mr. Busto led the flop for $10, which I was happy to smooth call behind 1 other player. I’m not sure if anyone else called, because I knew where the other ace was based on the way that Mr. Busto had bet his hand and reacted to the flop. The turn was a beautiful 9, which put me at ease about my hand being goot. Sure enough, Mr. Busto leads the turn for $20 and I value raise him to $50 even. He, of course, calls with his Ace and we’re heads up. The river was an 8 and Mr. Busto pushed all in on me, I called with out even counting the chips out and flipped my hand over to send him to the Busto stop for the 2nd time that night. I think that I netted about $150 on that hand and was now toting a >$500 stack.

I talked my buddy, BJJIII, into getting some money off the table because his stack was bigger than mine and he had quite a big swing to get there. You definitely need to read his session review if you want to hear about playing big pairs and flopping dozens of sets. We also wanted to look the El Dorado room over that was just across the bridge and this looked like a good stopping point to do it. I’m going to do a card room review of it, but I’ll say one thing about it right now, “It ain’t the Horseshoe-Bossier!”

I counted out a $315 profit for our 4 hours at the Shoe and we headed over to the El Dorado.
The tables seemed pretty soft at the El Dorado, but you definitely had to make a hand to win any money. I ended up flopping TPTK one time to split a pot with a short-stack, but other than that, there were no hands to talk about from the El Dorado. We only played for about an hour on the west bank of the Red River, and I dropped $40 in the process.

We headed back to the home turf of the Shoe and the table that we had left bare was now teaming with fish and had 2 new huge stacks harvesting a profit off its felt. The poker room manager tried to seat us at a different table, but with one look at the line up on that table, I didn’t even sit down to join the grind. I walked back over to our original table and fortunately a seat opened up just as I did. So, lickety split, I grab my chips and hopped back over into the softest seat in the room. I quickly opened with 3-3 from MP1 and took it down with a continuation bet, then tried it again w/ 5-5 and didn’t get any respect. The duo netted me $15, so I was happy with the results.

I had a very interesting fellow on my right, who I found out had been playing poker professionally for 3 years. He was disabled and in a powered wheelchair, which was a great cover for him, because his mind was as sharp as a razor blade. He was abusing these fish left and right and had built his stack up to $800 or so. He’d only been there 2 hours; in fact, he had just sat down when we were getting up to leave for the El Dorado. I don’t know if I should be upset at myself for taking my profit and running before these fish started spewing their monies or if I should be glad that I missed that guys onslaught. It could go either way I guess, but we made the safe play by cashing in a good profit, I’m never mad about that.

There was nothing very eventful that happened at that table, and when the other big stack at the table left along with a few others, we decided that it was time to shut it down for the night. I really hated to see that lady leave too; she was a big over-bettor and didn’t seem to have much game. I ended up losing $70 in that two-hour span, but was still hanging onto a $200 profit for the trip.

We took a six-hour sleep break and woke up to go at it again.

I started off on the wrong foot early, but was reading players well and playing well, I just made 1 big wrong decision and one case of bad variance. Early on I had picked out whom I wanted to play hands against. I knew the action players and was ready to do battle. I picked up Ac-7c in the BB and checked my option in a limped pot. The flop was a lovely Jc-6s-3c and I led into the field with the standard flop bet of $10. I made this bet because I knew it would get called by a lot of the loose players who wouldn’t have much of anything and I wanted to get some money into the pot before my flush hit and my action dried up. Sure enough, I get called in 2 places and by one of the players that I really want to play a hand against. The river was the As and I doubled my bet with my newly improved hand. The loose player calls and luckily the table big stack folded. The river was the 8s and I am all out of cards on my nut flush draw. Common wisdom says to check-call the river here trying to induce a bluff and also trying to keep the pot small with a one pair hand. I felt like I was good here since my Ace hit on the turn and my hand would be concealed, so I bet out $25 into the $80 pot as a blocking/value bet. The villain surprised me and raised the bet to $100. This screamed bluff to me but it was a very big bet to call as a bluff buster. I was getting ready to lay my hand down but I started paying attention to the demeanor of the villain. He had his hand covering his mouth and was from time to time rubbing his nose with his pointer finger. Joe Navarro calls this a pacifying gesture and this confirmed in my head that the villain was bluffing, so I reluctantly called. To my chagrined, the villain turned over the 9s-4s for the runner-runner flush. BBUUUIICCCKKK!!!

Later, I watched the villain once again rub his nose while covering his mouth and sure enough he turned over flopped trips, too bad the big stack on my right had flopped a boat. He used the pacifying gesture as a tell of strength instead of a tell of weakness, this was good information as I was able to take him for a ride on the value bus a few rounds later.

The table had degenerated into a pissing contest between the (Doctor), the villain in the previous hand, and the big stack on my right. Both men were of Arabic decent and appeared very well educated, but the Dr’s raises and reraises meant nothing. The big stack was simply bullying him around and he didn’t like it at all. The game was now $1-2-5-10 and lots of money was changing hands. I took the good doctor for a ride on the value bus w/ A-Jo, but unfortunately I tripped up on the river with another Ace that caused him to fold without paying me off. I needled him a bit because he had a big mouth and was talking much smack and I told him that I had just bluffed him off his hand. “You should have seen your face when that Ace hit!” and boy was he steaming!

I won a $40 pot off the doctor w/ J-10o on the flop on another $1-2-5-10 hand. It came a safe J-4-4 flop and I bet $25 to take it down uncontested.

I was sitting on a stack that left me even for the trip when this hand came up. I had A-Ko and had been card dead all morning, so my pre-flop raises were nearly extinct. The good doctor had been gone an hour or so and a group of locals who played in home games together had filled in the empty seats. I could tell that they were generally tight and straightforward, so mostly I would avoid them except with a big hand. There were 2 limpers ahead of me and I bumped it to $15. One of the locals called me from the SB and the two limpers folded. The flop was Ax-5h-4h and the old man led into me for $15. I really didn’t put him on a set, but thought that a flush draw or a smaller Ace was possible. As far as physical tells go, I got nothing from him when the flop hit. The Arabic man on my right said to me, “You better be glad that you didn’t let me see that flop, I’d have kicked your @$$ with it.” This sounded like 2 pair to me or a flush draw because he played his draws very aggressively. So that seemed to strengthen my read by discounting some of the flush outs and set possibilities. I raised $25 more on top of the donk bet, feeling like I was milking the old man a little. He thought for a minute and I hoped he would just fold, but he came over the top of me for $100 more. I have learned that all tricky-old men are capable of this play with virtually anything, it is just a good spot to raise because the person in my position can’t make the call with a top pair only hand. The player in my spot has to be a good player and very capable of laying down a hand for this play to work. I am very capable of laying down a hand and they of course pull this play on me all of the time.

Back to the action, I still didn’t put him on much though I didn’t have much information on him since he hadn’t played very many hands. I really thought he had AK like me or he had AQ and was drawing slim. And as much as I hate to call people when they’re on flush draws, I knew this was a spot that I would have to do it here. I rechecked my cards for a heart, and there was none. Mustering up my courage, I pushed $140 into the pot and declared that I was all in. He had to call the last $40 as a matter of principle. We both held our cards tight as the dealer turned over a 4 on the turn and a Jack on the river. That jack stabbed me as soon as it hit, I knew it was a kill card. The old man flipped over his A-Jo and I threw my AK face up into the muck to let everyone see how good of a play I had made and how unlucky I had been. Two people at the table announced that they had folded a Jack, what a crappy draw to lose to a one outer. It was still the right play that left me as a 96% favorite, he did have 3 tying outs, but I’ll take 80%-4%-16% every day of the week and put it all into the middle.

So, final tally of this weekends trip: Loser ($196.00) BOOOOO!!

I feel like I played well and was reading well, but sometimes you can’t help how the cards fall. Eli Elezra has said it best; “In poker you can only make the best decisions you can and let the cards take care of themselves, while understanding that the cards do not always take care of you.”

I’d also like to throw a shout out to Jerry who I played with on Friday night. He’s a member of the USAF and was in town for a brief period of time. I’d like to say that I really appreciate what you and all of the members of our armed forces are doing, you guys are really loved and appreciated as you protect our rights on whatever battlefield you are on.