frustrating mookie night
i've been feeling better about my game lately, and slowly my confidence in late tournament play is building. i still make too many mistakes, and i don't slow down to think about everything i need to before making plays, but i'm getting there. that's why tonight was such a letdown.
i started in the mookie and 28k at the same time. both were uneventful until i went to click on a prior hand in the mookie, and somehow instead found myself calling an all in bet by a maniac at my 28k table. i watched him jam two previous pots, putting 2900 at risk to win 45. crazy. so what do i do? accidentally call him w/ 93 suited. ARGGGGGHHHHHH. he has TT and i lose (obv). a few hands later i pick up KK and raise a bunch of limpers, and same donk calls me w/ ATo and i double through. i have no doubt that if i had my full chip stack there that guy goes over the top and i have 6k instead of 800 in chips. i eventually went out when i raised on his big blind w/ just about 10 bb w/ A8s, thinking it was likely above his calling range. of course he wakes up w/ AK and i'm out.
at the same time i chipped up nicely in the mook. i think i got to 4300 without ever showing a hand. i got a couple pocket pairs and big hands early, flopped some monsters, and was really surprised not to double up, considering my "loose" image.
so now blinds are 25/50 and it gets folded around to me on the button. i raise to 3x w/ 33, and get called by wwonka69 in the bb. he has said loudly on his blog and other places that he thinks i'm a calling station donk, so my guess is that he's calling me w/ a pretty wide range hoping to either bluff me off what could be (and really is) a mediocre hand or flop a monster and take me out. the flop comes 653. i hit my set. woooooot. problem is board has two hearts, and there is already a made straight. i would like to think he's folding 74 and 42 out of position, so i don't think a made straight is strong possibility, though i do think the chance of him having a 4 in his hand is reasonable. there's also a flush draw out there, so i want to make him pay if he is drawing to a heart. i bet out 2/3 of the pot (200) and he re-raised me to 925. this could either mean he's got a hand, or thinks he's going to take the pot away by raising my cbet. i think i made an error by not jamming on him here, b/c it makes his call w/ a flush draw much worse mathematically, plus the check raise w/ flush draw is pretty common. instead i raised to 2600, slightly less than 3x his bet. i'm pretty much committing myself to the pot either way but since i'm doing that, i may as well push on him. in any event, he jammed, i called, he showed A9 of hearts and hit his flush on the river. i highly doubt he's folding to a jam there, against me in particular, but regardless against another opponent i think i need to jam for all my chips. on the flip side, my smaller raise might keep in someone w/ A6 who thinks i'm making a play, or even an overpair, particularly 7s or 8s who have runner runner straight draw. obv if he has 6s or 5s more power to him, he's just gonna stack me.
i might be overanalyzing the hand, but i'm trying to improve my bet sizing, and i think i made an error by not 3 betting him all in.
i've been playing a lot over the past week with no big cashes to show for it. i have been satelliting into bigger tournaments in the 100 chip turbo donkfests. i <3 those since being a luckbunny is extremely helpful. i have won the first one i entered in 3 out of the last 4 tournaments i tried to satellite into. i did commit a bankroll error by trying too many times to get into this past sunday's brawl. while i did not spend more than the buy in, i should not be buying into a $256 tournament w/ my bankroll.
on the bright side i also satellited into the 750k, and won back more money than i spent in both tournaments. i made it to the middle of the cash field when a big stack raised in middle position, i jammed w/ KK and the big blind (who very much liked to defend his blind) just flat called, pricing in the initial raiser. flop came AQx, check to raiser who bet half the pot and bb folded. raiser showed A9 and i'm out somewhere around 270. had the bb pushed and isolated, which, oop, would have been totally warranted, i am still in the tournament.
i also cashed that night in the 24k, where i made a ginormous error by attempting to "resteal" when the initial raiser was priced in. my QJ actually flopped a J against AQ, but turn was an A and i was done in 40th. i have never been good at this whole resteal concept, but i am fairly certain i will never attempt a resteal with a mediocre hand unless i'm sure i am not pricing the raiser in. sellthekids made a nice run in the same tournament (i think finishing 17th?), and it was fun to have another blogger to cheer on and to cheer me on.
i cashed the following day in a $75 ko tournament, but fell short in all my other mtts. i played one regular sng and one turbo sng in the past few days and won them both, so i think i'm going to try and supplement my mtt play with more sngs, trying to grind some money into my bankroll. in order to do that i really ought to familiarize myself better w/ ICM -- i have read a couple of articles but nothing too in depth. if anyone has any suggestions on good articles or sites, pls let me know!
i don't think i'll make chasers tomorrow night, but it'll be a game time decision. i am still swirling about the possibility of a goals/resolutions/new years post, though by the time i motivate it may be too late.
i started in the mookie and 28k at the same time. both were uneventful until i went to click on a prior hand in the mookie, and somehow instead found myself calling an all in bet by a maniac at my 28k table. i watched him jam two previous pots, putting 2900 at risk to win 45. crazy. so what do i do? accidentally call him w/ 93 suited. ARGGGGGHHHHHH. he has TT and i lose (obv). a few hands later i pick up KK and raise a bunch of limpers, and same donk calls me w/ ATo and i double through. i have no doubt that if i had my full chip stack there that guy goes over the top and i have 6k instead of 800 in chips. i eventually went out when i raised on his big blind w/ just about 10 bb w/ A8s, thinking it was likely above his calling range. of course he wakes up w/ AK and i'm out.
at the same time i chipped up nicely in the mook. i think i got to 4300 without ever showing a hand. i got a couple pocket pairs and big hands early, flopped some monsters, and was really surprised not to double up, considering my "loose" image.
so now blinds are 25/50 and it gets folded around to me on the button. i raise to 3x w/ 33, and get called by wwonka69 in the bb. he has said loudly on his blog and other places that he thinks i'm a calling station donk, so my guess is that he's calling me w/ a pretty wide range hoping to either bluff me off what could be (and really is) a mediocre hand or flop a monster and take me out. the flop comes 653. i hit my set. woooooot. problem is board has two hearts, and there is already a made straight. i would like to think he's folding 74 and 42 out of position, so i don't think a made straight is strong possibility, though i do think the chance of him having a 4 in his hand is reasonable. there's also a flush draw out there, so i want to make him pay if he is drawing to a heart. i bet out 2/3 of the pot (200) and he re-raised me to 925. this could either mean he's got a hand, or thinks he's going to take the pot away by raising my cbet. i think i made an error by not jamming on him here, b/c it makes his call w/ a flush draw much worse mathematically, plus the check raise w/ flush draw is pretty common. instead i raised to 2600, slightly less than 3x his bet. i'm pretty much committing myself to the pot either way but since i'm doing that, i may as well push on him. in any event, he jammed, i called, he showed A9 of hearts and hit his flush on the river. i highly doubt he's folding to a jam there, against me in particular, but regardless against another opponent i think i need to jam for all my chips. on the flip side, my smaller raise might keep in someone w/ A6 who thinks i'm making a play, or even an overpair, particularly 7s or 8s who have runner runner straight draw. obv if he has 6s or 5s more power to him, he's just gonna stack me.
i might be overanalyzing the hand, but i'm trying to improve my bet sizing, and i think i made an error by not 3 betting him all in.
i've been playing a lot over the past week with no big cashes to show for it. i have been satelliting into bigger tournaments in the 100 chip turbo donkfests. i <3 those since being a luckbunny is extremely helpful. i have won the first one i entered in 3 out of the last 4 tournaments i tried to satellite into. i did commit a bankroll error by trying too many times to get into this past sunday's brawl. while i did not spend more than the buy in, i should not be buying into a $256 tournament w/ my bankroll.
on the bright side i also satellited into the 750k, and won back more money than i spent in both tournaments. i made it to the middle of the cash field when a big stack raised in middle position, i jammed w/ KK and the big blind (who very much liked to defend his blind) just flat called, pricing in the initial raiser. flop came AQx, check to raiser who bet half the pot and bb folded. raiser showed A9 and i'm out somewhere around 270. had the bb pushed and isolated, which, oop, would have been totally warranted, i am still in the tournament.
i also cashed that night in the 24k, where i made a ginormous error by attempting to "resteal" when the initial raiser was priced in. my QJ actually flopped a J against AQ, but turn was an A and i was done in 40th. i have never been good at this whole resteal concept, but i am fairly certain i will never attempt a resteal with a mediocre hand unless i'm sure i am not pricing the raiser in. sellthekids made a nice run in the same tournament (i think finishing 17th?), and it was fun to have another blogger to cheer on and to cheer me on.
i cashed the following day in a $75 ko tournament, but fell short in all my other mtts. i played one regular sng and one turbo sng in the past few days and won them both, so i think i'm going to try and supplement my mtt play with more sngs, trying to grind some money into my bankroll. in order to do that i really ought to familiarize myself better w/ ICM -- i have read a couple of articles but nothing too in depth. if anyone has any suggestions on good articles or sites, pls let me know!
i don't think i'll make chasers tomorrow night, but it'll be a game time decision. i am still swirling about the possibility of a goals/resolutions/new years post, though by the time i motivate it may be too late.
posted by lj at 10:38 PM
7 Comments:
Another thought, and again, I'm not a good poker player (just read my blog), but in that hand against Wwonka, another option is the stop & go. A lot of people are willing to put all their chips in the middle with the nut flush draw on the flop, if they are pushing, figuring they're flipping a coin if they have one over to your one pair and have fold equity. But if with a set, if you call their flop bet/raise, and then push on the turn, they may be less likely to draw to the flush with just 1 card to come.
Just a thought in retrospect. If turn brought the flush, you'd have to make a decision as to whether they had two pair ,the flush, the straight, and whether you can fold that. Then you're kicking yourself for letting them dictate how much they see the turn for.
i was only thinking about getting money in on the flop, but that's a great point. thanks for the comment!
That's normally what i'm thinking too and probably teh only reason I'm thinking of hte stop and go IS because he hit his flush. Hindsight and all. Plus, like I said, you'd kick yourself if he hit it on the turn. ANd if that happened to me, I'm not good enough to fold my set unless it's four flushed/straighted on the board.
I can see joe's perspective, but I don't fault your play at all. You get your money in with wonka essentially drawing to 9 outs twice. Jamming his reraise means you'd be raising twice the pot - yeah it takes away his drawing odds, but I think you have him dominated enough that you're better off trying to get your chips in the middle, and I think you played it just right for that. Not sure if wonka thought he might have been good (considering his perception of you) or just wanted to gamble, but you got him to commit his chips as a 3-1 dog - I look as this as a good play by you that ended up in his favor.
Matt has overlooked it is not 9 outs twice there it is 8 outs then either 7 outs or already dead.
It is rare that you can make someone fold a nut flush draw on flop despit fact they are only 26% to win against a set.
If you are playing at a higher buy-in than prudent bankroll managment would dictate then the stop & go will sometimes work as it is harder to draw to flush with one card to come. But you see it happen in PLO all the time and it is not unusual in sub $50 buy-in tournies either.
There is never anything wrong with commiting chips as almost 3:1 fav!
The result is just variance
I definitely agree with Bayne here:
"There is never anything wrong with commiting chips as almost 3:1 fav! The result is just variance"
Getting all the money in on that flop is a fantastic thing. The results after that are meaningless in terms of playing good poker.
God I can so feel for you on the part about clicking on one screen when another pops up and you call an all in. I have tried to stagger my screens so that at no point will I be clicking the same spot in two different windows. One time folded Quads to a shove in a $20 MTT. I would have gone very deep if I picked up that pot, already was significant before the donks shove. I went ballistic and nearly broke my screen.
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