“If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.” – Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)
“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
Hope everyone had a great weekend! My family and I had an outstanding one with family BBQ’s, going to see movies, and to top it off a beach trip.
Last Thursday two friends and I went to visit a local charity poker room for a $40 freeze out with a $5 bounty per player and a deep stack starting stack. They had 61 players sign up, which is a good turn out for this room and usually a very weak field. Very common to have 4 for 5 limpers all the way to the final table, and these type of players don’t mind if a limp is 25% of their stack, lol.
All three of us got our seating assignment and two of us were seated next to each other in seat 5 and 6, luckily my friend was running late and I bought him in and from the two seats I (randomly, lol) ended up on his left. It didn’t matter thought as he exited the tournament on the first hand. He ran his 2nd nut straight into the nut straight. I didn’t get much going in the tournament due to being card dead for most of it. With so many players limping and flatting raises, I couldn’t even steal the blinds. I kept my stack at either the starting stack or a fee thousand over by raising about a hand a level and taking it down with a continuation bet. Then had these hands happen back to back: 1+ UTG I open shove for 5.9k with blinds at 600/1200 holding Ad Kd and a shorty with 2.2k calls with 7’s, she flops a set and I’m down to 3.7k. Now I’m UTG and the BB, who will call with any two (I’ve seen him call all-ins with 6 7 off and 10 9 off for large amounts of chips) mentions that he will return as he has to hit the bathroom, but an older player on his right says that he might want to wait until the blinds pass him. This pissed me off since I have already decided to shove blind and with him not playing his BB I could be able to get through with out being called. The BB does end up sticking around and I shove blind and he calls with 5 2 off versus my Q J blind and spikes a deuce, gg me.
My other friend went on to take 3rd in the tournament for I would guess around $300 – $400, I forgot what the pay outs were. She doesn’t get to play much live except our little monthly tournament, but she focus hard on playing and learning and it paid off! I was very excited for her.
After busting from the tournament I sat down at a cash game, it was a $30 – $200 with $1/$2 blinds. I sat down for 2 – 3 hours and didn’t have much happen. Folded a lot, table loved going 6 handed to the flop with all limps, and made a few straights and flushes and was up to around $170 from my $100 starting. We had a good table with a maybe 3 solid players including me, while others were recreation players. The one player I was watching that was solid was drinking quite a bit and knew he’d make the mistake of playing too aggressive with all the passive players at the table, but need to get some hands. He was a good guy, pretty hilarious actually as he was cracking the table up and loosing the play at the same time. I was pretty much card dead during the cash game, that hands I was winning with were Qh 8h making a flush in a 5/6 way limp pot type hands. I did notice that the player I was watching started to straddle and when he did he always popped the limpers, some times even blind.
Then our table breaks and we get moved to new tables, the straddle raising fun drinking player and myself get sat a table, while the other 3/4 players get spread out a other tables. They actually had 4 to 5 cash tables running, which was nice. Table was a nice mixture of players with two young aggressive guys at my right then the fun drinking player, an older player with around $600 (played with him in the tournament and he wasn’t that good, must have hit a nice run of cards), and a solid middle age player. I really don’t play much at this table for the next hour and a half, but the few hands I play are big.
Here are the four hands, first I’m in middle position with Js 10s, there are 3 limpers for $2 and one of the young aggressive players makes it $9 to go. I call knowing that 2 of the limpers are calling, 2 more call after me before 2 of the limpers call and we go 6 handed to a 10 4 4 flop two diamonds. It checks to me and I check and it checks to the turn. I usually don’t check this flop and there are a lot of hands that are drawing and I want to get them out, but with the players in this hand I knew they were calling if drawing, so I thought a check would be the safest and keep the pot manageable. Turn brought a Jc and it checks to the original raiser, who bets out $13. I flat call as I pretty sure he will fire at the river and want to find out if there was a person that limped with a 4 before I commit myself to playing a big pot, everyone else folds. The river is a Ace of diamonds and he fires off $23, with there being a chance of a flush and better two I just call. I flipped over my cards and he mucks. Nice $80 plus pot to get started early at a new table.
Then next big hand I was in the BB and UTG started it by limping, so 2 more limped and the older player with a huge stack makes it $18 to go, the fun drinking player flats in the hi jack and folds to me. I look at AA and pop it to $42, UTG flats (weird) and the big stack then flats while everyone else folds. We have a pot of over $140 with a flop of K 7 8 two diamonds, I fire a continuation bet of $63 and take it down. Weird that the UTG player flats in that spot.
In the very next orbit I get a monster hand in middle position. Fun drinking player has just came back a few hands ago from doing two shots of tequila and is now fun drunk player and straddles. Same young agro player from the J 10 hand makes it $13 to go, I raise to $38 with Kings and folds around to the straddler. He looks down at his hand and with one brief moment of thought shoves. Young agro folds and I snap call. My kings versus his tens, and the kings hold. I just had him covered with my $273, so it was almost a complete double up. After this hand the fun drunk player turned into dark depressed drunk. He kept talking to himself about how poorly he played the hand and how he didn’t think I had a hand. Everyone else at the table noticed how tight I was playing and in the big pots I had the goods, but since he was drinking I guess he assumed I was just making moves.
The last big hand I had for the night was 2 +UTG and open limped with Qc 10c for two reasons, one I was the winner and started playing a tad looser and this table loved to limp. Two more player limp and a tight player makes it $18 to go and there is one caller and rest fold to me, I call and one of the limpers after me call. We go four handed with a pot of about $75 to a 9 J 7 flop with two clubs, check to me I check so does the other caller and the raiser makes it $25 to go. Folds to me and I make it $100 to go with 4 white $25 chips without hesitation and it folds back to the raiser. He takes a while and I can’t blame him since I re-raised a little over half of his remaining stack and its about 1:30 am and at 2 the poker room closes. Eventually he shoves the rest in and I set out a stack of about $250 in whites to call before he even releases his chips. He ask if I have a set and I informed him no but a open ended straight draw with a flush draw, he’s relieved but only slightly and turns over kings. Once the turn of a J of clubs comes down he’s bummed. The river bricks out and he says good game and leaves.
Was a very good night playing at least in the last few hours, as left with a little over $850. Other then those four hands it was a very boring night at the cash table of just grinding little pots and waiting patiently. I was happy to see that I wasn’t forcing action and getting stuck, which is a big pit fall for me as of late.
I will probably play online a few times this week and I have our monthly tournament this Saturday, so next time to get out to a card room will probably be next week.
[thanks to tim o’bryan and midwest donkeys via cc]
“Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
Hope everyone had a great weekend! My family and I had an outstanding one with family BBQ’s, going to see movies, and to top it off a beach trip.
Last Thursday two friends and I went to visit a local charity poker room for a $40 freeze out with a $5 bounty per player and a deep stack starting stack. They had 61 players sign up, which is a good turn out for this room and usually a very weak field. Very common to have 4 for 5 limpers all the way to the final table, and these type of players don’t mind if a limp is 25% of their stack, lol.
All three of us got our seating assignment and two of us were seated next to each other in seat 5 and 6, luckily my friend was running late and I bought him in and from the two seats I (randomly, lol) ended up on his left. It didn’t matter thought as he exited the tournament on the first hand. He ran his 2nd nut straight into the nut straight. I didn’t get much going in the tournament due to being card dead for most of it. With so many players limping and flatting raises, I couldn’t even steal the blinds. I kept my stack at either the starting stack or a fee thousand over by raising about a hand a level and taking it down with a continuation bet. Then had these hands happen back to back: 1+ UTG I open shove for 5.9k with blinds at 600/1200 holding Ad Kd and a shorty with 2.2k calls with 7’s, she flops a set and I’m down to 3.7k. Now I’m UTG and the BB, who will call with any two (I’ve seen him call all-ins with 6 7 off and 10 9 off for large amounts of chips) mentions that he will return as he has to hit the bathroom, but an older player on his right says that he might want to wait until the blinds pass him. This pissed me off since I have already decided to shove blind and with him not playing his BB I could be able to get through with out being called. The BB does end up sticking around and I shove blind and he calls with 5 2 off versus my Q J blind and spikes a deuce, gg me.
My other friend went on to take 3rd in the tournament for I would guess around $300 – $400, I forgot what the pay outs were. She doesn’t get to play much live except our little monthly tournament, but she focus hard on playing and learning and it paid off! I was very excited for her.
After busting from the tournament I sat down at a cash game, it was a $30 – $200 with $1/$2 blinds. I sat down for 2 – 3 hours and didn’t have much happen. Folded a lot, table loved going 6 handed to the flop with all limps, and made a few straights and flushes and was up to around $170 from my $100 starting. We had a good table with a maybe 3 solid players including me, while others were recreation players. The one player I was watching that was solid was drinking quite a bit and knew he’d make the mistake of playing too aggressive with all the passive players at the table, but need to get some hands. He was a good guy, pretty hilarious actually as he was cracking the table up and loosing the play at the same time. I was pretty much card dead during the cash game, that hands I was winning with were Qh 8h making a flush in a 5/6 way limp pot type hands. I did notice that the player I was watching started to straddle and when he did he always popped the limpers, some times even blind.
Then our table breaks and we get moved to new tables, the straddle raising fun drinking player and myself get sat a table, while the other 3/4 players get spread out a other tables. They actually had 4 to 5 cash tables running, which was nice. Table was a nice mixture of players with two young aggressive guys at my right then the fun drinking player, an older player with around $600 (played with him in the tournament and he wasn’t that good, must have hit a nice run of cards), and a solid middle age player. I really don’t play much at this table for the next hour and a half, but the few hands I play are big.
Here are the four hands, first I’m in middle position with Js 10s, there are 3 limpers for $2 and one of the young aggressive players makes it $9 to go. I call knowing that 2 of the limpers are calling, 2 more call after me before 2 of the limpers call and we go 6 handed to a 10 4 4 flop two diamonds. It checks to me and I check and it checks to the turn. I usually don’t check this flop and there are a lot of hands that are drawing and I want to get them out, but with the players in this hand I knew they were calling if drawing, so I thought a check would be the safest and keep the pot manageable. Turn brought a Jc and it checks to the original raiser, who bets out $13. I flat call as I pretty sure he will fire at the river and want to find out if there was a person that limped with a 4 before I commit myself to playing a big pot, everyone else folds. The river is a Ace of diamonds and he fires off $23, with there being a chance of a flush and better two I just call. I flipped over my cards and he mucks. Nice $80 plus pot to get started early at a new table.
Then next big hand I was in the BB and UTG started it by limping, so 2 more limped and the older player with a huge stack makes it $18 to go, the fun drinking player flats in the hi jack and folds to me. I look at AA and pop it to $42, UTG flats (weird) and the big stack then flats while everyone else folds. We have a pot of over $140 with a flop of K 7 8 two diamonds, I fire a continuation bet of $63 and take it down. Weird that the UTG player flats in that spot.
In the very next orbit I get a monster hand in middle position. Fun drinking player has just came back a few hands ago from doing two shots of tequila and is now fun drunk player and straddles. Same young agro player from the J 10 hand makes it $13 to go, I raise to $38 with Kings and folds around to the straddler. He looks down at his hand and with one brief moment of thought shoves. Young agro folds and I snap call. My kings versus his tens, and the kings hold. I just had him covered with my $273, so it was almost a complete double up. After this hand the fun drunk player turned into dark depressed drunk. He kept talking to himself about how poorly he played the hand and how he didn’t think I had a hand. Everyone else at the table noticed how tight I was playing and in the big pots I had the goods, but since he was drinking I guess he assumed I was just making moves.
The last big hand I had for the night was 2 +UTG and open limped with Qc 10c for two reasons, one I was the winner and started playing a tad looser and this table loved to limp. Two more player limp and a tight player makes it $18 to go and there is one caller and rest fold to me, I call and one of the limpers after me call. We go four handed with a pot of about $75 to a 9 J 7 flop with two clubs, check to me I check so does the other caller and the raiser makes it $25 to go. Folds to me and I make it $100 to go with 4 white $25 chips without hesitation and it folds back to the raiser. He takes a while and I can’t blame him since I re-raised a little over half of his remaining stack and its about 1:30 am and at 2 the poker room closes. Eventually he shoves the rest in and I set out a stack of about $250 in whites to call before he even releases his chips. He ask if I have a set and I informed him no but a open ended straight draw with a flush draw, he’s relieved but only slightly and turns over kings. Once the turn of a J of clubs comes down he’s bummed. The river bricks out and he says good game and leaves.
Was a very good night playing at least in the last few hours, as left with a little over $850. Other then those four hands it was a very boring night at the cash table of just grinding little pots and waiting patiently. I was happy to see that I wasn’t forcing action and getting stuck, which is a big pit fall for me as of late.
I will probably play online a few times this week and I have our monthly tournament this Saturday, so next time to get out to a card room will probably be next week.
[thanks to tim o’bryan and midwest donkeys via cc]