In the Middle
I hope this is just the middle of the run. I have been running well lately both online and live, feels good. My game has been OK, not great, just OK, but I have been catching some breaks and timing my hands well which slowly adds up to a nice run.
Online I have been slowly building my meager online roll by multi-tabling 5/10 and 10/20 limit games. Goes up goes down, just slightly more up than down which is fine by me. I am still dumbfounded by those that just win tons of money online, like $10,000 to $100,000 per month. I don't know how they do it. Some of the time the players are bad, but for the most part I don't see the massive losers in the games that seem necessary to win that amount of money. Can the players at the 300/600 limit games be that bad? If they are they should go broke pretty quick at that limit. Most of the time I run into pretty average players, not great, but not to the point where one just pummels them all night. Maybe I am just not that good, and I don't see the massive edge here, but I win so that is all that should count. I did finally win a $30 MTT short handed NL on Ultimatebet on Monday. Not a huge field of 170, but a good win for $1,600. Cool.
So as usual I went down to the Muck again last night. Tuesday is turning out to just be a huge day down there for the larger games. I walked in last night and there were two $50/100 games going and a list. WOW! Just as I walked in however I was asked if I would play a short handed $100/200 game. I am not one to turn down a short game as you know, so sure fire it up. Four handed to start, Me, Pete, Barry, and one other guy who has been coming in for the last few weeks, don't know his name. At this point the joint had two $50/100 games and a $100/200 game. Now that is a lot of high limit poker going on in Seattle. I did not know we had that much money in the poker world here. Love to see it. I hope we crank the $100/200 game all the time. That would be cool. I am going to assume that it is going to get thin around here as we get to the WSOP and most of the high limit guys leave to go play down there so I guess we will see. So on to the game......
The game starts 4 handed but surprisingly it filled up to 6 and 7 handed for a while. I don't really mind either way, but a good short handed game is always fun. Allows you to get much more creative. I was really card dead most of the night. I did a lot of watching and winning small pots when the moment presented itself. I was never stuck more than $1,000 all night and not up much more than $2,000 for a very long stretch of time. I like to gamble it up once in a while. I shift gears in that game when I think the table is getting too predictable(tight), or my play is getting too predictable. I have a pretty loose image in that game, especially compared to Barry and Pete. I like to play up that image, joking around, making fun of myself as just a bad lucky player. I think that some of the regulars there really do think I am a really bad lucky player. It does get me a little more action than I sometimes want, but I think it works to my advantage most of the time. I might actually be a really bad lucky player, but I keep winning year after year so something must be working there. In reality I usually play tight for long stretches of time and then mix in a few stupid hands to donk it up a bit and keep the image. In supersystem by the great Doyle, he talks about winning lots of small pots and building up your stack so you can gamble when the moment presents itself. This is much more of a No Limit concept but it applies to limit as well. If you steal, bluff, and have some of your real hands hold up, it allows you to take a shot when you know you are behind and draw at something really stupid. If you fight harder for the smaller pots when everyone misses you can make those few extra bets that put you in a position to gamble when the time is right. I will also get caught raising with a really crappy hand once in a while that I will hit. Now I did not say call, I said raise. I don't really raise that much with crap, but I do like to mix it in to the game a little more than the average player. This really adds to the image when you turn over 5,7 sooooooted for the nut straight after you raised in EP with it.
Prime example number one from last night on the timed gamble. Early on in the night, I have won a few small pots and was up just a touch, and was dealt 3,5 of diamonds on the button. I had been playing pretty tight so far, so I watched this hand develop and said "gamble time". One player limps in EP, a middle position player raises, late position player calls two cold, and I call two cold on the Button with the 3d,5d, and both blinds called I think. Now I know I am in bad shape, I have a really small chance of winning this pot, but if I can hit the hand it will be disguised and easy to get away from if I wiff. I did not exactly hit the flop, it came down something like K,9,5 one diamond. I am not exactly sure of this fact other than I did flop bottom pair, and there was a diamond on the board. So there is a bet in EP, a raise, a cold call by the LP and I call here. This is a really questionable call, I know that, I am gambling here. I figured I had outs to a 5, 3, and running diamonds. You think I don't know I am putting money in -EV. Cut to the end of the story, I make running diamonds here and win the pot. It was a huge pot, and got me up pretty nicely for the session. When I rolled it over at the end I called out "Donkey Hand" and tabled the 5,3 for the win. I took all kinds of shit, but that set the stage for the rest of the night. I was a donkey, cool.
The game got short and then down to three handed, Me, Barry, and Pete. Once again not a great game. Both Barry and Pete were running bad at the end of the full table session so I figured it would be a good spot to keep playing. It was. Three handed a pair is huge, even bottom pair. Sure there are times when you are going to get caught in a bad match up, but if you stay aggressive, pick off bluffs or just out flop slight favorites you are going to have a good night. I was raising a lot of hands on the button and out of the SB. Barry was playing me really passive out of the SB when I had the BB so I had to be a little careful with the raise, so I tightened up my raising standards but loosened up my calling standards against him as well. I then proceeded to pretty much either outflop him or just bet in position to take the pots. Now both of these guys know how to play short handed, but both were running poorly, and both were playing really passively short handed so it actually made it pretty easy to know where you were. There was not a lot of aggression out of either of them and not a lot of raising going on. Made for a profitable night.
So final tally up +$5,691, not a huge night but a run of the mill normal deviation win. If I would have run even slightly better and picked up some better starting hands I would have had another huge night. On a side note I have not posted much about Aaron lately because frankly there has not been much to post about. He did play in the Mirage WPT main event and went out on the first day on a horse race. JJ VS AK, he had the JJ's. He just can not get over the hump. I actually feel badly for him, he deserves to at least have a little good luck in one of these events. He also has been just breaking even in the bigger NL games down there as well. He did not even feel like staying down there after the main event and is already back in Seattle.
I know there are players from the game last night that will read this post. Let the flaming begin...., Talk to you soon, hope you are all winning...SJ("Donkey")
P.S. There seems to be a lot more traffic coming to the site lately. I think that is really cool. Not many comments however. If any new people coming to the site want to do a Q&A session post some questions. I would be happy to do another post and answer some stuff.
Online I have been slowly building my meager online roll by multi-tabling 5/10 and 10/20 limit games. Goes up goes down, just slightly more up than down which is fine by me. I am still dumbfounded by those that just win tons of money online, like $10,000 to $100,000 per month. I don't know how they do it. Some of the time the players are bad, but for the most part I don't see the massive losers in the games that seem necessary to win that amount of money. Can the players at the 300/600 limit games be that bad? If they are they should go broke pretty quick at that limit. Most of the time I run into pretty average players, not great, but not to the point where one just pummels them all night. Maybe I am just not that good, and I don't see the massive edge here, but I win so that is all that should count. I did finally win a $30 MTT short handed NL on Ultimatebet on Monday. Not a huge field of 170, but a good win for $1,600. Cool.
So as usual I went down to the Muck again last night. Tuesday is turning out to just be a huge day down there for the larger games. I walked in last night and there were two $50/100 games going and a list. WOW! Just as I walked in however I was asked if I would play a short handed $100/200 game. I am not one to turn down a short game as you know, so sure fire it up. Four handed to start, Me, Pete, Barry, and one other guy who has been coming in for the last few weeks, don't know his name. At this point the joint had two $50/100 games and a $100/200 game. Now that is a lot of high limit poker going on in Seattle. I did not know we had that much money in the poker world here. Love to see it. I hope we crank the $100/200 game all the time. That would be cool. I am going to assume that it is going to get thin around here as we get to the WSOP and most of the high limit guys leave to go play down there so I guess we will see. So on to the game......
The game starts 4 handed but surprisingly it filled up to 6 and 7 handed for a while. I don't really mind either way, but a good short handed game is always fun. Allows you to get much more creative. I was really card dead most of the night. I did a lot of watching and winning small pots when the moment presented itself. I was never stuck more than $1,000 all night and not up much more than $2,000 for a very long stretch of time. I like to gamble it up once in a while. I shift gears in that game when I think the table is getting too predictable(tight), or my play is getting too predictable. I have a pretty loose image in that game, especially compared to Barry and Pete. I like to play up that image, joking around, making fun of myself as just a bad lucky player. I think that some of the regulars there really do think I am a really bad lucky player. It does get me a little more action than I sometimes want, but I think it works to my advantage most of the time. I might actually be a really bad lucky player, but I keep winning year after year so something must be working there. In reality I usually play tight for long stretches of time and then mix in a few stupid hands to donk it up a bit and keep the image. In supersystem by the great Doyle, he talks about winning lots of small pots and building up your stack so you can gamble when the moment presents itself. This is much more of a No Limit concept but it applies to limit as well. If you steal, bluff, and have some of your real hands hold up, it allows you to take a shot when you know you are behind and draw at something really stupid. If you fight harder for the smaller pots when everyone misses you can make those few extra bets that put you in a position to gamble when the time is right. I will also get caught raising with a really crappy hand once in a while that I will hit. Now I did not say call, I said raise. I don't really raise that much with crap, but I do like to mix it in to the game a little more than the average player. This really adds to the image when you turn over 5,7 sooooooted for the nut straight after you raised in EP with it.
Prime example number one from last night on the timed gamble. Early on in the night, I have won a few small pots and was up just a touch, and was dealt 3,5 of diamonds on the button. I had been playing pretty tight so far, so I watched this hand develop and said "gamble time". One player limps in EP, a middle position player raises, late position player calls two cold, and I call two cold on the Button with the 3d,5d, and both blinds called I think. Now I know I am in bad shape, I have a really small chance of winning this pot, but if I can hit the hand it will be disguised and easy to get away from if I wiff. I did not exactly hit the flop, it came down something like K,9,5 one diamond. I am not exactly sure of this fact other than I did flop bottom pair, and there was a diamond on the board. So there is a bet in EP, a raise, a cold call by the LP and I call here. This is a really questionable call, I know that, I am gambling here. I figured I had outs to a 5, 3, and running diamonds. You think I don't know I am putting money in -EV. Cut to the end of the story, I make running diamonds here and win the pot. It was a huge pot, and got me up pretty nicely for the session. When I rolled it over at the end I called out "Donkey Hand" and tabled the 5,3 for the win. I took all kinds of shit, but that set the stage for the rest of the night. I was a donkey, cool.
The game got short and then down to three handed, Me, Barry, and Pete. Once again not a great game. Both Barry and Pete were running bad at the end of the full table session so I figured it would be a good spot to keep playing. It was. Three handed a pair is huge, even bottom pair. Sure there are times when you are going to get caught in a bad match up, but if you stay aggressive, pick off bluffs or just out flop slight favorites you are going to have a good night. I was raising a lot of hands on the button and out of the SB. Barry was playing me really passive out of the SB when I had the BB so I had to be a little careful with the raise, so I tightened up my raising standards but loosened up my calling standards against him as well. I then proceeded to pretty much either outflop him or just bet in position to take the pots. Now both of these guys know how to play short handed, but both were running poorly, and both were playing really passively short handed so it actually made it pretty easy to know where you were. There was not a lot of aggression out of either of them and not a lot of raising going on. Made for a profitable night.
So final tally up +$5,691, not a huge night but a run of the mill normal deviation win. If I would have run even slightly better and picked up some better starting hands I would have had another huge night. On a side note I have not posted much about Aaron lately because frankly there has not been much to post about. He did play in the Mirage WPT main event and went out on the first day on a horse race. JJ VS AK, he had the JJ's. He just can not get over the hump. I actually feel badly for him, he deserves to at least have a little good luck in one of these events. He also has been just breaking even in the bigger NL games down there as well. He did not even feel like staying down there after the main event and is already back in Seattle.
I know there are players from the game last night that will read this post. Let the flaming begin...., Talk to you soon, hope you are all winning...SJ("Donkey")
P.S. There seems to be a lot more traffic coming to the site lately. I think that is really cool. Not many comments however. If any new people coming to the site want to do a Q&A session post some questions. I would be happy to do another post and answer some stuff.
posted by Seattlejohn at 12:07 PM
4 Comments:
Cold calling a raise preflop and on the flop with 35 suited seems like expensive advertising especially since you'll presumably give it up on the turn/river if you don't hit. Wouldn't it be better to be the "driver" by open raising with such a hand and continuing from there?
It was good to see you winning again. It's getting to be a regular thing...
I've quoted that line from Doyle in my blog, too. It really defines my game. I used to think - "tight table play loose" and visa versa. You really explained it well. If you are just a little looser than a tight table, it can really pay off.
I was able to fade a set over set loss and still come out a good winner after my short 10/20 session last night.
Since you asked for questions - here's one. When calculating pot odds (using Doyle's theory about winning smaller pots to allow for a little gambling), do you allow a few prior wins to factor into your betting if you know you don't have the odds to call?
-DrC
PS. How am I going to sit in the 50/100 game with you if you've already moved to the 100/200 game????
The comment above about cold calling with the 3d,5d, hand is correct. I would much prefer open raising with this hand in late position. This hand is even below my open raise criteria, belive it or not. If I were first to enter into a pot I would have just mucked this hand no matter what the situation.
The difference in this hand is that it was not advertising, is was straight gambling. I knew I was not getting odds to call this hand, I gambled and won. There was already 5 players in the pot for $200 each. This was going to be a big pot to win if I hit.
The point I was trying to make was that from solid play and winning some pots to that point it allows you to gamble in a few spots for the potential for a big payoff. It worked in this spot. Most of the time it does not, and if you do it too much it can turn a winnning session into a big loser quickly. This is a very high risk play that worked this one time. This was a straight donkey play to win a pot. It just had side effects that were benificial for the image. Gambling is allowed and highly encouraged in a poker game that I am in. I was just the one gambeling this time. SJ
Nice run, seattlejohn. By the way, forward your address and the book is on its way.
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