Sunday, September 30, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Reminder: KJ is NOT a good hand!
Especially under the gun..
.
So I was looking at the clock while sitting at my desk at work and I noticed that it was approaching 5:30. I checked Viejas schedule and there was a $60 no RB...Nah, too much. How about Sycuan? Ah yes, Tuesdays they run a $30+3 for $1500 guaranteed. So I asked myself, can I get home, feed Jack and make it out there by 6:30? Let's try..so I packed up and left. I told myself that if I could make it home by 6pm, I would shoot out there and give her a shot. I got home right at 6 and I figured, worst case I will be an alternate. Been there done that.
I got there about 5 min late or so and was alternate number 5 or 6, so I hit the head. Upon my return the tourney supervisor told the poker room manager that if he had a dealer he could make another table. This was good, or so I thought, because we would all be starting fresh. Well, they got a dealer and started a table, but we were only 7 handed. Not good IMO.
I was pretty much card dead and when I saw KJ in MP it was the best I had seen in several hands. I raised in up 3x and got 2 callers, one was the BB. The flop had two 5's and I lead out with a pot size bet of about 700. One fold and BB calls. I check turn and he leads so I instafold and he shows 58 for an early xmas present of flopped trips.
At this point I became rather agitated at the fact that we were the ONLY table playing 7 handed. I asked the dealer to call the floor and he said "what for?". I said because we are the only table playing 7 handed and it's a disadvantage. He said "it's better for you to steal the blinds." I said yeah ok I now have half a stack so it will be pretty tough.
Long story, not so short, one guy went out just a hand or two later and we were now playing 6 handed. Might I remind you, everyone else was 9 handed. So, I waived down the Poker Room Manager myself. He came over and I informed him that we were 6 handed and that this was not a fair situation. He immediately broke the table and said that we should have never played 6 handed and that the empty stacks should have been picked up after level 1 which was 100/100.
I told him, I'm glad that I said something because we were halfway through level 2 and I only had like 1800 left now from 3600. I kept on a bit hoping he might comp me a bit or something. It really was not fair. I would have been the next alternate in on a full table.
So....we move. I get Table 2 Seat 5, which is great. I won't have to move until final table and Seat 5 is RIGHT in the middle. I come in on the button 1 hand later....but first I announced to everyone about the previous situation. Basically, I was bitching. Sometimes that actually gets answered by the poker gods. I was going to get an entire round of action before I needed to post. Fold....fold....fold......fold.....fold....oh and fold. I decided that I was going to be patient, as I knew I was just putting it in soon and not limping or calling. I only had 1800 and hte blinds moved to 200/400 as it went around.
Finally, I'm in the SB and UTG raises with one caller. I look down and JJ and I know this is the one, hoping for race or better. No overpairs. I push for 1800, UTG calls and LP calls. I actualy like this. No re-raises PF means drawing hands usually.
Flop is a DREAM for me with a J in the door. UTG moves for 2100 more and LP tanks for a few minutes. Finally he calls and I think PERFECT! Triplemeup.com. My set does hold up and UTG is not too upset because he wins side pot.
Tripled there was SUCH a blessing. Now I can play poker with 5200 or so. I wait and I wait and I wait. My cards were basically from the morgue. They were dead LONG before I got them....then...finally... I am UTG+1 and UTG min raises to 800 at 200/400 level. I look down at one ace then another ace! Yikes, how do I play this so that everyone folds and he calls? He had me covered so I have a great chance to double up, but a LOT of people behind me. I decide to push. No sense in goofing around here. If he has JJ-KK he can't fold. Worst case, I pickup 2k from blinds and his raise. It folds to him and he tanks. He has quite a bit of chips from decent pots earlier and decides to call. I like it even more as he turns over KJo. Glance back at the title of this post (NOT a good hand!). The flop is harmless, turn brings a Jack, but river bricks so I am good. Up to over 10k now. Let's go baby. We trim to 3 tables and I feel pretty good. There are SEVERAL big stacks here now though. Players were dropping 2-3 at a time the whole time I was at that table. I was still NOT a big stack by any means, so I had to think about each decision. I never had an opportunity to steal and went card dead again for several rounds, just watching people play. Learning..studying. Even through the blinds I could not call short stack shoves for 3k with T5o or 95o. One hand, however, I really wish that I would have played was 8To as the flop brought 2 's and the turn another 8 and there were 3 all ins. Would have quaded up there... It would have cost me most of my stack though preflop to play.
Well it came to this..400/800 level and I had not seen a face card in several orbits. I look down at... you guessed it KJ. Yup, offsuit even. I thought to myself, is this a hand that I really want to play for a big pot? I chickened a bit and decided to limp UTG. WHAT AM I DOING? Why am I limping? Especially UTG, especially KJo!!. What was my goal? Just to see if I could hit a flop an take it down right there to add a few chips to cover blinds for a round or so? I guess. Maybe I could check call a few bullets if someone has an ace and the board is K or J high. Well, we went 3 ways to the flop after a monster stack called and the BB checked the option. Well, I hit the flop alright. Jack high. 89J two hearts and we are 3 ways. I lead out with an open shove for about 8k maybe after the BB checked to me, figuring he is probably weak in the BB and hopefully the big stack was weak too or had QJ maybe. The monster stack, a female that had actually came to the table with a rack half full of mostly white chips (1k each). She called without hesitation and the other player directly to my right folded. I tabled KJ for top pair with 2nd kicker and she had a pretty good hand too. THE NUTS! TQo.
OK, Lesson learned - If your going to play KJ UTG (which you should not), at least raise to remove suspect hands. She probably folds to a raise there from my reads on her.
SEAT OPEN!
.
So I was looking at the clock while sitting at my desk at work and I noticed that it was approaching 5:30. I checked Viejas schedule and there was a $60 no RB...Nah, too much. How about Sycuan? Ah yes, Tuesdays they run a $30+3 for $1500 guaranteed. So I asked myself, can I get home, feed Jack and make it out there by 6:30? Let's try..so I packed up and left. I told myself that if I could make it home by 6pm, I would shoot out there and give her a shot. I got home right at 6 and I figured, worst case I will be an alternate. Been there done that.
I got there about 5 min late or so and was alternate number 5 or 6, so I hit the head. Upon my return the tourney supervisor told the poker room manager that if he had a dealer he could make another table. This was good, or so I thought, because we would all be starting fresh. Well, they got a dealer and started a table, but we were only 7 handed. Not good IMO.
I was pretty much card dead and when I saw KJ in MP it was the best I had seen in several hands. I raised in up 3x and got 2 callers, one was the BB. The flop had two 5's and I lead out with a pot size bet of about 700. One fold and BB calls. I check turn and he leads so I instafold and he shows 58 for an early xmas present of flopped trips.
At this point I became rather agitated at the fact that we were the ONLY table playing 7 handed. I asked the dealer to call the floor and he said "what for?". I said because we are the only table playing 7 handed and it's a disadvantage. He said "it's better for you to steal the blinds." I said yeah ok I now have half a stack so it will be pretty tough.
Long story, not so short, one guy went out just a hand or two later and we were now playing 6 handed. Might I remind you, everyone else was 9 handed. So, I waived down the Poker Room Manager myself. He came over and I informed him that we were 6 handed and that this was not a fair situation. He immediately broke the table and said that we should have never played 6 handed and that the empty stacks should have been picked up after level 1 which was 100/100.
I told him, I'm glad that I said something because we were halfway through level 2 and I only had like 1800 left now from 3600. I kept on a bit hoping he might comp me a bit or something. It really was not fair. I would have been the next alternate in on a full table.
So....we move. I get Table 2 Seat 5, which is great. I won't have to move until final table and Seat 5 is RIGHT in the middle. I come in on the button 1 hand later....but first I announced to everyone about the previous situation. Basically, I was bitching. Sometimes that actually gets answered by the poker gods. I was going to get an entire round of action before I needed to post. Fold....fold....fold......fold.....fold....oh and fold. I decided that I was going to be patient, as I knew I was just putting it in soon and not limping or calling. I only had 1800 and hte blinds moved to 200/400 as it went around.
Finally, I'm in the SB and UTG raises with one caller. I look down and JJ and I know this is the one, hoping for race or better. No overpairs. I push for 1800, UTG calls and LP calls. I actualy like this. No re-raises PF means drawing hands usually.
Flop is a DREAM for me with a J in the door. UTG moves for 2100 more and LP tanks for a few minutes. Finally he calls and I think PERFECT! Triplemeup.com. My set does hold up and UTG is not too upset because he wins side pot.
Tripled there was SUCH a blessing. Now I can play poker with 5200 or so. I wait and I wait and I wait. My cards were basically from the morgue. They were dead LONG before I got them....then...finally... I am UTG+1 and UTG min raises to 800 at 200/400 level. I look down at one ace then another ace! Yikes, how do I play this so that everyone folds and he calls? He had me covered so I have a great chance to double up, but a LOT of people behind me. I decide to push. No sense in goofing around here. If he has JJ-KK he can't fold. Worst case, I pickup 2k from blinds and his raise. It folds to him and he tanks. He has quite a bit of chips from decent pots earlier and decides to call. I like it even more as he turns over KJo. Glance back at the title of this post (NOT a good hand!). The flop is harmless, turn brings a Jack, but river bricks so I am good. Up to over 10k now. Let's go baby. We trim to 3 tables and I feel pretty good. There are SEVERAL big stacks here now though. Players were dropping 2-3 at a time the whole time I was at that table. I was still NOT a big stack by any means, so I had to think about each decision. I never had an opportunity to steal and went card dead again for several rounds, just watching people play. Learning..studying. Even through the blinds I could not call short stack shoves for 3k with T5o or 95o. One hand, however, I really wish that I would have played was 8To as the flop brought 2 's and the turn another 8 and there were 3 all ins. Would have quaded up there... It would have cost me most of my stack though preflop to play.
Well it came to this..400/800 level and I had not seen a face card in several orbits. I look down at... you guessed it KJ. Yup, offsuit even. I thought to myself, is this a hand that I really want to play for a big pot? I chickened a bit and decided to limp UTG. WHAT AM I DOING? Why am I limping? Especially UTG, especially KJo!!. What was my goal? Just to see if I could hit a flop an take it down right there to add a few chips to cover blinds for a round or so? I guess. Maybe I could check call a few bullets if someone has an ace and the board is K or J high. Well, we went 3 ways to the flop after a monster stack called and the BB checked the option. Well, I hit the flop alright. Jack high. 89J two hearts and we are 3 ways. I lead out with an open shove for about 8k maybe after the BB checked to me, figuring he is probably weak in the BB and hopefully the big stack was weak too or had QJ maybe. The monster stack, a female that had actually came to the table with a rack half full of mostly white chips (1k each). She called without hesitation and the other player directly to my right folded. I tabled KJ for top pair with 2nd kicker and she had a pretty good hand too. THE NUTS! TQo.
OK, Lesson learned - If your going to play KJ UTG (which you should not), at least raise to remove suspect hands. She probably folds to a raise there from my reads on her.
SEAT OPEN!
Monday, September 24, 2007
Card Player + Court
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Another bubble?
I played extremely well once again, but J7 did me in one more time. It's level 7, 20/40 and I'm in the big blind with AJ. I move in and get called by chip leader with J7.
Hi JACK (ED)!
I was going to check the schedule at the local Indian casinos for today and I discovered something interesting. A google search for Sycuan Poker turns up Viejas as the first result… Oops!
Monday, September 3, 2007
God help me...alternate 27
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