Flying Home from Vegas

Once again I’m in the airplane, this time on my way back home.  It was a long five days of poker but it was a heck of a lot of fun!  No drinking, no partying, just some good exercise, some great mochas and sushi, and tons of discussions with Derrick on poker, goals, and how to continue to get better at this amazing game.  The poker blogging has been scarce the past couple days as I picked up a nasty little stomach bug and chose rest and trips to the bathroom over writing!  But now the laptop is out and I will attempt to catch up.  I will start with something I tell my golfers to do and that is to write about your shot of the day.  It’s a great idea to start with positive reinforcement about something you do well.  Here I will write about my hand of the trip.

PLAY OF THE DAY

This hand happened Saturday at the Aria poker room.  Derrick and I got knocked out of our tournaments that day so we headed over to play some cash game poker.  I sat at a $2/5 no limit table with $700 in front of me.  The second hand I played I raised to $15 as the second player to act (in poker lingo this is under the gun plus one or utg+1) with AJc.  The button called and everyone else folded.   In poker it’s super important to profile the players at the table.  The player on the button was young, European, wearing headphones and had a ton of cash and chips in front of him.  Add this all up and you get a player that’s going to be very aggressive and try to bully you around.  The flop came out 2d3s6s ,which is about as bad as it can get for me. I knew right away there was NO chance I was going to win this pot.  The easy thing would be to check and fold to a bet, but I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make a bet, let him push me out of the pot (he knows that a bunch of low cards typically miss the hand range of a raiser) and train him that he can run me over.  I’ll use this little training session later in the day I hope!  So, I bet $20, he raised to $70 just as I thought, and I folded my hand.

Two hands later:  there were two limpers and our buddy raised it to $25 in the cutoff seat. (The cutoff seat is one before the button.)  The button called, the small blind call, I called with ATh and one limper called.  The pot was $125 and five of us saw a flop of T82. We all checked, he bet $70, fold, fold, I called, and another fold.  We are now heads up with a pot of $265.  The turn was a 2.  Great card.  If I was ahead after the flop I’m probably still ahead now.  I checked, and he asked me how many bills I was playing  (poker lingo for how much $$ you have in front of you.)  I told him $600 and he bet $160.  I thought about what was going on.  By betting again he’s trying to tell the story that he can beat my hand.  But can he?  Let’s look at the evidence we have so far:

1. He bet only $25 after two limpers.  That small raise is inviting a lot of players to see the flop.  This European is a smart guy and he knows that if he has a hand like AA, KK, QQ, or JJ he needs to raise more to get the number of players to see the flop as small as possible.  Typically you want just one or maybe two opponents against you with these hands.  The evidence says I’m ahead.
2. If he did have a huge hand he would want me to stay in.  But by only betting $160 on the turn he is leaving me almost $500 in front of me, so when he bets huge on the river he can scare me out of the pot.  If he had a huge hand he would bet more on the flop and turn to “attach me to the pot” and with not as much $$ in front of me by the river it would be easier for me to call.  The evidence says I’m ahead.
3. He’s freaking European!  Enough said!!

 

Well, evidence is all nice and good but playing a top pair hand for $700 in a $2/5 game is big time losing poker.  It’s what the bad players do and is why people can make a living at this game of skill.  However, Derrick has taught me two things:  Look at the evidence that the hand presents and make a plan now for what might happen later in the hand.  I decided before I called the turn bet that he was going to “shove the river”, meaning bet all my remaining money.  So, I called the turn knowing I was also going to call the river.  And the river was an A.  Great card!!  If I was somehow wrong with my above analysis then that card just saved me.  My first instinct was to bet as you’d hate to check a monster hand like top two pair and have him check behind you, costing you the chance to make money.  However, I reminded myself that I thought he was bluffing so I needed to let him carry through with his plan on one final street of action.  (Also, if he was bluffing with AK he would now bet this card to get value out of his hand.  If he had KK,QQ,JJ he would check and hope his hand was best, but I didn’t think that was the case.)  I checked, and he pretty quickly threw a stack of bills on the table and announced “all in”.  I called fairly quickly, and he said “K high”.  Talk about music to my ears!  Haha.  I was very proud I had the ability to think through the hand while it was in action and the courage to make the call on the river. 

I have to give Derrick a ton of credit on this hand for all the wisdom he has shared and the training he has imparted.  But he gets none of the cash!!

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

I also teach my players to use their journals to analyze weakness and mistakes so that they can experience and adjust.  Here is the one hand from my trip that I would do much better next time:

In my last Venetian $400 tournament of the trip the blinds were 150/300/25.  I raised to 725 from utg+3 with 88.  The button called and the flop was Q53 with a pot of 2150.  I bet 1025 and he called.

The pot is now 4200.  The turn was a 6.  I checked, he bet 1200 and I called.  The river was a 3 and we both checked.  I won.  The hand was played very well.  The very next hand I raised to 725 with AT.  The small blind was the only caller.  The flop came out A75 which is a pretty darn good flop for my hand.  The play here is obvious.  I probably have the best hand but my hand is not strong enough to get three streets of value (bets on flop/turn/river). The correct play is to check behind on the flop when he checks.  I can then induce bluffs from him on the turn and river and/or get value from my hand as he now would not think I have an A.  If in the off chance he has a better hand (AJ, AQ, AK, two pair, set, etc.) by checking the flop he will bet small on the turn and river trying to extract a little value from his hand and i will only lose a little.  Also, if he does have a better hand the board might get scarier and slow him down from betting a better hand.  

So if I know all this, why the hell did I do what I'm about to tell you!?  

• Greed? Possibly.  I wanted to get as much value from this hand as possible as this guy wasn't very good. He had shown some crappy hands previously that he called from with small blind with.
• Opponent? As I said, this guy wasn't very good and my read was that he was going to dump his chips at some point in the near future.  
• Frustration?  I HOPE NOT!!! I had played excellent poker this trip but things had not gone my way.  It's very possible that subconsciously I let this frustration lead me to get greedy and play this hand incorrectly.  If so, shame on me and it won't happen again in the near future!!!

So back to the hand.  The pot was 2150 and the flop was A75.  He checked.  I bet 750 to make it look like a weak stab at the pot and induce a bluff.  (Note that in the last hand my continuation bet was 1025 with a real hand.  My goal was for him to notice this and try to steal the pot.)  He did just that, raising to 2000.  Well, I got what I wanted!  I called and the pot was now 6150.  The turn was a 3. He now bet 3500.  Is he still bluffing?  I called and now the pot is 13150 - huge for a one pair hand and shitty kicker!  The river came a 4 and he bet 5100.  I made the definition of a crying call and he showed AK to win the pot.  This hand knocked me down to around 5 big blinds and he had a ton of chips.  At least my read on the player was right - he ended up busting out of the tournament before me!!  But all the evidence for my actions were created in my head - not on what he did.  Lesson learned for sure. (FYI next time if I did go for three streets of value and bet the flop small I would fold to a check raise.  If he was bluffing me the more power to him.  If he just called my flop bet I would put in bigger bets on turn and river to get paid off by a poor player.)

I will write in my next blog a recap of my WSOP event.  Yes, more poker writing coming up!!