Monthly Archives: February 2012

If I’m Going to Live Fast and Die Young I’d Better Get On With It

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Encore Club $5,000 Guarantee

My big game for the week was the Encore on Friday night rather than Saturday because I had plans for Saturday (more of that in a bit). This game got off to a great start for me and then went all to hell as it so often does.

Several players at the table had chipped up a bit from the 9,000 starting stack, although the table behind us was the one announcing re-buys every few minutes (they’d been a late-seated table and there was a re-buy on their first hand). I was in the SB at what I think was only 50/100 still, and looked down at [8x 8x]. There was some raising ahead of me, but I had to see the flop; there was a couple thousand in the pot pre-flop.

Then the flop showed [8x 7x 2x] in a rainbow of colors. If I remember the sequence correctly, I believe I checked it. BB bet out 2,000 chips. SH—a club regular seated in HJ position—called, followed by BTN. I raised to 5,000. SB pushed all-in for 13,000+, SH shoved over the top, and I was so twitchy to get my chips into the middle I set off alarms and BTN didn’t have to think about it and folded. SB had [2x 2x] and SH had the [7x 7x], so we were set over set over set. I couldn’t have been happier as my top set held through the river and I raked in a pot of about 40,000 chips.

That was the end of the good times, though. I held my fire through to the break, playing patiently. Nut the hands weren’t coming, not even suited gappers. The one time I picked up a [ks qs] in BTN position, I was ready to make a move when SH—who had re-bought and managed to build up a decent stack by that time—shoved it in. I pushed the cards away, thinking I’d find a better spot, but it just never came. When I did make a call of a raise with a speculative hand, it got picked off by stacks large enough I just couldn’t stick with it.

Eventually, I got to the point where I was getting cut down by better hands. By the end of my night, I was down to less than 10,000 chips, picked up [as qs], and shoved from late position, hoping just to take the blinds. The player in BB looked down at her hand, called, and flipped over [ax kx], hitting the king on the river.

Three hours and forty minutes. -100% ROI. 50th of 108 players.

Tomer Drops By

It was an honor to have Tomer Berda, WSOP $2,500 No Limit Hold’em bracelet winner and #12 on Bluff‘s 2010 Player of the Year list (#22 on CardPlayer‘s 2010 list) over at the house last Saturday, as he and his friend made a trip through the Northwest. He’s been a source of inspiration and useful data since we reconnected shortly before he won his bracelet. We had the usual fantastic dinner at Khun Pic’s Bahn Thai.

Hogging the Ground

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Portland Players Club $250 Freeroll

Even though I was starting to feel the effects of a cold, I felt like I needed to pop up out of the hole for a game before this weekend’s big $25K tournament, so I headed over for the morning action at PPC.

Early on, I picked up [js 7s] in late middle position. A bunch of players had limped in for what I believe was still just 50, and I popped it up to 225, getting a couple callers but dropping most of the field. The flop was a tantalizing [jh 7h 4x] and I bet into it, followed by the player on my immediate left. Another heart on the turn slowed both of us down, but I made a large bet on the river and got a call, thinking I was probably beat, but he showed [ax ax] and my two pair was good. The guy in seat nine—who’d been in the hand through the flop—was indignant, decrying my pre-flop raise with “junk.” I tried not to laugh, out of respect for the guy who’d just lost 1,500+ chips next to me and tried to point out the straight possibilities, the flush, etc., but he seemed to be more upset than the guy who’d had his aces cracked. I got moved to an expansion table not long after that. UPDATE: Suited jack-seven wins or ties 14.8% of the time in a 9-handed showdown; it’s the 51st-best hand with nine players. The 50th-best hand is a pair of sevens; it wins or ties 15.1%. Your chances of winning in a nine-handed showdown with suited jack-seven are better than with any pair of sixes or lower. Of course I’m going to raise with it. I’d raise with a pair of sevens.

I did pretty well at the new table, knocking out one tight player with a full house over another full house. The I had just [8x tx], the board ran out [8x 3x 2x], then put another [3x] on the turn. The tight player had [2x 2x] in his hand and hit his house on there, but he didn’t go all in until the [8x] on the river and I think he missed the possibility he was counterfeited by any eight or trey.

I got cut down a bit in a race before we were moved back to my original table, where I was seated on the left of the player whose aces I’d cracked earlier, with DL on his right and the tight player on DL’s right. My last hand was [kx jx]. I tried to make a move, the tight player pushed, and if I’d given it some more thought I would have folded, knowing the hands he’d been playing, but I hoped I might have a couple over cards. No luck: [as ks]. I was a card away from a straight by the river but I was still away.

Two hours and fifteen minutes. -100% ROI. 13th of 28 players.