Finally some time, and some luck

This past weekend, with the kids sound asleep, I was able to play some online poker, and have had some success. After fizzling out early in 2 consecutive tournaments, I decided to play 2 tournaments at the same time. $3.30 and $6.60 buy-ins to my favorite 90 player, double-stack, turbo, knockout tournaments. I find these formats very comfortable, because you have enough chips to play with early on thanks to the double-stack, but the turbo structure means it never lasts more than 4 hours. The top 9 pay, and I am happy to report that I cashed in both tournies.

As with ever tournament, there always seems to be 1 or 2 significant hands that either knock you out of contention, or put you in a very good position to win. Both tournaments had such hands.

In the $3.30 tournament, in which I won the whole thing for a prize total of $72, I actually had 2 very significant hands, and both against the same guy. The first hand, I was getting pretty low in chips, so when the table chip leader re-raised me all-in, and I had KK, it was an automatic call. Well, he had AA, and I was sure my night was done. The flop was 10-J-4, and when a Q showed up on the river, I knew I had 6 outs to win. I could hit one of four nines to make the straight, but somehow, online poker loves a little more irony, and I hit one of 2 remaining aces to make the highly unlikely straight and double up. 3 or 4 hands later, after an awesome rush of cards, I was in 1st place, with 25 players left, and I cruised into the final table.

Now down to the final 6, the blinds are getting pretty steep, and my chip stack is about average. The guy I played that previous hand against made a nice comeback, and is the clear chip leader. UTG, I raise the standard amount with AK, and he immediately re-raises me all-in. I'm not a fan of AK, but hard to lay it down in this situation, so I make the call, risking it all.

As I had hoped, he had an Ace as well, but with a Q kicker, and when a K hit on the flop, I felt pretty good about the situation, and I doubled-up again off of him, putting me about even with him. From there, I was very patient, picked my spots nicely, and by the final 3, I had at least 80% of all chips in play. It was just a matter of time... or so I thought.

That same guy managed who I'd double-up off of twice managed to eliminate the 3rd player, and after a few wins against me, he was the chip leader, but for some reason I never felt like I was losing control. I'm very comfortable heads-up, and I knew he was just on a bit of a rush. He was clearly not used to heads-up play, and from that point on, I dominated the match, until his all-in with KQ was beaten by my A-10.

Meanwhile, in the $6.60 game I was playing at the same time, I didn't have as much luck, and I was in severe danger of not even breaking the top 30 until this hand came along.

Holding K-Q, UTG, I make a small raise. It was a pretty weak move, as I was fairly short-stacked, and I knew that if someone pushed me all-in, I may have to call. Luckily, I got 3 callers, and already the pot total was almost equal to my chip count, so any decent flop would probably have me pushing the rest of my chips in. To call this flop decent is the understatement of the year.

The flop is K-K-Q, I flop the nuts and a full-house, almost impossible for any hand to beat at this point, so with 3 others still in the hand, I have to check and home for some action, but everyone else check too.

The turn is a J, I figure this should be enough now with 4 high card, 3 to a straight, 3 to a flush on board, that someone will make the first move. I was wrong, and checks all around bring the river card, which thankfully is a 10. Doesn't make 4 cards to the flush, but at least I know someone has to have an Ace, I should get pair here.

I bet half of what I have, and I'm immediately re-raised all-in, and that bet is immediately called by the next player. The last player folds, showing an ace, and making the very disciplined play. I show my KQ, and the other two hands auto-fold, more than tripling-up. The guy who called first claimed he had the Ace as well for the straight, the other guy says he had JJ for the lower full house.

I rode that one hand into the final table, but was completely card-dead, and finished 7th, collecting about $12 for my efforts. Still, in 2 simultaneous tournaments, I made more than 8x my investment in less than 4 hours. I've actually found that I play better poker when I play 2 tournies at the same time. It does make things harder to focus on understanding your opponents style of play, but I also find I play a more sound style of poker, and don't make dumb moves that I'm sometimes prone to doing.

Tis the season

Ok, I guess my plans of playing some poker recently were ill-conceived. Between a full-time job, wife, kids and the Christmas season upon us, I have had no time to play poker. I have watched some poker, tho, especially the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championships.

Lots of fun poker to be seen here, but heads-up is unlike any other form of poker. I have always felt I've been pretty good at heads-up play, and I have a pretty solid record to back it up, including winning a recent double-elimination heads-up tournament, where I went 6-1 in 7 matches played, but I've come to a specific realization about heads-up poker.

There is less skill involved in heads-up play.

It's still very tough to play, and requires a lot of skill, but when it's down to one-on-one play, luck seems to be a much greater factor. You are forced to play a lot more hands, of a lot poorer quality than (hopefully) you would normally want to play. So now you can justify calling a small preflop raise with a marginal hand, maybe even a terrible hand, knowing that your opponent may have raised preflop just to try and make you fold. Also, knowing it is just you vs him, and no chance of a 3rd party entering the pot, you know that even a brutal hand like 7-2 isn't that big and underdog versus 2 unpaired overcards, so calling a $200 raise with $400 already in the pot is mathematically the right thing to do.

So now you're going to see a flop, after calling a small riase, maybe you hit bottom pair, maybe not. Your opponent makes the obvious continuation bet. If you hit something, maybe anything at all, you could probably feel pretty comfortable pushing all-in here, but if you didn't hit anything, it's pretty hard to call in this situation unless you plan on smooth-calling to bluff on the turn or river.

No matter what happens, catching a piece of the flop is more important than ever. All 4 matches I watched last night showed how important it was to be lucky. One player would catch something on the flop, and you could tell they were very comfortable in the hand, because they knew the odds are less than 30% that any 2 random cards connect at all with a random flop.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow actually made one hell of a brilliant lay down, playing against Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Mike raised preflop with K-3, Chris called with Q-10, and the flop was K-10-10. I cringed immediately, knowing this could mean the end of the always entertaining Matusow, but after he checked the flop, and called Ferguson's bet on the turn, he was able to fold on the river and not pay off anymore. He did it almost without hesitation, and I was very impressed.

Overall, my point is very simple. Luck is a significant factor in poker no matter what style of game you're playing, it just seems to be a little more prevalent during heads-up, but Mike proves that skill is still the deciding factor in most cases, you just need to have the skill and discipline to make the right plays, despite what odds may dictate.

Short and Sweet

I'm starting to get back in to poker again, after having very little interest in the world of poker for many months. I apologize to all my loyal readers (that's a joke, I have none) and I hope that soon I will be back to blogging at least 2-3 times per week.

My upcoming plans include a trip to the local Casino, where I will probably bring $500 to a $2/$5 game, and to resume playing online again.

Another quick update

So with some time off recently, and over $380 to work with, I played a lot of poker online. Unfortunately, I did not play well. In a little over a week, I managed to lose almost exactly half of what I once had. Through a combination of bad beats, bad play and stupid tournament choices, I can easily say that it was just not a very good week for me to play poker online.

To be fair, I think that bad play was the most relevant influence on why I did so badly. I know a lot of people like to tell the bad beat stories, myself included, but looking back on what my feeble brain can recall, I realize that it was my bad play that probably hurt me the most.

An obvious example of this happened in a 700 player $20 tournament. I had been doing quite well through most of the tournament, and actually sat in first place for a short period of time, but for most of the tournament I was around 20th position. Quite comfortably in the money, as this tournament paid the top 70 players. I had a lot of early success playing suited-connectors, but I didn't know when it was time to tighten up and play more traditional hands.

I ended up finishing 74th, and the hand that killed me was a perfect example of why you have to be aware of the situation when you're playing in every hand. I had 7-8 suited, and a player in middle position raised about 4 times the BB. Being in the BB, I often defend my blinds with mediocre hands, and did just that here. The flop was 2-4-10, all Spades, and I decided to bet out at it by making a more than pot-sized bet to try and scare of a higher flush draw, and my opponent called.

The turn is a blank, and with so much invested in the pot, and having my opponent out-chipped, I decide to just push all-in to take the pot down right now, not wanting him to catch some miracle full-house or catch a spade on the river to make a higher flush. My chips are barely in the middle when my opponent calls, flips over A-K of spades for the higher flush, and all of a sudden I went from being comfortably in the money to being very short-stacked. All because I defended my blind with a marginal hand.

The next part seems very debatable, but I folded pocket Aces preflop. I know, most people think I'm nuts, but hear me out.

This time playing a 90 player tournament, top 9 pay, and we're down to the final 15. I'm the tournament leader, with a healthy margin between myself and 2nd place, who's also at my table. On the button, I'm dealt AA and immediately thinking "JACKPOT!" until the first player, a short-stack, pushes all-in. Then the next player with considerably more chips raises all-in. THEN (and this is what made this so difficult) the 2nd place player comes over the top and goes all-in too!

2nd place has about 75% of my stack, the other player has 50%, and who cares about the short stack. As I mentioned earlier, I folded. I had a buddy who used to always say "The Lord hates a coward" when justifying his bad calls, and if this is true, then the Lord certainly hates me. I folded because I knew (or at least I thought) that in a hand with 3 other players, pocket Aces wasn't even the favorite to win the hand.

In theory, I was correct. Against hands like K-Q, 8-9 and 4-5 all different suited hands, pocket Aces has only a 44% chance of winning the hand, but what this theory doesn't take into consideration is that who in their right mind is pushing all-in with any of those hands, unless they are severely cripple in chips?

The actual cards in play were much different. 2nd place had KK, and he didn't want to mess around, so that's why he tried (successfully) to force me out of the pot. The middle-stack before him had A-Q, and again he was trying to isolate himself with the short-stack to get the kill. The short stack had 99, which is more than good enough from that position to push all-in.

Calculating the odds, I would have been a 59% favorite to win the hand, even against 4 other players, as in this situation I would have had everybody drawing to very few outs. the KK and 99 had only 17% chance of winning, basically needing to spike a set to win. A-Q was in by far the worst shape, at only 5%.

The flop was Q-7-6, so KK was still the best hand, and my Aces would be in great shape. The turn was another Q, and the hand that was in the worst shape preflop was now ahead of everyone, and would have left me drawing to 2 cards left in the deck. The river, just to add insult to the pocket kings, was a 9.

The short-stack more than tripled-up, winning the main pot with a full-house. The A-Q takes down the rest of the pot with a set of Queens, and pocket KK loses a massive portion of his chips, and doesn't make the money.

So am I justified in making that lay-down? Was folding pocket Aces a smart decision based on proximity to making the money, and the fact that I was already in 1st place. Most people would say it was a bad fold, and I agree that it was only massive luck that would have made me lose that hand, but why would I want to risk to much when I knew all I had to do was just coast into the money and pick and choose my battles?

Poker is a game of skill, luck and instinct, and I just wasn't feeling good about the hand. Probably not a good enough reason to fold by most people's standards, but I felt pretty good about it when I realized I would have lost a lot of money on the hand. I finished 8th in this one, when 2 hands of KK lost to A-Q. "How bout them Cowboys! Woooooooooooo!"

Then I played 3 live, 8 player tournaments, and could do no wrong for most of the night. I finished in 2nd, 1st and was cruising along nicely in the 3rd one when I ran into a situation i couldn't get away from. I had A-Q, and the flop was Q-Q-9. Turn and river were blanks, but my opponent had Q-9 for the flopped boat. I guess I should have raised preflop, but I was trying to be sneaky, hoping to catch a flop just like that one. That's poker.

Quick update

No posts for over a month, then 2 in one day. I try to stay consistent.

As I had the afternoon off of work, I decided to play a game online. As I expected, I was not able to grind it out and stick to my usual $3 tourneys, so using my latest winnings, I entered a $12+$1 90 player Double-stack, Turbo, Knockout tourney... and I won it too!

$288 for my efforts, + various knockouts, meant my account now sits at just over $380. I'm very happy about the win, it is easily my biggest cash in online poker. Now I just have to stay focused, and not let myself play in any cash games, which has always been my Achilles heel.

The most amazing part of my recent success isn't that I'm making money, because in general I was cashing in about 1/3 of the tournaments I was entering previously. The most amazing part is that I've won three of the last four 90 player tournaments I have entered. A fantastic streak to be sure, especially when you consider that just a few months ago I was complaining about being able to make it to the final table (top 9 pay) but I was never winning, or even finishing in the top 4.

Now I have 3 victories in short-order, and I actually think I know what I'm doing that has made the difference. Obviously poker is a game where luck is a significant factor, I'm not claiming to be the next 'Great One" of the poker world, but I know I was in some key situations that I managed to avoid getting in to trouble, whereas previously I may not have been able to get out of the way.

I picked my battles, not the other way around. I was very patient, waited for my opportunities, and was fortunate to take advantage of them and not take any devastating bad beats. Well, that's not entirely true. With 12 players left, I lost half my stack when I called an all-in preflop. I had A-K, my opponent had A-Q and flopped two Qs to win the pot. I thought that was all for me, but I avoided going on tilt, and got all-in shortly afterwards in a great situation to make all the lost money back and then some. From that point on, I was very patient and focused... and lucky. You always have to be lucky to win.

So now, I'm left possibly with the answer o my question at the end of my last blog entry. I knew I couldn't keep myself from playing larger buy-in tournaments, but now I at least have enough of a bank-roll to justify playing in $6 to $12 tournaments. More to follow soon as, not shockingly, winning has rekindled my desire to play poker.

Recent activities

For the first time in many years, I am going through what I have seen many other people go through. Summer comes along, and all of a sudden there's so many other things I would rather be doing then sitting around a poker table losing my money to fish. Mix in the demands of a full-time job, a wife and 2 kids, and I haven't had much time for poker, live or on-line.

In fact, for the past 3 months, I have only played live poker 3 times, at the monthly tournaments that I help run. Hopefully, this trend will change soon, but at least I know my interest in poker is returning, as I have played a few games online, and with significant success.

Last week, with the wife and kids safely asleep, I decide to check on my account at Full Tilt Poker. All my loyal readers (hi Tom) may recall my attempt at getting into the WSOP without contributing a penny of my own money. I started by winning a Freeroll which gave me $15 for 6 hours of poker beating out 2700 players, then I did it again a few weeks later.

After some success playing small buy in 90 player tournies, my account was briefly in excess of $200, but then reality happened. I got over-confident, buying in to more expensive tournaments, and took some of the world's worst beats. When I checked my account just last week, I had $3.85 left.

Just enough to buy in to my favorite 90 player, $3.30 Double-stack, turbo, knock-out tournament. Guess what? I won! $72 added on to my account, and I'm back in business.

Proving that I cannot learn from my mistakes, I immediately buy-in to a $26 tournament, and after another brutally bad beat (my QQ vs 55 preflop, he makes a miracle straight by the turn) my account is quickly depleted significantly.

So I go back to what I know, and win another $3.30 Double-stack, turbo, knock-out tournament. My account now sits over $100 again, and my quest to win a free buy-in to a WSOP event starts all over. This time I have almost a year to get the job done.

Do I play it safe like Joey Knish, and try to slowly grind it out, or do I swing for the fences like Michael McDermott?

Just an interesting hand

I played in a cash game recently, $20 buy-ins with the blinds 25/50 cents. I took quite a few really bad beats, but the hand I want to focus on was not a bad beat. It was just a pretty interesting hand where you can see how 3 people got all their chips in the middle.

In the SB I'm dealt KdQh. One player from an early position raises the standard amount. Being a cash game, which are generally played quite loosely amongst this group, I don't even hesitate to call the raise and defend my blind. The BB also calls, and we see the flop.

The flop brings Qd-7d-5d. I've flopped top pair and the King high flush draw. This is one of my favorite situations to be in, as you have so many possibilities, and yet it's still a hand you can fold if you have to.

First to act, I decide to check to see what the initial bettor does, but before he can do anything, the BB makes another average bet, and the other player raises without much hesitation. Like I said above, it's a great hand, because for all the opportunity it has, it is a hand you can fold in the right situation. Of course, I pushed all-in.

See, we have a little rule we play in cash games, called the 7-2 rule. What this means is that if any player can win a hand by making everyone else fold, everyone else at the table has to throw in a specified amount of money into the winners pot. It makes cash games more interesting, because people are more likely to loosen up from the typical tight play of tournament poker. This group loves to win a big pot with 7-2, more as an ego trip than for the money.

So when I pushed All-in, I has a sneaking suspicion that at least one of my opponents had 7-2... I was wrong. BB thinks for a bit, then calls and the other guy thinks even longer, and also calls. I correctly called one hand down to the right suits, but the other was a huge surprise.

I flip over my pair of KdQh, BB shows Ad6c and the initial bettor shows 8d-4d. This last hand surprised me because he raised preflop with such a weak hand, but it is a cash game, and he was on a hot-streak that night, so I won't criticize him for that.

As any remaining diamond gives the BB a higher flush than me, and the other player already has the flush, I'm in really bad shape, hoping for any combination of K-K, Q-Q or K-Q on the turn and river to make a full-house or better. The turn was a diamond, so now the only player on the flop to have nothing but a flush draw is miles ahead, and I'm eliminated officially eliminated from the hand.

Amazingly, the 6d hits on the river, giving the initial better a straight flush to over come the Ace-high flush. I'm not sure there's a whole lot to be learned from this hand, but it was quite interesting to watch it play out.

Did I play it wrong?

 The big monthly tournament I help organize and play in happened recently, and I had several hands that left em wondering if I had misplayed them when all was said and done. We played a Riverboat style of Hold'em. Inspired by the movie Maverick, you have to beat everyone at your table to advance to the final table. My table had 5 players.

Just the 2nd hand of the night, I am dealt 5-8 off-suite, and I'm BB. UTG raises a standard raise, everyone else folds, and I decide to call. Already, I have made a bad play here with a very weak hand, can't justify this at all. Miraculously, the flop is 8-5-8, I flopped the boat, and I'm feeling pretty good about my bad decision to play rags.

I check, and my opponent, who is known to make continuation bets, does exactly that. He makes another pretty standard bet. I can't seem too eager, and now have to try and make him think I'm on a draw of some kind, but obviously I make the call.

The river brings a Q, and I'm pretty happy about that, because it may give him another excuse to bet. I check again, and this time he checks too. I figure that we probably has nothing. If he had A-Q, he would probably try to win the pot right there after he got called on a bluff on the flop.

The river is another Q bringing 2 pair on the board. I decide I have to try and make some money off this pot, as he likely has Ace high, and would check it down if I were to check here. I bet, not real big tho, hoping he'll call with Ace high and the 2 pair on board. Instead, he raises, about 2 times my bet. 

I didn't see that coming at all. He's an aggressive player, and has be known to take risks to win big pots before, so I certainly considered the possibility he had nothing, not even Ace high. He could also have A-Q, but I rule this option out, because he didn't bet on the turn when he hit his card. He could also have a medium-high pocket pair, making his hand better than the 2 pair on board.

Risking about half my remaining chips, I make the call, feeling my flopped boat is still probably miles ahead. I push the chips in, and as I do so, I see him reach for just one card, and I immediately get a real bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. He flips over a Queen, and I realize I'm now severally crippled just 2 hands in. I still can't understand how he didn't bet on the turn, unless he though he was beat, which would have been one hell of a read.

I managed to rebuild my stack not too long afterwards, and was even the chip leader at my table for a period of time, but didn't manage to win my table due to another weirdly played hand, playing against the same guy.

With 4 players left at the table, and the chips moving steadily from one person to the next, I was now the short -stack, but still had almost 80% of my starting stack. I find 10-10 with my hole cards, and I raise it up to about 25% of what I have left. The same guy as before, from out of position, thinks long and hard, asks me for my chip count, counts out that many chips, then after about 2 minutes of deliberating, he decides just to call.

The flop is 4-8-J, not a terrible flop for me, and with enough money already in the pot to almost double me up, I push all-in hoping he doesn't have the Jack. He does, of course, with a hand 10-J. Again, I have no idea how he even called my raise, let alone considered pushing me all-in. I guess this was a lesson that successful poker doesn't always make sense to me. This guy went on to win the tournament, in relative ease.

Ok, it's been a while....

I've been busy, I hated poker and I'm also a brutal slacker. These are the main reasons why I haven't blogged in quite a long time.

Since my last blog, I have not played a single game of poker online. Frustrated by bad beats, I still have around $15 left in the online account, which was at one time at over $200 ($200.15, to be exact). Of course, as it's all money won from Freerolls, it doesn't hurt quite as much to know I've lost $185, but it still hurts.

I have played in several live games since that time, and my luck has indeed changed, without using the Slumpbuster. I won a 19 player tournament, which was the Championship event to a 11 game season that I had otherwise done quite poorly in. Although I lost countless coin flip opportunities for eliminations in this tourney, I never took a bad beat, and actually got to dish one out for a change. I pot-committed myself to call an all-in with A-9 when a very conservative player came over the top. I knew he had me beat, but the pot-odds dictated I had to call here, and I caught a 9 on the flop to outdraw my opponents A-Q.

It had been 4 years to the month since my last win in this annual series, and it felt great to finally get back into the win column of a multi-table event. In the same month, I also won my Keeper-League Hockey Pool, something I had not been successful in once in the first decade I had been in it, another victory a long time in the making, but it made for a fantastic month.

Much more recently, as in just 3 days ago, I played a cash game with up to 7 guys. Start time was scheduled for 7:30, but only 4 of us were able to actually make it on, or near, starting time. So just for fun, we played some old school poker, and had a great time. Games such as Guts and In-Between, Kings and One-eyed Jacks (with the Power-King), Razz, Stud, Draw, Omaha, Pineapple, Crazy Pineapple made for a fun evening, and reminded me that there's more to poker than just Hold'em.

Then the real cash game began. I started off well, despite consistent terrible play all night. Early on I caught a few lucky flops with mediocre hands, and then spent the rest of the night hoping for the same kind of luck. I lost money on the night, and although I had possibly the worst string of cards I've ever had, I can't complain, because it was my play that made me lose money.

This Friday will be the start of a new season in the above mentioned yearly poker series, and I'm hoping that my multi-table tournament  skills are getting better. I had done quite well in the last 6 tournaments of the season, placing at least in the top half in all of them, better than that in most.

because all I have are bad beat stories....

I've been busy recently, and haven't played much poker, but I did manage to get into a tourney yesterday. The usual $6/90 player kind I always play, and although I made it quite far, I ended up with nothing but a bad taste in my mouth.

Down to the final 14, top 9 pay out, and I'm dealt pocket Aces. I hadn't been playing very many hands at all, so much so that earlier in the tournament I made the minimum raise UTG with 2-3 suited, and everyone folded very quickly. As a result, I'm left wondering what to do with this hand.

I'm the BB, so really it's an ideal situation to be in. Everyone folds until it gets to the Button, who limps in. The SB folds, and I'm left with a tough decision. My concern is if I raise, the player on the Button will fold because I have created such a tight table image for myself, and I'll have lost a great opportunity to double up. On the other hand, if I let my opponent see a cheap flop, I'll be putting myself in position for yet another bad beat.

I decide to make a relatively small bet at 3x the BB. The blinds are getting pretty high, so even though it doesn't seem like much, I know there's still a decent chance my opponent folds. He makes the call, and we see a flop.

10-J-6, with no flush draw.

I'm first to act, and not really sure how I feel about this flop, but unless he has 10s or Jacks, I'm likely still ahead, so I bet out about half the pot-size. Seems again like a small bet, but at this point the pot represents about half of my entire stack, my opponent doesn't have a lot more either.

He calls, and the turn brings a K.

Now I'm feeling a little more comfortable, thinking maybe he has a hand like A-K, and he'll push all-in here. So I check, and sure enough, he immediately pushes all-in. As this is all part of my brilliant master plan, I don't even hesitate to call. He flips over K-Q for top pair with the open-ended straight draw.

I have to avoid him hitting any 9 (4), any Q (3), any K(2) or one of the 2 remaining Aces. By my calculations, I'm more than an 80% favorite to win this hand, but when the Ace hits on the river, giving me a set of Aces but giving my opponent a straight, I was understandably pissed off.

I can't really fault my opponent, although at that stage of the game calling a raise with K-Q off suite may have been a bit weak, but then my raise wasn't huge, and he did have a solid hand. 

Now my online account sits at less than $50 for the first time since winning $92 after winning the money in the first place from 2 freerolls. Still making something from nothing, but considering just 3 weeks ago I'd managed to get build my bankroll to just over $200, things have really gone downhill.

I will need to win some money soon, or I may be back to playing freerolls, and that's not an attractive thought at all. A long way from my dream of playing in the World Series of Poker without investing a single penny on my own, but as the saying goes, all you need is a chip and a chair.

Why am I so dumb?

The title is a rhetorical question, so please don't feel the need to answer it. It seems when I get into the habit of playing poker online, I eventually make the same mistake, and it costs me every time. For more than the past month I have been playing quite frequently online, in various tournament styles and buy-ins, but the one thing that had remained the same was I was only playing tournaments. You see, in the past, just like recently, I have always done well in tournaments, but cash games would destroy me.

The best example of this happened about a year ago. Much like this time around, I had made some money in a Freeroll, managed to get it up to about $75 in a cash game, then got crushed by one hand. My opponent and I were both all-in preflop, and when the cards were flipped over, we both had AA. Like anyone here, I assume a split pot, but when 5 (yes, all 5 cards) clubs hit the table, and my opponent had the Ace of Clubs. This hand is actually where I first thought of the term Double Nut Flush Draw.

Then yesterday, I'm feeling a little bored, but I know I have to leave in about an hour. I hadn't had much opportunity over the past few days to play poker, even missing out on a live game Friday night, I didn't have enough time to play in a tournament, so I decide to play in a cash game. knowing how badly, the play is at the absolute smallest levels, I decide to join a 25/50 cent table. I buy-in for $50, which puts me about average at this 6-player table. Apparently I had not fully learned my lesson.

I'd like to say I'm making a long-story short here, but what happened didn't take too long. Within my first 10 hands, I'm dealt KK in the SB. The player on the button raises the usual amount, I decide to re-raise him, not wanting to worry about him catching an Ace on the flop. He calls almost immediately, so I'm putting him on either a mid-level pocket pair or something like A-Q.

The flop brings K-J-6, and I'm pretty happy right now. I've made top set, so I check, and my opponent immediately raises all-in, having just a few dollars less than I do. No thinking here, I have the nuts, with no obvious flush draw, and barely a straight draw available.

He flips over pocket Aces. He had tried to slow play me by just calling my raise, and likely thought the flop worked out perfectly for him. the turn is, obviously, an Ace, and I'm down to $5 left. I leave the table, turn off the program, consider trashing my computer. 

I turn around and see my wii remote lightsaber for the new Forces Unleashed video game I had recently bought and muttered to myself. "Next time you're fucking bored, play your video game instead of dumping money in fucking cash games!" Luckily, my kids were upstairs.

Time to vent

As the title suggests, I am not happy. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I was playing on-line, but this was ridiculous. From my experiences in many, many freerolls, I have always played by the theory that you don't play the first few hands unless you have a monster. I don't know if there was any way to avoid this, but I just never saw this coming.

I had recently come in 2nd place in yet another $6/90 player Turbo/Doublestack/Knockout tourney. The winning had me reach the $200 barrier for the first time. Earlier today I decided I was going to try and take the next step up, and play in a larger buy-in tourney. I figure that if my only real problem in the smaller buy-in tournies was the few morons playing recklessly, playing in a $26 tourney should be easier, because the larger buy-in should eliminate most of the stupid fish.

I was wrong...

After folding the first hand, I'm dealt As/Kh, and I'm first to act. I raise it up double what a pot-sized bet would be, to make sure I only get serious callers. The bet represents approx. 1/6 of the starting stack. I get one caller from middle position, and the BB calls as well.

The flop is 10-J-Q, all spades.

I have top pair, with the nut flush draw, and a potential Royal Flush draw to boot. BB checks, as do I, believing that even if I don't have the best hand now, I'm probably still the favorite against almost any hand.

The other guy bets, this time almost 1/3 of what we have left, and the BB folds. Not wanting to mess around with my first tournament at a higher buy-in, I decide to push all-in. My opponent calls, and shows 8-3 of spades.

8 f'ing 3 of spades? Seriously? He called a preflop bet with nothing already invested in the pot with this hand? As you may have guessed, the turn and river didn't improve my hand, and that moron was rewarded for making an absolutely stupid play.

My first attempt at playing a higher buy-in level was stopped after 2 hands, and is one I will not soon forget. I expect that kind of stuff in a freeroll, but even in $3 tournies you don't see that kind of stupidity.

Flopped Quads

I have been playing a lot of poker recently, both live and online, but there was one hand I played recently that has really stuck with me. Playing in yet another $6/90 player Turbo/Doublestack/knockout tournament online, I was in tight at the final table, probably putting me 4th with just 7 players remaining, and one very dominant chip leader.

I get dealt pocket Queens UTG. I still have enough chips to make anyone, even the chip leader, fold a marginal hand. I decide to limp in, hoping that someone else raises so I can re-raise, but no luck. Everyone else folds, and the BB checks.

The flop is Q-6-Q. JACKPOT!!!!!!

Or is it?

This is an unusual situation, you don't flop quads too often, so I quickly have to figure out what to do here. My opponent checks, and every instinct is telling me to check, hoping he'll sense weakness, and make a move for the pot on the turn. Then I think (this is what always gets me in trouble)

"Hmmm, maybe if I make a minimum bet, he'll think I'm trying to steal the pot, and re-raise me"

So I click the bet button, and fire out the minimum bet. We each have about the same amount of money, and he calls my bet. Now I know I've got him right where I want him. He's likely got an ace, thinking that it might be good here. He's already proved he's willing to put some money in the pot, the next card should be my big payoff.

The turn brings a meaningless Jack, and he immediately checks again. I pause, mostly for dramatic effect, because I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to wait a while, make him sweat, then place the minimum bet again.

"This time for sure, he'll re-raise me, positive his Ace-high is good. He will think it's a continuation bet, otherwise why would I keep the betting so low? He hehehehehehe. Ha hahahahaha." (imagine evil laughter, like Dr. Evil or Jaba the Hutt laughing as his brilliant plan is about to unfold with the brazen confidence that nothing could possibly stop him now)

My opponent folds.....

"Hmm, that didn't figure in to my plans"

I take down the pot, which is still significant, because the blinds are so high at this point, but I'm still left wondering where, if anywhere, I went wrong. The it hits me.

"You idiot, you should have checked on the turn. Your flopped quads, there was no card in the deck that you were afraid of, why not let him see a free river, maybe let him think he caught a very lucky card."

Of course, there was a possibility that my opponent could have caught a card on the river to make a Royal Flush, but if you're gonna play poker worried about odds like that, you're never going to win money gambling.

It also occurs to me that a check on the turn would have shown even more weakness than a minimum bet. It would have looked like I was surrendering, hoping to just show-down the cards, and would likely fold to any bet on the river.

Frustrated by my play of a hand that should never be frustrating, I finished in 4th position, collected another $36, and my total is climbing back towards my peak of $150. Still not too shabby considering I stared off with $0 and 2700 player freerolls, but I'm starting to think winning $10,000 to pay for my buy-in at the main event of the WSOP is about as likely as flopping 4 of a kind and thinking you misplayed the hand...

Bad Beats Break Bank

Ok, the bank isn't broken, but the poker gods have not been smiling favorably on me recently. A bankroll that was once at $150 is now down to $80. I have played in several different types of tournaments with buy-ins from $3 to $24, and using different strategies to see if I get different results.

In one tournament, I had decided I was going to try and play less than 20% of the hands forcing myself to play only premium hands. Usually, I tend to see a minimum of 40% of the flops, and often this number is over 50% when playing online. I won't call large raises with weak hands, but if I can see a flop with a hand like 7-8 suited for a very small amount, I like to take that chance at hitting a flop no one will ever suspect could be dangerous.

Another tournament I decided that I would not play any pocket pair under 10s. This came after playing in a tournament where I realized I was losing a lot of money with these weak hands as more often than not, I would have to fold to any bet on the flop. Excluding straight or flush draws, you're really only looking for 2 cards in the deck to make your hand by making trips or quads, if that doesn't happen, you'll likely have to fold the hand at some point or try an make an amazing call against a potential bluff. Especially when out of position, folding these hands seems to be cost-effective.

Later, I tried playing a positional game. With obvious exceptions, I played with the concept that position is power. If I were UTG, I would throw away a hand like A-8 preflop, recognizing that someone acting behind me were to raise it up, I would probably have to fold, so why bother trying to play it at all. In poker, you always want to be the aggressor. You want to be the one making a raise or a re-raise, not just calling everything. It's a lot easier to be the aggressor when you have position (meaning you act after they do) on your opponent, because you're able to get more information than they are, as you've had the advantage of watching them act first.

I was recently watching a televised poker event, the World Poker Championships, or something like that. A select 9 countries are asked to send 6 players to this single-table tournament, round robin style where everyone watched each player play against their table. It's a weird format, but rather enjoyable is you have a country in the tournament to cheer for.

Daniel Negreanu was a member of Team Canada, and one of his teammates was the chip leader in the table starting with 9 players, but was now down to just 4. Daniel called for a team "Time-Out" where he and the other teammates could consult with the player in the tournament for 1 minute to discuss strategy. Of course, being the only professional amongst a group of amateurs, they all listened to the advice Daniel gave. 

"Be the aggressor. Don't call any bets, either raise or fold. If you think you hand might not be good, get the hell out, don't give anything away." Ok, that wasn't a direct quote, but it's probably pretty close.

Anyways, back to my point, if I ever had one.

No matter what style of poker I was trying to play, I lost. Usually it was to some horrific bad beat, but sometimes it was just bad play. Even the best strategies have a fatal flaw, the fact that there is no right way or wrong way to play. Long-term, there seems to be a certain style of play that will be more successful than others, but within any one tournament, especially one that only lasts 3 hours, it seems that luck truly is the biggest factor.

The Journey Continues...

Since my last post, where I had managed to bring my extremely modest $10 Freeroll earnings to just over $100, I have played in several $3 or $6 buy-in, 90 player tournaments, similar to the one previously described. In the past, I had always tried to make the big money by entering massive 2700 player tournaments, but had never had any real success. I am finding many benefits to these smaller SNG tournies, from a higher calibre of play to shorter time from start to finish.

A few days ago I was playing in a $6/90 person Turbo, Double-Stack, knock-out tournament, when I got absolutely destroyed closing in to the final table.

With about 15 players remaining (top 9 pay) I am dealt 66, and decide to raise it up 3x the BB, hoping just to steal the blinds. I'm sitting about 8th at this point, and have enough money to last a while longer, so anyone re-raising me here significantly would have me folding instantly. Everyone folds until it gets to the Button, who thinks for a bit, then calls my raise. I'm putting him on a hand such as A-8 or K-J, something like that. He has more chips than I do, and is in position.

The flop brings A-4-3.

Being first to act, I decide to test where I stand. I did raise preflop, so if he doesn't have an Ace when I bet here, he'll likely fold. I make a pot-sized bet, he calls immediately, and I know he must have an Ace.

The turn is a 6.

I've spiked my set! Woohoo! The 6 does bring straight and flush draws however, so I decide to keep betting, now that I've sucked out a miracle on the turn. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard as I make another pot-sized bet, which has now become more than half of what I have left. He's probably not too worried about the 6, likely giving me credit for an Ace with a pretty good kicker.

He pushes me all-in, and I'm thinking he's made 2 pair with A-6, A-4 or A-3. I don't take too long to call, expecting to see that if he's not drawing dead, he has at most 4 outs on the river.

Then he flips over pocket Aces. I gotta tell you, I really didn't see that coming (twss), and I'm left drawing to the last remaining 6 in the deck to win this hand. It seems to happen more often than it should online, but not this time. I'm eliminated in 15th position.

Luckily for me, the heartache would soon be forgotten. I enter a $12 tournament, same format as the others, and finish 4th to add another $97 to my total. I now have more than $150.

The first hand of this tournament was about as good a start as you can possibly have, really. I'm dealt A-J in the BB, it gets raised by UTG, and the Button calls, as do I.

The flop is A-J-A. 

I have flopped the boat, and of course I check, hoping for action, and I'm not disappointed. UTG bets pot-sized, Button raises all-in. Obviously, I call, so does UTG.

I show my full-house, UTG has KK and probably should have folded to the all-in raise, but had already invested more than 1/3 of his stack on this hand. The player on the button had JJ for a lower full-house. The both need a miracle to win, and I hit the 4th Ace on the turn, just to rub it in their faces I guess. Not a bad way to start a tournament.

My online luck continues...

As a result of the massive winnings from my recent Freeroll success, I decided to play a little more online poker last night. Using as major portion of the $10 I had won, bringing my account balance up to (you guessed it) $10, I entered a $6, 90 player SNG (Sit N Go) No Limit Hold'em tournament. This one had a few special rules.

On top of all the normal  rules, this was a Turbo - Double Stack - Knockout tournament. Turbo means the blinds raise 2x as fast as normal (a format I normally try to avoid), but the Double Stack part provides some balance to this by starting off with 2x the amount of starting chips.

The clincher for me was the Knockout format. What this means is that for every entrance fee of $6, $5 was put towards the pot for the final table, but $1 would go to a player every time you could eliminate someone. It's basically putting a $1 bounty on the head of everyone in the tournament. I have always loved this format, as for whatever reason, even when I don't do well, I tend to get more than my fair share of eliminations.

After a very, very slow start that saw me surrender 1/3 of my chips to blinds, I'm finally dealt a decent hand of J-9 while in the BB. Amazingly, only one player limps in from an early position, even the SB folds, so I get to check and finally see a flop. The flop is 7-8-10 with no obvious flush draw, and I couldn't be happier. I check, and my opponent, who has lots of chips, throws out a small bet.

I assume he's just trying to steal it here, bully me out of the pot, so I decide to just call and hope he makes another bet on the turn. The turn is an Ace, which I'm hoping my opponent loves. Either he has an Ace, or now he can at least represent one. I check again, and as I suspect, he bets again. This time a more significant bet that will cost me about 1/3 of what I have left.

At this point, with the Ace of clubs bringing a potential flush draw and also a gut-shot straight possibility, I decide it's time to make my move. I push all-in, and my opponent insta-calls. He flips over 6-10, for the lower, often referred to as the ignorant end, of the straight. This is why you shouldn't play garbage cards just because you have a lot of chips, a lesson he pointed out after this hand.

With no flush draw, he's just hoping for a Jack on the river to chop the pot, but another 7 means I double up, and from here the cards start looking much more attractive. A little while later, I'm now sitting in the top 5 with about 25 players remaining, and a miraculous hand occurs.

The previous hand I had been dealt KK and flopped quads, won the pot, obviously, but never showed my hand when I won the pot. This hand, I'm dealt AA on the Button. One player limps in, and I decide to continue to be aggressive and raise it up about 5x the BB. SB folds, but BB calls, as does the Limper. All 3 of us are in the top 10 in chips, and I had been doing a great job of picking off the short-stacks while avoiding the other big stacks, but that would be pretty hard here.

The flop is J-7-2 rainbow, the BB checks, and the limper immediately bets the size of the pot, which is quite substantial. I decide to finish this right now, and push all-in. I have both players covered, but would be a short-stack if I lose.

The BB calls without hesitation, much to my surprise, but the limper thinks using all the standard time available, then calls for more time to think. After another 40 seconds (that's a lot of time online) he calls as well. The BB shows AJ, the limper who spent so much time thinking shows QQ, and I flip over my AA. I'm in a dominant position, but as is often the case in online poker, things can change very quickly.

The turn is a Queen, and I jump out of my chair and yell at the computer. I've been on the receiving end of these beats way too often, and already my temperature has risen.

Luckily, I don't have to wait too long to see the most miraculous Ace on the river I've ever seen. My opponent hits a 2-outer on the turn, and then I catch a 1-outer to take down the massive pot and become the dominant chip leader. Unbelievable, even for online play, that one blew me away. I folded A-10 the very next hand, just because I wanted to take a breather.

At the end of the tournament, I lose the heads-up battle to a very good player, and have no regrets. he slow played A-9 to perfection, caught 2 pair on the flop when I hit middle pair, and just waited for me to make my move, and I was done.

Now, my online account that had $0.05 in it 4 days ago has over $100. I won $88 for finishing 2nd, and collected 9 bounties on my way to finishing 2nd.

Freerollin to the WSOP Update

From Greg Raymer and Chris Moneymaker to the now hundreds of other stories you've likely heard about, online qualifying for major poker tournaments seems to be the way to go. Even professional poker players are doing it. Why pay $10,000 to enter the Main Event when you can pay $500 and therefore have 20 chances to qualify in a satellite tournament. Your odds might be 25-1 on winning, but if you get lucky and win one of these events, you could save thousands of dollars. Even the pros like to save some cash.

A while back I wrote about my plan to gain access into a World Series of Poker event, while using absolutely no money of my own. This link right HERE will serve as a reminder for all my loyal reader. Since then, I hadn't played much online, making it that much more difficult to achieve my goal, but this past weekend I decided to play a few Freerolls.

In case you're not familiar with a Freeroll, it is a free tournament to enter. There are usually many entrants, the play is typically quite poor, and often the blinds will raise very quickly. Most online sites (Party Poker, Pokerstars, Full Tilt, etc.) have them, but only some of them have actual cash payouts, while others offer merchandise or tickets into another tournament.

I play at Full Tilt for a variety of reasons, but the Freerolls are one of them. A standard Freeroll at Full Tilt will have 2700 players, and will pay out to the top 27 players, with a top prize of a whopping $15. No, it's not much money, and the odds are severely stacked against you, but you're risking absolutely nothing to play, so all you need is a little free time.

So like I said, I played a few Freerolls on the weekend. Saturday night, I registered for a No Limit Hold'em Freeroll that filled up within 5 seconds. No exaggeration here, I'd never seen it fill up so fast. Sadly, I lasted only marginally longer than 5 seconds, eliminated on the 2nd hand when I had AK, lost to a maniac holding 10-3 with 4 people all-in preflop. This is the type of craziness you can expect from a Freeroll.

One rule I always stick to in one of these insane tournaments is that i never, EVER player the first hand I'm dealt. I don't care if it's pockets Aces, they go into the muck. Within the first 20 minutes of a Freeroll on a normal day, the field will already be narrowed down from 2700 to under 1500. The play is so loose early on, you have to either get lucky, or just wait for the fish to choke on the hook before you begin.

Sunday evening, I decide to register for the Limit Razz Freeroll. As play begins, I truly began to understand the benefits of playing Limit poker in a Freeroll. The play was more predictable, and although I'm not very familiar with Razz as the only time I ever play it is online, I got off to a pretty good start.

A little while later, I remember that the registration for the NL Hold'em Freeroll is about to begin, and a short while later I'm playing 2 Freerolls at the same time. Not only that, but playing 2 very different forms of poker, at different stages of the tournament. As time progressed, I realized that we were getting pretty close to the money in the Razz game. A player at my table had been chirping at my for at least the past hour about what a terrible poker player I was, so you can imagine how happy I was to eliminate him from the tournament, on the bubble. What a great feeling, and even better feeling to know we had made it into the money... all $1 to those finishing 10th-27th. The final table is where the BIG money is at, lol.

Meanwhile, over at the Hold'em tournament, I'm doing quite well also. With just 75 players remaining, I'm sitting comfortably in the top 20, despite never once seeing any of the big 3 hands (AA, KK, AK). To be honest, this is probably a good thing, helps keep me out of trouble, playing small hands, picking off the short stacks when I can.

It's at this point that I realize I recognize the name of a player at my table. A quick glance back at my Razz table, and sure enough, same guy sitting with me at both tables. No, it's not a miracle, but worthy of at least mentioning. Anyways, some more time passes, I make a few nice hands in both games, and now I'm at the final table of the Razz game, and we've just broken the bubble for the Hold'em game.

It's hard enough to get into the money in one game, and I rarely even try to play more than one at a time, but this was quite an achievement for me. I think playing in more than one tournament at a time helped me play better, because I was never bored, and as a result, never played anything stupidly as I'm often prone to doing when I get a string of bad cards. On the other hand, there were also a few times when it became overwhelming, making big hands in both games, and the time running down for each.

I folded JJ preflop with no raise accidentally once, as I was so focused on an all-in situation in the Razz game. A few hands later, i was eliminated from the Hold'em game in 18th position, as a result of confusion. I had raised about 4x the big blind from an early position with A-J suited, the guy  on the button pushed all-in. I had failed to realize how big his re-raise was, and didn't even hesitate to call him. Turns out he had almost as much money as I did, and I was 4th at this time.

He flipped over QQ, and I knew I had made a major error, one I never would have made if I'd realized his re-raise was about 20x the size of my raise, AA would be the only hand worth calling into those pot-odds. So, I finished in 18th, and time to focus on the final 5 in the Razz game.

At this point the blinds were so high, it was as close to no limit as you could possibly get. One player had over 50% of the chips, while the other 4 tired to survive. Antes alone were getting pretty big, and I got lucky to make a "wheel" (A2345, the best possible hand in Razz) to double, up, which allowed me to finish in 3rd spot.

Here's some interesting stats:

Razz - $9 profit - 6.5 hours played

Hold'em - $1 profit - 4.5 hours played

The time is now 3:15am, and I have to be at work by 8:00am. My daughter decides she can't sleep anymore, and I'm up with her until 7:00am. Sleep for an hour, and I'm off to work.

1 hour of sleep, 11 hours of table time and only $10 to show for it. I've had worse.

Random Funny Poker Pics

Ok, this is even more lame than the Poker Hottie feature I ran months ago, but after suffering through consecutive bad nights at the poker table (read the 2 most recent blogs to have a good chuckle at my bad luck and bad play) I have decided to take some time away from playing poker. So here it is, some random funny poker related pics.

I'll have a real update soon, but I want to make sure it's more positive than the bitching and whining I've been doing recently.

The Luck Factor

To some, I'm a whiner, to others, I'm preaching to the converted.

Luck is a significant factor in poker, I don't know too many people that would argue against that. Depending on who you talk to, it can range anywhere from 80% skill vs 20% luck to 20% skill vs 80 luck. Regardless, these are the 2 key elements of poker. So why is it that certain people seem to take more bad beats than others?

I have been playing Texas Hold'em for the better part of this millenium, or the past 7 years, whichever you prefer. From the very start, I have been known for taking more than my fair share of bad beats. Early on, it was so bad that I was very close to giving up completely, but 2 things kept me going.

1) I knew that I still had much to learn about the game, and somehow I believed that my lack of knowledge was a contributing factor to my success at the poker table, even when it came to the numerous bad beats.

2) I had just purchased tables and poker chips for the poker league I help organize with monthly tournaments, I felt the obligation to keep playing as the unofficial supplier. Plus, my wife would have killed me if I quite playing after spending that much money on supplies.

I read several books, many blogs and websites about strategy and statistics, played more often live and online to get as much knowldge and experience as I could, and not surprisingly, the bad beats went away. Maybe it was the Slumpbuster, or maybe it was that I learned how to not put myself in situations where I could be given another bad beat.

Most players who tell a bad beat story rarely tell the truth. At least, they don't tell the whole truth. The exception to this rule is when the beat was so horrific, there's no need to embellish it to make it seem worse. What I'm eluding to is that in my experience, the majority of all bad beats can be explained.

For example, just a few days ago, I was playing a small tournament, and after a fairly short period of time, I was considerably short-stacked. When I pushed all-in, the guy who called me said "I probably shouldn't do this, but what they hell". I immediately stood up, knowing my night was over after hearing that, and the cards did not disappoint. I pushed all-in with K-Q, and was called by 10-9, and he hit a 9 on the river to beat me.

I was more than a 65% favorite to win or tie the hand preflop, but all thatr means is I'll lose 35% of the time. There were several factors that went into how this hand player out.

1) I allowed myself to get short-stacked by some weak play early on. It wasn't bad luck, I just made a poorly timed move or two. So when I pushed all-in, the chip leader who was in the Big Blind didn't actually risk that much money compared to the blinds.

2) The person who called me had been dealing bad beats to many of the usual suspects that night. He was clearly on a roll, feeling good about his chances in every hand he played. Some nights, it just seems that certain players are unstoppable, and if they recognize this trend early on, there's very little you can do about it.

3) Like I said before, I have a reputation for taking bad beats. Everyone knows it, and there have been several instances where I know people play hands against me they wouldn't play against others for just such a purpose. A great example of this happened years ago, when a good friend of mine called my all-in of about 8x the big blind, just myself and him in the pot, so no other reason for him to try and steal the pot. He had 7-2 off suit vs my pocket aces, and made a straight and a flush by the time the river card fell.

This last reason is probably the biggest reason I still take bad beats. When I'm in a hand where others are playing crappy hands, they're increasing the chances of me taking another bad beat, giving themselves something to laugh about. Meanwhile, in reality, I probably make a lot more money off these people in the long run, because the odds are in my favour. Yes, I take several bad beats, and yes, they love to remind me of it, but nobody remembers the other pots I take down when their crappy cards don't hit anything.

After being eliminated from the tournament mentioned above, in 6th place out of 7 people, one player said "Did you 2 tag-team the poker god's wife?" You see, as much as I had taken a few bumps that night, the guy who was eliminated 1st had a much worse night. His luck disapearered about 4 years ago, who knows if it will ever come back.

I guess my point, if I actually have one, is that some people do seem to have more good luck than others, some people seem to have more bad luck than others, but in the long run it is skill that will decide whether you're succesful or not. As the saying goes, you have to be good to be lucky, and lucky to be good.

Lesson Learned

Going in to a poker game a few nights ago, I was told by one of the usual suspects that a new guy would be joining us. Of course, my first question was "Does he know how to play?" I was then warned: "He knows the basics of the game, thinks he's much better than he actually is, and he's a calling station".

In case you're not familiar with the term Calling Station, it refers to the type of poker player who calls everything. They won't raise you unless they they have the nuts, and they don't like to be bluffed. It stems from a general lack of knowledge of the game, and a fear of looking stupid by making a move that's either too aggressive or too passive. Once you have identified this type of player, simply wait until you've hit a big hand, then string them along.

So back to my recent poker session, I had shown up late, and had missed two previous 8-person tournaments, but got there just in time for the 3rd tournament. I take my seat, and recognize everybody but the new guy sitting directly to my right. Several hands are played, an elimination occurs, then a few hands later, I make my big mistake.

In the Big Blind, I look at my hole cards to see K-9 of spades, a decent hand from this position. A player from a late position (the same player from one of my recent blog entries where I made a questionable call for all my chips with Ace high on the river) limps in, the dealer folds, then the new guy calls from the big blind. Although I consider raising it up right here, I opt to see a flop, and check.

The flops brings As-9h-3s, an awesome flop for me, now holding the nut-flush draw and middle pair with the top kicker. I love to play these kinds of hands, there's so much potential of improving the hand, plus I'm still holding middle pair, and considering the pot was not raised pre-flop, there's a pretty good chance I'm well ahead at this point.

The new guy checks, I check as well, hoping to entice a bluff from the other player in the hand, and that's exactly what happens. He figures the pot is there to be stolen, the blinds likely don't have an Ace, so he tries to represent the Ace in hopes that even if either of the blinds have a middle or bottom pair, they will respect the raise. A great idea, from that position, but it didn't work.

The new guy calls after a moment of posturing, which has me worried now that maybe he does have an Ace. If he does have an Ace, I have to assume he has a weak kicker based on his lack of pre-flop raise. Even Calling Stations know enough to raise with a big hand pre-flop, and for them a hand of A-10 or better is usually accompanied by a raise. If this is the case, I'm still actually a very small favorite to win the hand (50.1% to 49.9%). Of course, he could also have a flush draw, in which case I'm in great shape, and I can't rule out the possibility that he has a set of 3's, but I would've expected him to either raise pre-flop or re-raise on the flop.

I decide to see where everyone stands, and raise it up quite a bit. The player in late position folds, obviously caught trying to steal a previously uncontested pot, but the new guy calls from the small blind. At this point, I'm pretty sure he has either a weak Ace or a flush draw. Anything else should have either made him fold or re-raise in that situation.

The turn is a blank, he checks and I make another average sized bet, yet again he calls. The river card is another blank, but I still feel pretty good about my pair of nines, despite the fact that i missed the flush draw. He checks again, I know he hasn't improved upon his hand, if he had anything at all. Having invested roughly half of my chips already in this pot, I decide to push all-in.

My thinking is that if he does have me beat, obviously checking at this point isn't going to help me, and if I have him beat, he probably won't call anyways. I don't think he would have played a set so passively, so I feel pretty confident that a bet of this size would push him out of the pot. Really, it's a brilliant strategy... or so I thought.

He looks me over, seemingly perplexed at why I pushed all-in. Not worried that calling this bet would leave him with barely enough to cover the blinds, he says "Well, I've got no idea how you play, but it seems like a bluff to me." He calls with A-7, revealing almost exactly what I had suspected. I applaud him for a great read, and walk away from the table to think about where I went wrong.

I forgot that I was up against a Calling Station, he'd hit top pair on the flop, and probably would have put all his chips in the middle at that point if he had to. All the subtleties of how I played the hand, all the possible hands that have him beat, all the poker logic in the world wasn't going to make him fold that. Then again, maybe he did just have a great read on me, but how would I blog about that?