Good Wins & Bad Beats

[osmium]

For all you poker fanatics out there, a thread just for your poker tales. Feel free to add your own stories below!

I'll start.

Early in a NLH tournament. Blinds are 20/40 w/$5 ante.

I have KQh in middle position. Strong hand, but not one I usually play the first hour of an online tournament. All players to my right call! Pot odds are now good so, I call. BB raises 20. 20? um, this is NLH, not limit. Utg calls, so do I.

3 handed flop comes Ah, 7c, Jd. Great flop for me. Straight and backdoor royal flush draws. Utg and I check. Yep, check. BB raises $20 (again). This has been a habit for him. Minraising through the turn. Utg folds and I call. Yep, call. He's on the line, I'm just playing him at this point.

Turn comes 10d, and I faint. Ok, not really. I......... check. I want his whole stack.

After 15 seconds or so, the BB goes all in with Kd, 7s. 2nd pair.
Of course, I call immediately. 3c on the river and I now have the chip lead at the table.

The tip: Stick to top 10 hands early in a tournament, unless you have a solid read on the raiser, then play with discipline.

Next episode. How I left that same table, just 13 hands later.

[osmium]

A few hands later, a maniac is seated at the table. Commonly called a lagtard, these guys raise alot, are in almost every pot, and since they do it all the time, it is initially difficult to read their hand. He could be capping the pot every street/pushing with KK, or 73o. You just cannot tell.

He's been getting lucky, since he comes to our table with 3X my stack, the previous big stack. Unfortunately for me, he is seated to my immediate left. Which means 8 of 9 hands, he'll have position on me.

First hand, he bets 3000 pre-flop, out of position. He gets 2 callers (both are all-in) and somehow manages to win the pot with k6o.

Next hand, he does it again, with one caller. I had called the BB with 4-4, but folded to his 3000 bet. The caller folds the turn. No showdown. I have no idea what cards he held.

Next hand, he pushes all in pre-flop with 6-3o!!!!! Gets one caller with Q-10s, yet wins when the flop comes down 6,2,3.

Next 2 hands he loses almost half his stack.

My last hand:

I'm thinking he cannot keep getting lucky. If I get a decent hand, I'll call his all in.

I'm in the BB. He opens all in. (A maniac on Tilt!) Everyone folds to my 7-7. My turn! I call!

He has Q-3o. WOO HOO! I'm 86% to win. I made the right call.

He hits his Queen on the river, when I was 93% to win.

If I made a mistake, it was making this move too early in the tournament. I really didn't relish the thought of spending the next hour folding everything to him from a weak position, so I made my move. And it didn't work, THIS time.

Incidently, he busted out 3 hands later.

The tip: Do NOT let a maniac take you off your tight game, except....

Sometimes you have to come out of your tight play early, to deal with a bad situation. Like being on the right side of a maniac. Wait for your chance, mid/high pairs or better heads-up, and make the move. If you get out drawn.... .... well, that's why they call it gambling. You made the smart play, and got your whole stack in with GREAT odds which is the important thing. You'll win alot more than you'll lose in that situation.

[osmium]

Online NLH tournament. 1818 players to start.

I'm playing well. Tight, and well. I'm sitting at a table with who I thought was a very good player. We'll call him Bobby.

I'd previously seen him many times, deep into tournaments and in the money, but always from the rail. I've never played him. My impression was that he was a good, aggressive player.

We played at the same table now for 30 minutes or so, and he's taken a couple small pots from me. Our table breaks up, and he and I are seated at the same table again.

I'm a tad worried about Bobby, so I decide to talk to him a bit. I said "Well Hi there again, Bobby."

He said, "what?"

I reminded him that we had just played against each other for the past 30 minutes, and he replies, "oh, ok."

My Read: He's been playing good technical poker, but not paying any attention to the other players at his table. Big mistake.

10 minutes later, I have QQ in the BB. Bobby and 3 others check, and I raise 3X the pot. Bobby calls and we are now heads-up.

Flop is 3-Q-7. Bobby checks, I raise the pot to see if he's paying attention. He's not. He reraises all-in. I call, leaving me with just over $1000 if I lose.

He shows A7o, 2nd pair, and goes home early.

The Tip: Pay attention to the playstyles of everyone at your table. Keep copious notes on the best and worst of them.

If Bobby had been paying any attention, my 40 minutes of VERY tight play would have told him I had a good hand when I raised. Certainly better than 2nd pair, top kicker.

By paying attention, and feeling out my table-mate, I was able to put a solid player out of the tourney, and nearly double up in the process.

I finished in 62nd place, winning $2909, almost 3X the buy-in.

Not a bad day.

[Dank]

These are incredibly fun to read. But I'm not clear on some of your nomenclature. What is BB? Big Blind? That is your two card blind, right? Your two down cards.

What is 7-3o. Just any crap collection of odd cards?

Please continue to tell us about your exploits with online poker!

[osmium]

Good questions. Sometimes I forget that not everyone has been bitten by the World Series of Poker on ESPN bug.

BB does mean Big Blind. In hold 'em poker, 2 players are required to put money in the pot before the cards are dealt.

Hold 'em is played using a minimum bet system, usually called a 'limit'. When you see someone playing 20/40 holdem (whether it is limit, pot limit, or no-limit), the minimum bet in the first 2 rounds of betting, called '1st and 2nd street', is $20. The minimum amount on the 2 remaining 'streets' is $40. Hence, 20/40.

Back to the blinds. Before the cards are dealt, the person to the left of the dealer, the 'small blind' must put 1/2 of a small bet, $10 in the above example, in the pot. The next person, the 'big blind' must put 1 small bet into the pot. So, in 20/40 holdem, before the cards are ever dealt, there is $30 in the pot.

7-3o means 7 and 3 of differing suits, or 7-3 offsuit. A 7-3 of the same suit is called 7-3s, or 7-3 suited. The worst starting hand in holdem poker is 7-2 offsuit, and 7-3 isn't much better, even if it is theoretically possible to make a straight. You are correct, it is a garbage hand.

Looking back through my posts...

UTG means under the gun, the person to the left of the big blind. A weak table position.

On the button = the dealer. The last person to act, after the first round of betting. The strongest starting position. Represented in tournament and on-line play by a white 'button' passed to the left between hands.

Cutoff = The person to the right of the dealer. Also a strong starting position

The reason these two positions are strong, is they get to see what everyone else at the table has done during that round, folded, checked, raised, raised big, etc., and make their decisions based on that information.

I've been playing 5-6 handed limit hold'em almost exclusively for the past few weeks, so haven't had many interesting tournament exploits to share. When I noticed I just couldn't break into the top 1-2% of any tournament, I decided I needed to raise my level of play against better opponents, so I've been trying to play a limit level higher than my usual, and am having trouble making consistent money there. So, I got some work to do. ;-) Plus, I'm currently on a cold streak. When I do get a hand, someone usually has better and beats me.

Standard deviation sucks!!!!!

[osmium]

Ok, I decided to play in a tournament today and see if anything happened worth mentioning.

It was another case of my being all in with the best hand, and getting outdrawn. That sort of thing has been happening alot lately.

It was a mixed holdem tournament, meaning the game switched between limit holdem and no-limit holdem at specified intervals.

At the moment, we were playing 15/30 No-limit. I had just been moved to the table 2 hands prior, so had no history with this table whatsoever.

I'm in the Big Blind. Everyone folds to the button (dealer) who limps in, (bets the minimum to stay in matching the BB). Ditto the small blind. I have crap. Jd - 5s, but since I am already in for one small bet, I check, and thank the button (mentally) for letting me stay in the hand so cheaply.

The flop comes 5-Qd, Jh. Awesome flop for me giving me 2 pair and a backdoor flush draw.

Small blind bets limps in ($30), and I raise $330, just shy of 3X the pot. I am pretty sure my 2pair is the best hand at this point, and want to bet enough to push out anybody who doesn't have top pair or better.

The button bets, re-raising $990. He did not raise pre-flop 3 handed, so I'm not putting him on a pocket pair. However, this is the right play on the button. From his perspective, the blinds could have anything, and I may be trying to steal the blinds with my raise so he comes over the top for $990. In retrospect, perhaps I should have raised higher.

SB pushes all in for $4k. (WHAT???) He didn't raise pre-flop, and only limped in when he had the chance. I'm thinking he may have K-Qo or something similar, but then again, such a tiny raise to open with top pair-high kicker?

What to do? I'm putting them both on having a queen at this point. What is their other card?

I decide the SB is holding K-Q or Q-10. Putting him on top pair, possibly with a draw.

I decide the button has top pair with a weaker kicker, 8 or less, but that is an early read without a whole lot of info. Could definitely be off.

So, I think the button has top pair weak kicker, the SB has top pair stronger kicker, and I have 2 pair with a backdoor flush draw.

I call All-In, and immediately pray to the poker gods to put the kings on the bottom of the deck.

The Button calls all-in! Oh crap. He thinks he has the best hand! Where did my thinking go wrong? (as it turns out, I was exactly right, see below)

Since the SB had 700 more chips than either the button or I, he is no longer all in, so we do not just flip our cards over. Pokerstars is kinda weird that way.

The turn comes Kd, and my heart hits my colon with a wet smack.

The SB has just hit one of the few outs I gave him, and the only one that beats me outright. I'm all in. Too late. The good news is the Kd continues my flush draw! If the SB hit his king, I still have quite a few outs. (outs = chances to win) I'm pretty sure my Jd will complete the best flush. I don't think either of them had Ad-Q pre-flop.

The river comes 8s. Crap. My only hope is that the SB didn't hit his king, which, of course, he did.

The SB shows Qs-Kh, giving him top 2 pair, and rakes in all my chips. The button shows Qc-3h, and leaves the table as well.

My only consolation is that I had read both of their hands very well, without any prior knowledge of thier playstyle, and went all in with the best hand.

On another note, if I had been in any position other than the blinds, I would NEVER have played that hand in a 9 handed ring game.

Cya at the rail....

[wehr]

Not a bad play by play Osimum,

the J5 was a a little bad beat. I have the right read but that is the problem with lower 2-pair, especially when you got agressive folks, and both probably have a Q in there hand which they did. so if board pairs ( you are out 2 paired) or there kicker hits ( it did)
then you up against it, with 4 outs in 45 unseen cards with 1 to go, which is about 8% to make.

What you have to remember tho is that did you get it in with the best of it, when you called all in? Yes, therefore what happened afterwards was going to happen anyways and it was a semi-bad beat there. Just remember not all limpers have bad hands ( I have been know to limp with AA-1010 AK,AQ,AJ,A10s and wait for a loose agressive behind me, raise so I can reraise or push in on them and trap them even playing short handed.

What I would have tried in that case with J5 is either a shove all in against 2 limpers or a 3X BB raise to further define what I was up against after the flop since you will be in 2nd worst position u need that information if you do flop 2 pair. It might have saved ya stack on that one.

Sincerely
Wehr
"Mr Pittsburg" from Poker-Stars.com

[Dank]

wow, i had no idea poker could be so damned interesting