June 19, 2006
Bad beats galore.
After getting beat up on in some SNGs tonight when hands didn't hold up, I switched to a low limit ring game.
Jesus. I was better off in the SNGs.
I catch pocket 9s and know I'm going to flop a set. When the 9 hits on the flop, I'm not surprised, I just bet it, and hard. Luckily, the big stack has pocket queens and keeps calling straight to the river when I go all-in ... and another queen hit. Insert appropriate colorful language.
Or how about a flop of A-5-2s when I'm holding 6-7s against one opponent? My opponent raised all-in, I called and saw pocket nines. The turn comes and those pocket 9s turned into a four flush.
Insert creative use of English, Spanish, Italian and some gutter-punk Japanese I picked up some years back.
There were more, but the long and short of it is that I got my money in with the best hand and then ... here comes the suck out.
I think I finished down a bit for the night ... probably quite a bit down. Two blown SNGs (an $11+1 turbo, which I'll never do again), and a suck out in the $10+1 which knocked me out in 6th place, plus some gnarly suck outs in the ring games, and I'm happy to be close to my original deposit.
Perhaps the most annoying part is that one of the people persisted in saying nice hand when people were all-in before the flop or sucked out (i.e. "Oh, you caught a four-flush at the turn after making a donk play and going all-in with pocket 9s after the board flopped spades and you got called by someone with a made flush? Nice hand." or "Oh, you ran your A-Qo into pocket jacks pre-flop and you won the race? Nice hand. Very well-played."). Let me be clear about this:
There is nothing nice about sucking out. There is no skill in it. You did not outplay the other person. You dodged a bullet. Rivering a set of queens to beat a flopped set of 9s (and, in fairness, it's really hard to make people realize their top pair is beat, especially with a big pocket pair) is not a good play. It's dumb luck to catch a two-outer at the river to beat a made hand. A suck out is never a nice hand. You should be ashamed of them, not congratulating people. A suck out only occurs when a bad play is made, when someone makes an incorrect decision. Since poker is, in large part, decided by making correct decisions, celebrating the screw ups only encourages people to think they're playing well ...
Hey ... maybe I should start telling people who suck out on me in ring games nice hand more often ... maybe they'll play with crap more often and I'll realize a better EV down the road ...
In other words, feed the fish.
But it still sucks to know that I, even with my limited skills, was the best player at the table and my hands just didn't hold up. Such is life.
Posted by puckett at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2006
Why playing dominated hands is a good thing.
You know you're having an utterly brutal evening at the table when even your opponents are commenting on how many bad beats you've taken and calling them brutal, but I can't complain too much.
In one of the early hands of the tournament, I put a beat so horrific on three other players, knocking them out, that it could easily be argued that I deserved it. Here it is:
$6 + $0.50 Sit & Go (Turbo), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:29:19 ET - 2006/06/18
Seat 1: Phat Crack Ho (1,455)
Seat 2: sfsamurai (1,455)
Seat 3: Snake Luck (1,470)
Seat 4: ariganello (1,410)
Seat 5: Timmster (1,065)
Seat 6: MALAMMUTE (2,265)
Seat 7: puckett101 (1,500)
Seat 8: Witch-king (1,500)
Seat 9: Menno-Homer (1,380)
Snake Luck posts the small blind of 15
ariganello posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [Ah Qd]
Timmster calls 30
MALAMMUTE folds
puckett101 raises to 150
Witch-king folds
Menno-Homer calls 150
Phat Crack Ho folds
sfsamurai folds
Snake Luck folds
ariganello raises to 1,410, and is all in
Timmster calls 1,035, and is all in
puckett101 raises to 1,500, and is all in
Menno-Homer calls 1,230, and is all in
puckett101 shows [Ah Qd]
Menno-Homer shows [9s 9d]
ariganello shows [Ad Kc]
Timmster shows [3s 3d]
Uncalled bet of 90 returned to puckett101
*** FLOP *** [Tc 5d 5s]
*** TURN *** [Tc 5d 5s] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 5d 5s 2c] [Qh]
puckett101 shows two pair, Queens and Fives
ariganello shows a pair of Fives
puckett101 wins side pot #2 (60) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Menno-Homer shows two pair, Nines and Fives
puckett101 wins side pot #1 (945) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Timmster shows two pair, Fives and Threes
puckett101 wins the main pot (4,275) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Timmster stands up
Menno-Homer stands up
ariganello stands up
The blinds are now 20/40
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,280 Main pot 4,275. Side pot 1 945. Side pot 2 60. | Rake 0
Board: [Tc 5d 5s 2c Qh]
Seat 1: Phat Crack Ho didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: sfsamurai (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Snake Luck (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: ariganello (big blind) showed [Ad Kc] and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 5: Timmster showed [3s 3d] and lost with two pair, Fives and Threes
Seat 6: MALAMMUTE didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: puckett101 showed [Ah Qd] and won (5,280) with two pair, Queens and Fives
Seat 8: Witch-king didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Menno-Homer showed [9s 9d] and lost with two pair, Nines and Fives
Yup. With A-Qo in early position, I raised before the flop and called TWO all-ins (I didn't know there would be one behind me) - pretty much knowing it was going to be ugly and I'd be facing a couple of things I didn't like - to go to showdown against two pocket pairs and a dominating hand. Naturally, I rivered a queen, knocked 3 people out of a single-table SNG, nearly quadrupled my stack and proceeded to blow half of it by running K-Jo into A-Ko with a king and an ace on the board against the short-stack.
Later in the game, after some ups and downs, I wake up in the big blind with pocket kings. UTG raises to $1,100 with $400 blinds and $800 blinds less than 1 minute away. I push all-in, recognizing that they have been betting big UTG for the entire match and I think they're stealing blinds - even if they aren't, I'm ready to rumble with my cowboys. UTG turns over pocket queens and I'm elated - until our dear UTG hits a set at the turn and I have enough left for one blind.
I hit J-10d in the small blind and pushed all-in. I really didn't have another choice. The big blind, the former Pocket Queen UTG sucker outer, called and turned over A-6o. I spiked a 10 on the flop and it held up through the river, letting me double up. I sat out one hand then found myself UTG with A-Qo and pushed all-in. Again, I had a caller, this time with pocket deuces. I spiked an ace on the flop, caught another at the turn and the hand was done. I was very much back in the game, having gone from $795 to $1,590 to $3,930 (second stack) in four hands. I started pushing hard then, all-in pre-flop for 3 of 4 hands to pick up blinds and built my stack to $4,930, the second or third - maybe fourth - time I had been chip leader in this SNG.
Then came a fateful hand. For the first time in a few days, I had pocket aces and I was in the big blind with $600 blinds. UTG+1 called, the small blind pushed all-in and I raised all-in. UTG+1 folded and the small blind turned over K-8d. The flop brough a king and two diamonds, the turn brought another ace and the river made a full house for me. Bingo - we're in the money.
This is about when I suggested a chop - I was still the chip leader and one person agreed. The other didn't and we kept playing.
This is where dominated hands turned into the nuts. That whole A-Qo bit early on? That was just a warm-up.
UTG, I raise to a little over 3.5x the big blind with K-Qo. The big blind pushes all-in and I call. BB turns over K-8o and spikes an 8 on the turn.
Short-stacked AGAIN and in the big blind with $45 left after the blind, I push A-6o into the powerhouse UTG hand of 6-7o. Naturally, UTG spikes a 7 at the flop and I'm done.
UTG was a sport about it though - having beaten me with a set at the turn that doubled them up and eventually knocking me out with a dominated hand, UTG pointed out that the beats I had taken were pretty brutal since the hands I was playing were actually worth playing. However, I also had to point out that only one of the bad beats I took put me out (the rest just decimated my stack) and since I was so short-stacked, UTG had to call regardless. The bad beat I laid down knocked three people out in one hand. UTG went on to win it all, and I was there to cheer them on.
Earlier tonight, I watched a WPT rerun in which Chris Ferguson went all-in pre-flop with pocket aces and got called by crap that turned into a straight at the river. While the hand was going on and his opponent was congratulating him on a good hand, Ferguson kept saying that he had beaten aces before and it wasn't over. Sure enough, at the end, everyone was stunned. Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten were horrified at the beat Ferguson took, which knocked him out in ... 5th place, I think. And it was ugly. Ferguson played it right - it was just a suck out and that's part of poker, unfortunately. If we all knew we were going to win if we drew pocket aces, where would the fun be?
With all the talk about starting hand selection, bet strategies, etc., the SNGs I played tonight to warm up for Blogger Championship and watching the WPT tonight reminded me that poker is an unpredictable beast, that dominated hands may become dominating and you may drown in the river when you were sitting pretty at the flop.
I've been reading David Sklansky's book on tournament poker tonight and I realize that he is brilliant, clearly knows what he's talking about and offers sound advice for nearly every stage of an MTT or a single-table tournament, including suggestion for how to play if you're trying to win or merely trying to move up a notch on the pay ladder.
But with all that said, there are still probabilities at play and there are always as many sides to those probabilites as there are players in the game. While it is likely that pocket aces will hold up against any two random cards, we also know that they don't and that any two random cards can flop two pair, a set or a full house, or possibly a straight or a flush. These possibilities are unlikely, but they happen. In other words, you can do everything right and still come out on the wrong end.
Tonight, I'm finishing a little down from where I started, but feeling successful nonetheless. I keep finishing in the money in SNGs, and I'm up for the week, especially after my WWDN finish and finishing fairly well in a $5+.50 45-person SNG. More importantly, my play style has changed significantly and, thanks to some coaching from Matt especially, I'm able to mix it up a lot more in later stages of the game.
I'm not an expert by any means (and frankly, I'd love to donate $500 to help put a bad beat on cancer to get 30 minutes of Phil Gordon's time to get a massive crash course on pot odds, implied odds and all the other math because Sklansky just confuses me half the time) but I'm getting better, and could I really ask for more?
The hell with suck outs and brutal beats. I sucked out too and that suck out let me finish in the money (even though I doubt anything will ever beat that rivered hammer straight when I was all-in against K-Qh and caught runner-runner to win, allowing me to play tight-aggressive for the rest of the tournament with a reputation as a calling station which made everyone call or re-raise me with marginal hands).
All things considered, life is good. Brutal beats or not. It's hard to be mad when I still made money at it.
Posted by puckett at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2006
Lucking out is only letters removed from sucking out ...
Hot on the heels of a post about a good hand holding up is a post about a good hand getting cracked. I was starting to get a little short-stacked and made a bet at a pot. Little did I know that there would be three callers - two of whom I could have survived. The one I couldn't have survived turned over pocket rockets to my q-5 suited. See what happened next ...
PokerStars Game #4405791409: Tournament #21469597, Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (1000/2000) - 2006/03/25 - 04:35:55 (ET)
Table '21469597 48' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: angs69 (16340 in chips)
Seat 2: sectarian (48997 in chips)
Seat 3: palmac87 (2763 in chips)
Seat 4: buddahbelly (2955 in chips)
Seat 5: fitzinabox (2725 in chips)
Seat 6: tymelessryde (52564 in chips)
Seat 7: Cayoss (4220 in chips)
Seat 9: puckett101 (13665 in chips)
angs69: posts the ante 100
sectarian: posts the ante 100
palmac87: posts the ante 100
buddahbelly: posts the ante 100
fitzinabox: posts the ante 100
tymelessryde: posts the ante 100
Cayoss: posts the ante 100
puckett101: posts the ante 100
tymelessryde: posts small blind 1000
Cayoss: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [5h Qh]
puckett101: raises 11565 to 13565 and is all-in
angs69: folds
sectarian: folds
wzoom2 is connected
palmac87: calls 2663 and is all-in
buddahbelly: folds
fitzinabox: folds
tymelessryde: calls 12565
Cayoss: calls 2120 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [5s 8d 5c]
*** TURN *** [5s 8d 5c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [5s 8d 5c 4c] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tymelessryde: shows [Ah Ac] (two pair, Aces and Fives)
puckett101: shows [5h Qh] (a full house, Fives full of Queens)
puckett101 said, "sweet jesus, it's magic."
puckett101 collected 18890 from side pot-2
Cayoss: shows [As 3d] (a pair of Fives)
puckett101 collected 4371 from side pot-1
palmac87: shows [Ks 8s] (two pair, Eights and Fives)
puckett101 collected 11452 from main pot
Posted by puckett at 03:51 AM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2006
River suck-out
iamhoff sent me this one earlier :
I called the blinds, but bailed out after two people went all in. Summary, AA cracked when JJ rivered a straight.
PokerStars Game #3618834184: Tournament #17962546, Hold'em No Limit -
Level III (25/50) - 2006/01/12 - 23:12:44 (ET)
Table '17962546 1' Seat #9 is the button
SAM711: posts small blind 25
jblbillw: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iamhoff [4h Ad]
Jack Spade79: calls 50
iamhoff: calls 50
heatman333: folds
Curtis18: folds
barbarellla: raises 2480 to 2530 and is all-in
Dahm0041: calls 1235 and is all-in
SAM711: folds
jblbillw: folds
Jack Spade79: folds
iamhoff: folds
*** FLOP *** [2c 8s Ts]
barbarellla said, "nh"
*** TURN *** [2c 8s Ts] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [2c 8s Ts Qd] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
barbarellla: shows [Jc Jh] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Dahm0041: shows [As Ac] (a pair of Aces)
barbarellla said, "lool"
barbarellla collected 2645 from pot
barbarellla said, "ciao brrrrrrrro"
Posted by terry at 06:38 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2005
What The Hell?!?
The odds of this happening to me have got to be astronomical.
PokerStars Game #3370029383: Tournament #16700159, Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2005/12/18 - 17:50:16 (ET)
Table '16700159 1' Seat #8 is the button
Seat 3: Solberg1905 (4604 in chips)
Seat 7: kaellinn18 (4816 in chips)
Seat 8: mdtfuel (4080 in chips)
Solberg1905: posts small blind 100
kaellinn18: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to kaellinn18 [Jh Td]
mdtfuel: calls 200
Solberg1905: calls 100
kaellinn18: checks
*** FLOP *** [8c 9c 7d]
Solberg1905: bets 600
kaellinn18: raises 4016 to 4616 and is all-in
mdtfuel: folds
Solberg1905: calls 3804 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [8c 9c 7d] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [8c 9c 7d 9h] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Solberg1905: shows [Tc 9s] (a full house, Nines full of Tens)
kaellinn18: shows [Jh Td] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
Solberg1905 collected 9408 from pot
kaellinn18 said, "COME ON!!"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9408 | Rake 0
Board [8c 9c 7d 9h Ts]
Seat 3: Solberg1905 (small blind) showed [Tc 9s] and won (9408) with a full house, Nines full of Tens
Seat 7: kaellinn18 (big blind) showed [Jh Td] and lost with a straight, Seven to Jack
Seat 8: mdtfuel (button) folded on the Flop
Posted by kaellinn18 at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2005
The divine hammer ...
This really should also go under suck outs ...
PokerStars Game #3308227521: Tournament #16383757, Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2005/12/11 - 20:39:15 (ET)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [2d 7s]
The Mop: calls 20
puckett101: raises 120 to 140
jb1033: calls 140
007Beno: folds
nick001: folds
cobray: folds
jordan325: folds
fisherlady55: folds
Flomethod: calls 120
The Mop: calls 120
*** FLOP *** [4c Kd 5h]
Flomethod: checks
The Mop: bets 80
puckett101: raises 1080 to 1160 and is all-in
jb1033: folds
Flomethod: folds
The Mop: calls 1080
puckett101 said, "grin"
*** TURN *** [4c Kd 5h] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [4c Kd 5h 6c] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
The Mop: shows [Kh Qh] (a pair of Kings)
puckett101: shows [2d 7s] (a straight, Four to Eight)
puckett101 said, "rofl"
puckett101 collected 2890 from pot
Flomethod said, "ugh."
Ladies, gentlemen - that's how you play the hammer. Welcome to the river - come on it, the water's great.
Addendum: That hand in the very early stages won the entire tournament for me. It doubled me up and made me chip leader which allowed me to bet harder and recover from calls quicker. I went on to win the whole thing with a full house after calling a short-stack all-in with 9-7 off-suit and flopping two pair, then catching a 3rd 9 at the turn. Let this be a lesson - don't fear the reaper. Fear the hammer.
Posted by puckett at 01:38 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2005
What a way to go ...
What a nice way to finish a Saturday's poker playing. The last three people got there with three hands of pocket kings in a row, myself included, which decimated the table, taking out at least one other person each hand. Two of us flopped sets to seal the deal. And then, just to cement a great final table of outstanding play with good cards ... this.
PokerStars Game #3295593485: Tournament #16314551, Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (1000/2000) - 2005/12/10 - 15:37:02 (ET)
Seat 7: puckett101 (46865 in chips)
Seat 8: Rvrfish (20635 in chips)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [Kh 9c]
Rvrfish: raises 18535 to 20535 and is all-in
puckett101: calls 18535
*** FLOP *** [Th 7h Ah]
[Ed: At this point, he has paired his ace and I'm seriously dogged.]
*** TURN *** [Th 7h Ah] [Jd]
Rvrfish said, "hmmmmm"
puckett101 said, "nh :)"
*** RIVER *** [Th 7h Ah Jd] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
puckett101: shows [Kh 9c] (a flush, Ace high)
Rvrfish: shows [Ac 5d] (a pair of Aces)
puckett101 said, "oh damn."
Rvrfish said, "dMWDCJBN"
puckett101 collected 41270 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Seat 7: puckett101 (big blind) showed [Kh 9c] and won (41270) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 8: Rvrfish (button) (small blind) showed [Ac 5d] and lost with a pair of Aces
Tournament over. Thank you very much. I'm off to go dog paddle in the river some more.
Posted by puckett at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)
Speaking of utter slop ...
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [5h 8d]
puckett101: calls 50
ChipKickers: raises 250 to 300
puckett101: raises 465 to 765 and is all-in
ChipKickers: calls 465
*** FLOP *** [Ah Kh Qh]
*** TURN *** [Ah Kh Qh] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [Ah Kh Qh 6s] [6h]
puckett101: rofl
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ChipKickers: shows [9s 9c] (two pair, Nines and Sixes)
puckett101: shows [5h 8d] (a flush, Ace high)
puckett101 collected 1580 from pot
puckett101: sorry man :)
chelle2212: NH
puckett101: thank you, but let's be honest. that was crap.
puckett101: it was a crap hand and a crap suck out.
ChipKickers: i blame society
puckett101: a five-high four flush.
Posted by puckett at 06:23 AM | Comments (0)