I haven’t been posting much recently due to my move and lack of connectivity but I thought I might redeem myself with a catch-up posting here.
First off, last night I was at a jackpot table last night. I had 9Ts in late position, flop comes AAA. I figure I’m probably beat and I’m drawing dead but the flop gets checked around. Turn comes a T giving me a pair so when first position bets and the player to my right raises I’m now thinking:
1. Somebody has a jackpot hand.
2. Nobody has the jackpot hand and I might still have the best hand against someone bluffing with a high card. Worst case scenario is to check-call it down for 2 more big bets (the current raise to me and the bet on the river) and have aces over tens beat.
River is an 8 and it goes check, check, bet, call, call. Early position turns over KK and the player to my right turns over AJ. Four of a kind beating aces over kings and obviously beating my aces over tens. Jackpot for $3/$6 was over $11,000 so KK took home almost $6k, four of a kind took over almost $3k and the table split up about $500 each.
Minus the jackpot I ended up down about $60 for the evening. Almost all of that $60 came in the last half hour with some bad beats. I could have probably clawed back to even but it was 4am and I was dead-tired. The entire evening was basically a tug-of-war over break even. At one point I went 5 complete orbits without getting a hand worth seeing a flop with. Obviously, I’m not complaining because the jackpot was a nice touch but it’s one of those reminders of boring the game can be sometimes.
One of the players at my table was actor Troy Evans [photo]. He didn’t play poorly but several of us sitting next to him threw out some tips to him like, don’t raise small pocket pairs pre-flop. After the jackpot hand we were joined by Mr. SlowRoller. This guy was a complete jerkoff. He would let someone turn up top pair or two pair while he just kept saying “I have absolutely nothing,” and then when the dealer demanded he show his hand he would flip up a straight or flush. At first I think several people thought he just didn’t know what he had but after the third and fourth time and then watching him grin ear to ear it was quite obvious what he was doing. Mr SlowRoller was also Mr. ActingOutOfTurn and Mr. SpeakingSpanishToTheDealer too which didn’t win him many friends at the table.
Strange hand of the evening: I have AQ in EP and raise it up. I get re-raised by a LP player and the flop comes A88. I figure the only hands he has that can beat me at this point are AA, AK since only a moron would play A8 for a raise and only a stone cold idiot would re-raise with A8. I bet out to see where I’m at and he just calls. The guy is a calling station and bluffer extrodinaire so when he just calls I’m quite relieved because I figure that I’ve got the best hand now. Turn is bet-call when the Q comes giving me two pair. Then I bet out on the river and he raises me. I start scratching my head. The river was a fairly junky card (I don’t remember exactly what it was but I remember being relieved when it hit) so I don’t think he would raise pre-flop with just that pair. I was right, he didn’t re-raise with a crappy pair. I call and he flips up 78s.
A minor rant: Ok, so over the six hours I was playing last night, three different guys did this:
Sat down, waited for the BB, played a few hands and then went off to smoke or go to the bathroom. About a half hour later they come back, wait for the BB again, play a few hands and then take off again. In an hour and a half they’ve seen only about 8 or 10 hands and they’re tying up a seat. What makes it worse is that they usually come back from their break, win a big pot and then get up from the table and leave.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it happens all the time but $3/$6 seems to be a level you get a lot of regulars who aren’t quite good enough to (or can’t afford to) move up in limits so these folks tend to act like they own the casino a little more than they do at the lower limits. They sit out of hands to talk with the other dealers or the floorman, they switch seats every time someone leaves the table, they ask for setup changes every fourth deal, etc. Not that I’m an expert at higher limits but I’ve not seen this *as much* at the NL tables. Obviously, you’re going to get jerks at every level but, for the moment, I’m sticking with the theory that $3/$6 tends to be the home for most of them.
The amazing and magical WPT T-Shirt: Being unfamiliar with my new hometown of Huntington Beach, current HB resident and poker freak, Zengy invited me out to one of his favorite eateries the Lazy Dog Cafe. I got there ahead of him and had been wearing the WPT t-shirt I had won at the taping the week before. When I walked in, one of the hostesses said “Oh my god, were you on TV? I love that show!”
After my $2000 challenge I’ve had nothing but wild online swings up and down for the month of August. I admit, I haven’t playing with the same frequency as I had but I’ve gone from being up $700 to being down $400. I don’t know if this is just a $3/$6 thing but it seems like this has become some sort of standard move:
Several callers see the flop. Flop comes up fairly uninteresting and a middle or late bettor gets several calls. Turn is equally uninteresting and the same bettor bets again, likely with top pair, and gets some callers. River comes up another uninteresting card and then some late player comes alive and check-raises. Everybody calls and he flips up a set.
Now, it’s not like I’ve never seen this before but in the last month or so it just seems like that’s become the defacto standard in how to play a set. I’ve even seen these knuckleheads come alive on the river when three or four to a flush is on the board. I don’t even think they realize how easily a set can be beat if you give away cheap cards like that.
Another hip new play I’ve been noticing is the flush draw raise which I think might be the result of Ed Miller’s SSH. Flop comes two suited cards and you bet with top pair and get raised. You slow down a bit and check-call to the river to see them turn over a busted small flush draw.
Next week I’m off to sunny hurricane ravaged Florida so I may not be posting much. Why you may ask. Because my dad owns a condo in Panama Beach and we made plans back in January of this year. I’ll bring my camera and get some photos.