I drove out to Harrah's Cherokee today--first time in a couple of months. It was one of the wackiest, up-and-down, roller-coaster sessions I can remember ever having.
I started with $300 in play. Within 30 minutes that was down to $95 because of a nasty one-two punch. One was being on the bad side of AA versus KK. Two was flopping top set (queens), versus the nut flush.
I rallied back to $280 with a few small pots, then trapped a guy for all his chips on a flop of A-Q-x with my A-Q against his A-K.
Lost some with my A-J versus a short stack's A-Q, all in before the flop, flop jack high, looking good for me, but then he rivered a four-flush to beat me.
Lost about $100 more with Kc-Ks on a flop of 5c-6c-10c, versus a young woman's 5d-6d. All-in on the flop when we were both almost exactly 50% to win. I didn't catch.
Just as I was texting Nina to whine about my rotten luck, I had 9-4 offsuit in the big blind, unraised pot. Flop 9-9-4. A guy with a bigger stack and A-9 in his hand called my flop and turn bets, thinking he was trapping me, then raised me all-in on the river, giving me a clean double-up. That put me up to $356. (Flopping a full house is an advanced skill. I've been honing my technique for years now. Please don't try this at home.)
Finally, the same young woman whom I had raced before gave me her whole stack of nearly $200. I had Ac-Kc. Flop had three more clubs. (Yay, crubs!) She check-called my bets on the flop and turn with a straight draw, got there on the river and paid off my all-in bet. Only six river cards win me her stack there--it had to complete her straight but not put a scary fourth club down.
The whole session was just crazy luck, some of it good, some of it bad, but just enough more of the former than the latter that I left with $547, a $247 profit.
Probably the most skillful thing I did was walk away before the roller coaster took another plunge.
Addendum, July 11, 2014
The flopped full house hand became the jumping-off point for a whole post from Rob: http://robvegaspoker.blogspot.com/2014/07/to-slow-play-or-not-to-slow-play.html
Sunday, July 06, 2014
Remember: it's a skill game
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9 comments:
Yesterday, in the ME, my friend I came out here with lost twice (in raised pots) to the mighty 2-4. He has heard me preach about it, and now believes. Just as the 10-2 is called a Brunson, he calls 2-4 "The Grump."
For me, a player raised (I had 2-4 off) and it was re-raised to me (I admit I folded), and all in after the flop with A-A vs. K-K. Yes, I admit I was a big chicken. The turn was a 2 and the river was a 2, just as all advanced poker players knew would happen.
I have sinned, and need to reaffirm my faith, I'm afraid.
#Idiocy
Better lucky than good...
Mojo, I'm glad you recognize your sin and weakness. I'm also glad that the poker gods saw fit to give you such a powerful demonstration of your foolishness.
I absolve you. Go and sin no more.
Welcome to the bingo machines that are Pokerpro in Cherokee. Not saying it's rigged, but geared for action. One Cherokee roller coaster 150 hand session had quads 4 times, losing twice, getting paid the other 2, and got one outed with straight flush vs my top boat. Total for day was down $50.00 which had up to $1200.00 in 30 min.
I do enjoy the 1/2 PLO and PLO/8 bingo games when they run, as these are closest thing to ATM on the reservation.
Nice session. I'm curious about the flopped boat hand. I think most players--myself included--would have slowplayed that instead of betting out. Yet you bet out and got called twice, then you were raised on the river, which is awesome.
Why did you lead out tho? I actually flopped a boat last nite in unlimped pot. The guy first to act bet a whopping $2! Three of us called. When he bet another $2 on the turn, I felt that in order to get some value for my hand I had to raise at least something, so I made it a modest $10 thinking I'd sure get a call or two. But no, they all folded. Damn.
So I'm really curious about your betting there instead of slowplaying it.
Rob, the short answer is that the pot was small, with no preflop raise, and I wanted it to be big. The way to change a small pot into a big one is to put money into it. There were 5 or 6 limpers, so it seemed likely that at least one of them would come along for the ride with some sort of inferior hand.
But at this point, I have to say how deeply hurt I am that you do not have my entire 7 years of archives memorized. If you did, you would surely already know the answer, as this is something I've discussed in much more detail at least twice before:
http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/2012/01/you-shouldnt-have-bet-that.html
and
http://pokergrump.blogspot.com/2012/04/betting-versus-check-raising.html
I apologize for not passing the Grump memory test. I'll try to do better. Thanks for the links, interesting reading as always.
Perhaps I can get a post of my own out of it in the near future. No more than 75,000 words, I promise.
I'm curious, Rob, now that you've read those old posts and had a little time to digest--do you find the arguments persuasive? Contrived? Do you think you might do something different than your habitual slow-play next time you flop a monster?
Yes, Grump, definitely food for thought. I was serious tho about doing a post about the subject.
My current Vegas trip has come to end, and I intend the cover the subject in depth relatively soon.
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