What Is My Problem?

So after all my work to get back to even I donk it off in spectacular style!  Once again, I'm down $500 for the month.

When will I learn?  Because when I learn, I will be a poker player to be reckoned with.  Until then, i'll just be another guy gambling.  Case in point:

Raise.  Call.  I look at JJ.  I re-raise.  Immediately the guy to my left 3-bets me all in.  Fold back around to me.  I KNOW I'm beat  but I call.  Why?  Because JJ was the nicest hand I had seen in a while and I wanted to play it.  

That, my friends, is not good poker.  I know live play can get boring but that's no reason to play poorly.  And I played poorly yesterday and today and now I've paid the price.  

Until I fix this problem of mine, feel free to be in any pot with me.  

The Dreaded Weekday Evening at the Casino...Not So Bad

It's easy to get the idea stuck in your head that you only find good TAGs (Tight Aggressive) and LAGs (Loose Aggressive) at the casino on a weekday, even at 1/2NL.

So today I bravely ventured the Weekday Warriors at the local poker room. Turns out, it's not so bad after all. It's certainly not spewy like a good Friday night, but it's not some boogey monster. And since spewy sometimes means high-variance, and since I'm not always in the mood for high-variance, it was actually quite decent.

I suffered my first decent hit to my chipstack today in the 7 hours of live play I've put in since swearing off online poker. I had top pair against a flush draw.

Luckily, I had position on my Esteemed Opponent who raises EVERY flush draw. When he check-raised my pot-sized flop bet, I felt quite certain he was raising the flush draw and not two pair or better, which allowed me to comfortably call with my top pair of Queens even with a Ten kicker.

The turn came an Ace and he bet out. I figured if he was on the nut flush draw, he just pulled ahead but I wasn't going to fold to one bet just yet.

The river was another Queen, giving me trips but completing the flush. He checked.

Of course, once he checked the river the Hopelatron in me thought, "Maybe he doesn't have the flush after all." Then I thought better of it, knowing what I know about how he plays flush draws and thinking back to the flop. Not being one to fall into his trap, I checked my trips behind. He turned over the nut flush. So my stack, which was originally $200 was now down to $125.

As I sat folding hand after hand, I contemplated how I played my top pair vs. his flush draw rather than tilt off more chips by playing any two cards. My conclusion: My call of his raise on the flop was fine, however, re-raising/shoving would have been fine as well, if not better. My call on the turn was bad. My check behind on the river was great (not because it was sooo amazing, although I am proud of it [a year ago I would've never checked there], but because he tried to lay a trap that I didn't fall into).

So, I kept folding and picked up pocket Fives utg (under-the-gun). I love playing low-mid pocket pairs, however, not utg. That being said, I can't just fold. So I limped. Why? Because if I get raised, I can call. If I raise utg and get re-raised, I'd have to fold. Luckily, my watch, which I use as a randomizer, agreed with me.

Sometimes my watch is gonna tell me to fold that hand in that position. Sometimes it's gonna tell me to raise. And sometimes limp.  Thanks Dan Harrington for teaching me non-self-weighting strategy. Anyways, back to the hand...

A bunch of people limped as well. I'm not sure how many limpers since my head was down and I was wearing a baseball cap (just a cap, no shades, hoody, or ipod). My Esteemed Opponent, who likes to raise with draws, likes to raise limpers too. He raised 5x the big blind. He really just likes to raise. Now I was still keeping my head down but eyes up so I could see. I called. Two others called. And we're off to the flop...

4h 5d 6h. Success! I got my set...aaannd potential straight and flush draws out there. Isn't that always the case?

My Esteemed Opponent bet $40 into a pot already a little over $40. I wanted to flat call so bad here but the board and the two players still to act kind of forced my hand. I pushed all my chips in ($115, which worked out nicely to basically a standard 3x raise).

Actually, I initially missed one $1 chip and tossed it in once I saw it, apologizing for "so obviously" string betting ;-). The table forgave me and the dealer accepted it.

The two players behind me folded as I had hoped, and my Esteemed Opponent tanked and finally called, as I had hoped. Before the turn was even dealt, and before I'd turned over my hand, he said "Nice hand." The turn was a 4 giving me a full house. I forget what the river was. I turned over my Fives Full of Fours. My Esteemed Opponent mucked.

I'm so curious what he could possibly call with but then admit defeat before there was even another card dealt or I'd shown. Maybe pocket 10s or Jacks. That's my guess. I had the right to see his hand, in retrospect, since he called.

So winning that pot brought me back to even for the month! Well, depending on the exchange rate. Earlier today apparently I was still down $7. Tonight apparently I'm down $8. Freaking exchange rate.

Crazy Friday Nights at the Casino

At a live game, raising 3x or 4x the big blind isn't going to get anybody to fold. Standard raise is anywhere from 5x to 10x (at least in Vancouver). So today, after 3 people limped into the pot, I raised on the button to $15 with AQo. Naturally, every limper called.

So now the pot is $60 and we haven't even seen a flop. The flop comes 2c 7s 10c. It checks around to me, so of course I bet $20. It's a small bet but I've found, when playing live, post-flop bets don't have to be quite as big as pre-flop bets to get people to fold. I get one caller. Pot is $100. My read tells me he's weak so I figure he's on a club flush draw.

The turn is a blank. He insta-checks. I start to think maybe he doesn't even have a draw. I bet $40 which gives him 3.5 to 1 on his money. He thinks and calls. Ok, maybe he does have the draw. Pot is $180. I'm hoping the river doesn't bring a 3rd club.

The river is a blank. No completed flush. He insta-checks again. Now I'm certain he's not strong so I figure a 3rd bullet should do it. Since I'm absolutely sure he was on a busted draw I know the bet doesn't have to be big. I bet $25 expecting a fold. He calls. Uh-oh. Now I'm thinking, "How the hell did I get myself involved in a $230 pot with nothing but A high? I could've sworn he was weak."

I wait for him to turn over his hand because whatever he called with must beat my A high. He doesn't table his hand. Juuust great. He's going to wait for me to turn over my hand since I was the aggressor. Reluctantly, I say "A high" and turn over my AQo. He pauses for a moment and turns over AJo. Lol. I scoop a $230 pot with A high. Not only am I stunned he called 3 bullets with A high, the whole table is as well. My basic read was correct, that he was weak, however, my hand read was wrong.

And that was the start of my Friday night at the casino. Needless to say, I've been running well. +$395CDN in 3hrs total live play this month.

I'm only down $63.06USD for this month now. Crazy.

Anyways, I'm sticking with live poker for a while longer. Even though I don't always know exactly where I stand (clearly, as the above example illustrates), I at least have a better idea.

Regrouping

After starting this month off so well, I hit a downswing and went on life-tilt.  I knew it was time to stop playing online and get back to live poker.

I went to the casino today and had a nice $113 win in a couple hours.

I'm still down for the month, however, I feel better about my game now.  It was great being able to slow down, play 1 table, and read people's body language.  It's also easier to coax information out of people about past hands they were involved in.

So I'm going to ride this live-poker train for awhile since my online game is completely off the rails.  

Less tables + more concentration = better results.

June - New Month, New Start

I ended up finishing May with $148.96 profit.

I'm up $126.05 for June.

Starting this weekend I'm going back to 5hr sessions to earn some decent, daily rakeback.

For some reason Universal Replayer and my PC aren't cooperating, despite the fact that I have the most current version of Java. Should I not get that up and running tonight, I will use CamStudio to record and post an interesting hand from today's session.