On the theme of laptops…
Feb 242006
Feb 242006
Another week down and the laptop still hasn’t been returned. I’m stuck on this old, struggling Linux machine that unfortunately just doesn’t cut it for playing poker.
Thanks to those who’ve sent e-mails/left comments about the blog, great to know people are enjoying my ramblings. I promise I’ll be back with the regular postings just as soon as my laptop is back in my hands.
Fingers crossed that will be this week sometime… see you then!
Feb 172006
True Poker Player
Two couples were playing poker one evening. John accidentally dropped some cards on the floor. When he bent down under the table to pick them up, he noticed Bill’s wife, Sue, wasn’t wearing any underwear under her dress! Shocked by this, John, upon trying to sit back up again, hit his head on the table and emerged red-faced.
Later, John went to the kitchen to get some refreshments. Bill’s wife followed and asked, “Did you see anything that you liked under there?”
Surprised by her boldness, John courageously admitted that, well indeed he did.
She said, “Well, you can have it, but it will cost you $500.”
After taking a minute or two to assess the financial and moral costs of this offer, John confirms that he is interested. She tells him that since her husband Bill works Friday afternoons and John doesn’t, John should be at her house around 2 PM Friday afternoon.
When Friday rolled around, John showed up at Bill’s house at 2 PM sharp and after paying Sue the agreed sum of $500 they went to the bedroom and closed their transaction, as agreed. John quickly dressed and left.
As usual, Bill came home from work at 6 p.m. and upon entering the house, asked his wife abruptly. “Did John come by the house this afternoon?”
With a lump in her throat Sue answered “Why, yes, he did stop by for a few minutes this afternoon.”
Her heart nearly skipped a beat when her husband curtly asked,”And did he give you $500?”
In terror she assumed that somehow he had found out and after mustering her best poker face, replied, “Well, yes, in fact he did give me $500! ”
Bill, with a satisfied look on his face, surprised his wife by saying,”Good, I was hoping he did. John came by the office this morning and borrowed $500 from me. He promised me he’d stop by our house this afternoon on his way home and pay me back.”
Now THAT, my friends, is a poker player.
Feb 172006
I have to apologise for the lack of posts over the past few days, my laptop is “in the shop” having a few repairs done. Long story short it means no poker playing for me 
Unfortunately it probably won’t be back until the end of next week at the latest… any tips for surviving the withdrawal symptoms?
Feb 132006
Yesterday I played in a friendly home game hosted Jo, a poker playing friend of mine.
As is tradition with these games it was a low buy in tournament with the emphasis more about getting together and playing cards rather than the money and with 6 players we decided on a $5 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, with $20 awarded for first and $10 for second.
So how did I do? Well, it was up and down … mostly down. I decided to stray a little from the usually tight game I play at these tournaments (being only 6 handed I figured I could get away with it) and while it worked early (I doubled up after my K7o flopped two pair and Matt my opponent went all-in with a bluff) it failed miserably later (lost quite a large pot playing K9o when Suse’s K4o hit two pair on the flop 
) then on the bubble it was catastrophic:
With only the blinds left to play (blinds were $50/$150 at this point) I decide to try a steal and pushed all-in. My thinking here is that four handed A9c is a strong hand and if I don’t get the blinds I’ll likely get a call from a king or a queen. Of course you know what they say about the best laid plans, Jo in the SB folds (so far, so good) then Suse in the BB asks “How much is that?” although what she meant to say was “Bad move, sucker!” and flips over:
*
Just to tease me the flop came two clubs, the turn was a Queen and my third club never came. I was out in fourth.
Jo was next out in third (sorry I have no memory of this hand, amazing how quickly you lose interest after being knocked out ) and we went into heads up play, Suse vs Vaughano with stacks about even.
Things were progressing rather slowly when Suse was dealt AA in the big blind, Vaughano called and the dealer (in a moment of extreme stupidity) dealt a flop before Suse had a chance to respond!
* Crowd gasps in horror, there is much murmuring about the best way to kill the dealer *
Needless to say I wasn’t popular (yes, I was responsible for this atrocity!) to make matters worse, Vaughano had:
*
On a jack high flop, which some might say put Suse in a nice position. That is until the turn:
When Suse proceeded to move all-in only to see a river:
Giving Vaughano the full house and chip dominance and making me the most unpopular person in the room (except, of course, with Vaughano). After this hand there was a fair bit of debate one, about how to dispose of my body without arousing suspicion and two, about the correct procedure for dealing with this kind of dealer error. Some argued that the whole hand should be re-dealt (including hole cards) which would clearly put Suse at a disadvantage given her huge preflop advantage, others argued a re-deal of the flop which again didn’t seem fair to either player (Suse was still in a good position after the flop). It seemed to me at the time that allowing the hand to continue was the fairest option for both players, though I wanted to investigate it a little further so that we’d know how to handle dealer errors correctly in the future. Searching the web I came across this:
“If cards are flopped by the dealer before all the betting is completed, the entire flop is taken back and reshuffled. The burn card will remain and no additional burn card will be used for this flop.”
Which in hindsight is fair enough and I propose we use this rule for future dealer mistakes (which are bound to happen, none of use are professional poker dealers).
In the end though, my life was spared as over the next 10 hands or so Suse played some of the best short stacked poker I’ve seen in a while (ok I’m sucking up a little… really sorry about the whole AA thing Suse!) to get back even with V. Then a few hands later, they were both all-in preflop:
Suse:
*
Vaughano:
*
Flop:
* the third card may not have been a 5, but it was an insignificant rag.
Turn:
The river was a rag and Suse had her revenge and took first place with an unlikely, though well deserved, straight!
Final Standings:
1. Suse ($20)
2. Vaughano ($10)
3. Jo ($5 – We allowed one rebuy after Matt was knocked out early)
4. Me
5. Jono
6. Matt
Congratulations to all the money winners, I look forward to the next game soon!
* = Don’t remember the exact suits of these hands
Feb 112006
That’s right, my limit downswing has officially ended!
Being my first big downswing in limit poker I learnt a lot from the experience, it’s not about the money (at the levels I play at the money is almost insignificant), it’s about becoming a better poker player.
The best poker players in the world are all going to go through down periods, it doesn’t matter how well you play the game it’s guaranteed that at some point you’ll hit a rough patch.
That said, I believe it’s how players handle themselves during these periods that is part of what separates good players from the great ones. I can honestly say, with hindsight, that during my downswing I didn’t always handle things exactly as I should have. There were times when I went on tilt, played too many hands, got angry at the fish and their miracle river cards and made things worse. In the end though I found my game, got stuck into it, stayed calm, concentrated and over a period of nearly 2000 hands I’m back to playing my winning game.
Does this make me a great player? No.
Does this mean I’ll never have another downswing? Of course not, in fact it’s likely (guaranteed?) that along the way I’ll have even bigger downswings.
At the end of the day it’s about experience, this was a new experience for me and I feel I’ve learnt a lot from it.
This is poker, it takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. Experience counts!
Feb 102006
Ok, I’ve been way slack with these. Good poker jokes are hard to find. Plus I keep forgetting
Anyway, I found this amusing:
Drunk Man Confusing Online Poker With Real Poker
Couldn’t actually be real could it? Funny either way.
Ben Roberts over at Full Tilt has written an interesting article on keeping your cool when things don’t go your way at the tables.
Worth a read, especially if you’re prone to the occasional tilt 
So, I’m playing limit hold’em over on Poker Stars and I’m feeling pretty good, working my way out of the downswing (still got a little bit to make up, but that’s neither here nor there).
In the BB I’m dealt the following:
Crap cards right? Well, the action is limped to me and I check to see a flop:
I hit an extremely unlikely straight, a “big blind special” and decide to push. No one is going to put me on these cards. I bet and a player who I have a note for saying simply “clueless” raises, I re-raise and he caps. I immediately put him on a set and begin rubbing my hands together. We see a turn:
A nice safe card for me, if he does have his set I’m a 77% chance at this point to take the pot. The betting is capped again and we see the river card:
ARGH! I’m sure he’s made his full house, but I check-call anyway and he shows me:
to scoop the pot of around 13 BB, what’s worse is this actually put me on tilt for the next orbit or so which while it didn’t cost me any money it did cause me to miss a few extra bets here and there when I was ahead.
To make matters worse, a few hands later in the SB I’m dealt:
The same player as the previous hand raises and I flat call (he’s been raising with anything so it’s hard to put him on a hand here), one other player also calls. The flop comes:
I hit my set on a scary kind of flop but bet out anyway, he raises, I re-raise and he calls, turn comes:
I think to myself “Uh oh, he’s done it to me again” but bet anyway to see where I am, he again raises and this time I call. We see the river:
Putting a straight on the board, meaning at best we’re splitting this thing. I check, he bets and I make a crying call for half the pot. What did he have?
A king high flush (and a better straight, for what it’s worth). By no means was this a bad beat, he had odds to raise that flop with his flush and straight draws (though by the way he had been playing I doubt he knew it).
In hindsight, perhaps I should have been a little more conservative here and folded to the turn raise. Truth is I couldn’t, there was no way I could put a player who sees over 60% of the flops and caps the betting with almost anything on the hand that he had.
When you get beaten, repeatedly, like this by a maniac player you’ve just got to keep calm, take the hit and smile knowing that next time you’re heads up with him you’re likely going to have the cards and experience to take his money.
Feb 072006
It’s 5 handed in a recent SNG and I’m the chip leader. In the SB I’m dealt:
Usually these are pretty useless cards, however, in this case the action had been folded around to the short stack on my right who pushes all-in for what is probably around 20% off my stack. Now, I’m not getting odds to call this bet which looks like a desperate lunge with an ace or a king but I can’t help but feel that I am currently ahead. Being the chip leader I’m almost obliged to call and attempt to knock out the short stack, with the BB to act I didn’t want to risk my 2′s three way so I re-raise. The BB thankfully folds and it’s a race, my opponent turns over:
Which is actually a very slight favourite at this point, I’m guessing due to it’s straight and flush possibilities. We see the flop:
My opponent hits one of their dreaded overcards and I’m now only a 9% chance to win this hand. To make matters worse, the turn:
Pushing my odds down to around 5% chance, but wouldn’t you know it:
I almost felt dirty.
