Running Bad

Over the past few days, I have been running incredibly bad. It's not due to playing marginal hands for raises out of position, or simply playing over my head or on tilt. Rather, the variance of the game is against me right now. I have dropped a number of sit and go's to suckouts and bad beats. I've had Aces cracked three times by smaller pairs and had Kings cracked a couple of times by unsuited connectors and smaller pairs. It can get very frustrating, but you have to understand that bad beats are a part of the game. It's not sexy and can really start to effect your confidence and your approach to the game. The worst thing you can do is play tentative hoping to not take another bad beat. However, if you do this, you are only inviting another one to happen. When you take a beat, you need to step back for a second and think about the hand you just played and if there was a way you could have played it differently. If you can't think of a way you could have, try to get your mind back on track and prepare for the next hand.

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about. I had JJ in the cutoff. The player under the gun raised three times the big blind. Everyone folded to me, and since I would have position throughout the hand, I decided to just call. There's no reason to get in a race with a medium or small pair. This is especially true when you have a stack of more than 30 times the big blind, which I did. I also had the player in early position covered by about 500 so it made simply calling that much stronger. I was either going to catch a flop that was favorable to my hand or get away from it. The flop came down perfect for my hand, J-6-4 with two hearts. He checked to me. My thought process when I flop a set is to not slow play it. You will make more money in the long run if you bet out your sets than if you try to slow play them. So I bet about 2/3 of the pot. I don't know what he was thinking, maybe I was stealing or what. But he decided to check-raise me all in. His check-raise was about 3 times the size of the pot. I knew that if he had an overpair, which I thought he had, he would be a substantial dog drawing to only two outs. If he had an underpair, he's an even bigger dog. If he had a hand like AK of hearts, he's about a 2:1 dog. I knew he was the kind of player that gets frustrated when he thinks people are stealing from him and will try to re-steal, even if he's out of position. Of course I called, and he showed a pair of 10's with the 10 of hearts. Sure enough, he got runner runner to catch the flush. This hand pretty much sums up the way I have been running over the past couple of days.

On a side note, I have started to multi-table sit and go's. One thing I have found is that when I play one table, my results have been mediocre at best. Mainly because of the run I'm on right now. However, all of the multi-table sessions I have played so far, I have cashed in both tournaments. It's probably because there is always a hand to play, and keeps me from playing a lot of marginal hands. It also keeps my mind off of any bad beats I take. When I took a beat, there was already another hand to play so I had to move on. I couldn't seeth over what just happened and had to get my game back on track. In sum, the best advice I can give you is to understand that bad beats are going to happen. Aces against a random hand will win about 76% of the time. That means that they will lose about 24% of the time. No hand is a lock, unless you flop the mortal nuts and can get someone to overcommit to the pot. And that's where bad beats come from. You flop a strong hand, and you get a weak player to overcall or make a move at a pot when they are a substantial dog and they get lucky. Don't fret or get upset about that player being a donkey or a fish. Those are the players you are going to make your money from. Don't teach them that they play poorly or they may start to learn how to play the correct way. I try to reinforce their behavior so they will pay me off in a big way later by thinking they are playing well. Statistically, if you keep getting your money in with the best of it, you will get paid off in a big way.

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.

First Final Table

I finally made my first final table since starting over. I played in the $17,5000 guarantee on Full Tilt on Thursday. It was a decent tournament with some pretty good players. However, there were quite a few very loose players who would call re-raises with some very weak hands out of position. But for the most part, it was a good tournament.

I got my hands on a few chips early, and by the fourth level I had around 6,000. So I was sitting pretty with the blinds pretty small. It gave me more leverage and a chance to steal the blinds a little more liberally. In the middle stage of the tournament, a key hand came up. I got moved to a very loose table. This table was the epitome of loose. Every hand was being raised and re-raised. And for the most part, the players were showing some very weak hands down. A very loose player opened the pot with a raise, and I looked down with 88. Against a tight opponent, it would be a marginal call. However, I knew this player was very loose and a re-raise would probably get him to fold and give me the pot right there. The blinds were 3000/6000, and he opened for 18000. I re-raised to 45000 with about 50000 left. The guy on the button re-raised all in and the small blind called. Thank god I had been paying attention to the table and knew that these two had been going at it for a while and they were both quite loose themselves. With only 50000 left, I was pretty much pot committed, especially since there was way too much in the middle to fold. So I called as well. I had 88, the re-raiser had A8 and the caller had KQ off. Nothing bigger than a 9 hit the board and I more than tripled up. I was sitting second in the tourney with 22 players left.

From there, I was pretty much cruising along. We got down to about 12 players left when I took a beat to a three outer. I had AQ in the small blind in a limped pot. The early limper was a tight passive player, and was known to limp raise with AA and KK. So I just wanted to see the flop instead of trying to play two card chicken with AQ. The flop was perfect for my hand QQ10. There were two spades, so I wanted to find out if there were any draws. I bet about 2/3 of the pot, and the early limper called. The 8 of spades came on the turn, and the early limper only had about 77,000 left and there was 96,000 in the pot. So I decided to bet enough to put him all in. He went in the tank and typed in, "Did you bet on the come?" I knew I had him when he typed that in. I said nothing, and with only a couple seconds left, he called off the rest of his money with KQ off. He didn't even have a spade in his hand. So that dropped me down to about 6th place.

For the rest of the tournament I played pretty well. I made one mistake with 10's in early position that left me short stacked at the final table. I went out in 7th place. All in all, I'm happy with the way I played and was just happy to have finally made a decent score since I started my journey. I have one token left, and will probably play it some time at the beginning of next week. To recap, in the four tournaments I have played so far, I have made the final table once and have finished in at least the top 25% each time. I am quite proud of that, especially since two of those tourneys I couldn't buy a hand to save my life.

Well, I leave you with that. In my next blog, I'll begin the lesson plan. As always, if there are any questions, or comments, drop me a line. Good luck at the table.

First of Many

Since my last blog, I've played in three tournaments. I played the $24,000 and twice in the $28,000 guaranteed tournaments. I didn't cash in any of them. I went out in the top 25% in each tournament, so I was pretty proud of that. Especially because after the second level, I went completely card dead in all of the tourneys. Out of 421 hands, I saw a playable hand about 7% of the time. By playable I mean a hand you would like to see a flop with. However, when the pot is raised and re-raised, those hands quickly shrink up. I might have been able to make a move if I knew that my opponents' were playing loose. However, the table was playing pretty tight and everyone else was showing down strong hands. So, I was unable to do anything about it and just had to wait for an opening I could try to exploit.

In the first tournament, I accumulated some chips pretty early. I had a pair of kings and got paid off on them by a player with jacks. I slowly grew my chip stack, and was playing really well. Then the tank went dry and the blinds went up. The best hand I saw in about an hour was A10. To me, it looked like aces. I was in late position, nobody entered the pot, so I decided that since I only had about 10 times the big blind, it was a good place to push all of my chips in. The guy on my left, quickly called off about 2/3 of his chip stack with AJ off. I got no help on the flop, and I was out.

In the second tournament, it was pretty much the same song and dance. I was staying above average, then couldn't get a hand better than J8 or K7. Almost an identical situation knocked me out of this tournament. I found AK in late position, and pushed all in for about 9 times the big blind. The player in the small blind called off about half of his stack with 10's and I was gone. In the third tournament, I was playing aggressive and fairly tight early on. We started with 3000 in chips, and I slowly built my stack to about 5000 by the third level. In the first three levels I saw AK, A10 off, KJ suited, 77 and 22. For the rest of the tournament, I didn't see any other quality hands. It was getting frustrating looking down and finding Q4, 73, 62, J5, for the next hour and a half. I was getting blinded off quickly and had to find a spot that I could try and exploit. Again, in late position, nobody entered the pot, so I shoved with KJ off. I only had about seven times the big blind. One of the chip leaders at my table called with 55. I didn't get any help on the board, so I was out in 361st place. Here's a snapshot of the starting hands I had to work with for the tournament I played in today, and the sit 'n go I won later that night. I'll give you a hint. I didn't get queens once during the multi-table tournament.

These tournaments were pretty interesting. The sheer number of know it all players and the level of loose aggressive tendencies was shocking. I don't know how many times I saw raise, re-raise, all-in with some very marginal hands at best. Then the ranting afterward about how the other player was an idiot and a donkey. One hand in particular was quite funny. One player made a small raise, and got two calls. The flop came J-10-9. The raiser bet the pot, the +2 called. A blank came on the turn, and the raiser bet twice the pot, enough to put the other player all-in. He called. The raiser had 10-9 and the caller had A-J. A jack hit the river and all hell broke loose. The complaining started and the insults were flying. First off, I think they both played the hand rather poorly. Sure two pair can be a powerful hand. However, it is quite easy to get counterfeited. One of the first things you should understand about bottom two pair, is that you have to play them very cautiously. Not only that, but with a flop of J-10-9, there are a lot of possible draws that are actually the favorite at this point. Why overcommit yourself to the pot when you don't have to. The blinds were small, he should have tried to make smaller value bets and see what happens at the river. When the jack hits the river, the only thing he can beat is a bluff, and he would have been able to get away from the hand.

For the most part, these tournaments had some very good, solid players. You can make moves and bluff players off of their hand. However, you have to have some quality hands from time to time as well. When you are playing at a tight table, the books tell you that you need to play more loose. However, when a tight player raises ahead of you, and you look down at 62, the only thing you can do is muck. That pretty much sums up my tournaments over the last couple of days. The few times I did try to make any moves, somebody would wake up with a better hand. That's poker.

So, one of the things I need to fix in my game, is to continue to play aggressively and switch gears when the table dynamics change. I am doing really well in the single table sit 'n go's. I have cashed in 8 out of 12 tournaments. However, in the multi-table tournaments, I need to work on my middle tournament strategy. I have accumulated chips well in the early stages. So I need to continue to keep the pressure on my opponents and play position whenever possible. If I notice that a player has made a weak limp in early position, and got a couple of calls, I should try to raise those players more often. The worst case scenario, is that you get re-raised by a player in one of the blinds. Well, I'll leave you with that for now. Good luck at the tables.