Poker Update

We just finished playing our weekly home game. It was an interesting tournament, to say the least. It didn't start out the way I thought it would, but that's the beauty of poker. Now, I always preach that you need to know what kind of player you are up against, and you should always play aggressive and preferably in position. All night long, I followed my own advice, and was playing position exceptionally well, and was watching and pouncing on the other players when I knew they were weak. I was reading most of players incredibly well, and made some big laydowns in the process. What was surprising about our game tonight was the level of loose/passive play, and the sheer number of loose calls, and weird plays that were made. That is not typical of the players in our game.

For this first two rounds of the tournament, I raised a few hands in middle to late position, when nobody had entered the pot. I got away with a few blinds, and never really picked up many big hands. But I was in high gear, and was looking to build my image. I love to play small ball, so early in the tournament, I was taking a lot of stabs at small pots, to try and slowly build a stack. Mission accomplished. I was slowly building my stack and just cruising along. In the third round, the blinds were 150/300, and I had about 25,000. There were two limpers, and I'm in the small blind with QQ. So, I raised to 1,500. Just to give you a little insight. I raise my standard 2.5 - 3 times the blind, plus whatever the other players have limped for. So, 900 plus the 600 they limped for, voila 1,500. I get an insta-call from the early limper. The flop came 6-7-8 with two diamonds. I watched her as the flop came down, she liked the flop, but I knew her range in this spot was pretty small. She wouldn't call a raise from early with J-10, or small suited connectors. I bet out 2,600 into the pot of 3,900, and she insta-shoved on me. I stopped myself and thought about her possible hands. AK, AQ, AJ or diamonds.....no. Set? She would have raised me, but not 6 times my bet....so, no. Overpair, like 9's, 10's, or J's? Very probable. I decided to go with my read, and called. She had 10's...good call Jay. UGH....she hit a 9 on the river to complete her inside straight draw. I ended up rebuying, and trying to get my head back in the game.

When we got to 6 handed, I made a great call against a LAG. I had position, and knew I could outplay him on the flop. So, I called and we saw a flop. QJs in late, the flop came Q-10-8. Not bad for my hand. Top pair, decent kicker, inside straight draw. The SB bet out, and he went all in for 11,000+. Again, I thought about the hand, and what kinds of reads I picked up on him. I had a ton of chips at this point, and decided to trust my read. Sure enough, he had Q9, and my jack played. Another one bites the dust.

Later, I took Joy, the one who sucked out with the 10's, out of the tourney. I was in the BB and was getting 2.5:1 on a call against a short stack shove. Pretty much forced to call with 10-8 suited. I hit an 8 and she was gone. When we got to three handed, I kept switching gears and was chipping away a lot of small pots. Johnny, did his standard slowplay. I got out of a few traps, and ended up frustrating him. I kept making small raises and small bets on ragged flops, or dangerous flops. On the button I raised 2.5 times the blind with JJ. He re-raised, and I put him all-in. He called with 77. No help for him, and he was out. I continued the same pattern heads up. I made most of my raises between 2.5 and 2.8 times the BB. I raised the button about 75% of the time. I got Jesse to commit all of his money on a gutshot straight draw, I flopped a set. Tournament over.

There was one notable hand earlier in the tournament. I was in the SB, and a tight player open limped under the gun. A tricky, loose player raised about 6 times the blind in the highjack seat. I look down and have JJ. I tried to get a read on the hand and on my opponents. Long story short, I picked up a reliable tell from him and knew that he had KK. Not AA, not QQ, but I knew he had KK. I folded my hand, and the tight player folded theirs. I took a minute before folding, and he said, "tough folding an ace?" When the other player folded, I flipped my jacks up and said, "nope, just knew I was beat. I know you have kings." He smiled, then realized that I just told him his hand. He started babbling about how he could have had AK, or 10's and the such. So I made him a bet. I bet him $20 that he had KK and nothing else. He started laughing, and said that he couldn't take the bet, then showed exactly KK. Like I said, I have been reading my opponents really well for the past few months.

Well, I won another tournament, time to get another string together. Good luck at the tables, I'll update the online side of my game sometime soon. I'm going to start playing a lot more live cash games and tournaments, so I'll keep you updated on my results.