30 Oct 08 Poker recap – Last Saturday
This is a repost from my old poker blog. I will be making these available as I don’t want to lose some of those postings. Hopefully you will enjoy these the second time around.Well I told everyone that I would give a recap of what happened last Saturday. As I mentioned before it is a ring-game (not a tournament) with a $5 buy-in. Most people buy-in for $10 but I don’t usually feel a need to do that. In any case I felt like the old me. The old me is aggressive most of the time. The old me will push on draws and made hands. The old me was happy when he played because he felt that others were afraid of him (it might not be true that they are afraid of me but the old me though so). Recently however I have been timid. I have been off my game. Last Saturday I was back.
There was really only one hand that I hated how I acted. I was in earlier position than Turd-Head (his name has been changed to protect him from you federal marshals but he really is a turd-head so I hope the nick-name sticks). The flop is A-9-J with 2 hearts. I bet my top pair and get a call from Turd-Head. Now I know what was going through my head and I won’t share it here as Turd-Head will have to pay me for that information but at this point I start putting him on every damn hand but the one he really has. The turn is a blank and I check. Turd-Head checks behind me. The river is a 10 (no flush possibility) and I bet. Turd-Head raises me by putting all of his blue chips in. I ask him how much it is and he says $10 but it turns out it was more like $8.50. The only hand I am really afraid of here is K-Q and I just can’t seem to put him on that. I make the call and sure enough… K-Q is what he has. No doubt he is a Turd-Head but I hated the way I played that hand. I was too timid on the turn and that is the way I have been playing lately. I hate being timid I can’t swing and make knockouts if all I do is jab or block. I played that so badly all the way around.
In the end I was down $2 for the night. I was very happy with pre and post Turd-Head hands. I just really needed to pull my head out of my butt after that hand and I was able to do just that. Unfortunately another oportunity to beat his rear never surfaced before I had to go home.
Good game Turd-Head!
Tags: Hold 'em, Poker, Ring-Game, Tournament, Turd-Head
25 Oct 08 Poker Recap
This is a repost from my old poker blog. I will be making these available as I don’t want to lose some of those postings. Hopefully you will enjoy these the second time around.This last Saturday I played in a $50 buy-in cash game. I ended up buying in for a total of $80 throughout the night but I walked out with $140 so it was “all good”. The most interesting part about the game was that most of these people play in a bi-weekly game that has a $5 or $10 buy-in so I thought there would be a large amount of “pucker factor” and tighter playing. I could not have been more wrong! The blinds were $0.25 and $0.50. Standard raises were between $2.00 and $3.50. Without exception there was always at least 4 people in to see the flop. It was a lovely game in that regard. Everyone just had to see the flop and they were willing to pay for it. I have never been happier to be in such a game.
The players were awful. A hand in particular caught my attention as an example of how bad the players were:
The button is on Player “X”. Five people limp in. Player “X” makes it $3 to go. As usual most of those that limped called the raise as well. The flop is something like 3-8-A of hearts. Everyone checks to Player “X” who bets $5 (about 1/3 of the pot another regularity at that game). He only gets one caller, Player “A”. The turn is the 10 of hearts (yes four to a flush on board) and Player “A” checks. Player “X” bets $10 (about 1/3 of the pot :rolls eyes:) and Player “A” calls. The river is the 9 of spades and Player “A” checks again. Player “X” bets out $50 and Player “A” goes into “the tank” to think it over. Finally after much pain he says “Well I call but if you have a heart you have me beat” he then flips over A-10 off-suit for 2-pair. Player “X” has an odd expression on his face that says to me he wasn’t even aware that there were 4 to a flush on board. He looks at his cards and flips over 7-9 of diamonds for a middle-pair on the river. Man how I wish I had better cards against these guys!
All-in-all it was an entertaining night. I look forward to many more to come! 
