anatomy of a bad session
subtitle: how to waste four hours, in two parts.
1. go to brantford charity casino, sit at 5/10. notice table is too tight to overcome the rake, change tables to the new one opening up up front. smile at the 80% to flop average for the first 20 minutes. then start catching cards only to have queen high draw out on you not once, but twice, maybe three times if you're lucky. proceed to win a total of 3 pots in four hours without making a single discernable mistake. smoke a cigarette, kick a puppy, lose 36 big bets before feeling the tilt coming on, even just a little, and get up and leave.
2. enter the 20k on the ongame network. rebuy immediately, play 2 hands in the first orbit (JJ, AQ, fold the latter to a raggedy flop checkraise), then proceed to get zero legitimately playable hands until the end of the second hour. steal with utter air to stay afloat, and add on in the process. go on a brief but wicked run of cards, going from a stack of 3500 to 17k in three hands (QQ, AQ, AA) by getting paid off on each. recommence stealing, work your way up to the final two tables playing pretty brilliant poker including folding top pair in a blind battle to a read on a flush draw that got there, then proceed to go card dead and steal 55 into JJ for a 181 dollar payday in a field of horribly weak/tight idiots.
ok, let's reflect a bit. in the first bad night, i can see some good things and some bad things coming out of all that mess.
good: noticed when a table got too tight, noticed that the night crowd, which is always much worse, was forming a new table, and left a table where i was up slightly to join the new, better table. noticed tilt coming when they started just mopping the floor with me with their three outers and left before i started playing anything less than my best.
bad: to be honest, it's terrible that i let myself tilt at all in such a juicy game as that one. by not keeping my head in line, i probably lost out on at least 30-40 big bets over the course of a night. i really need to work on making myself go out for a smoke or some such thing when i take a vicious beat, taking a brief walk, and clearing my head so that i can laugh those sorts of things off. like, really.
as for the second night (that being tonight), well, there's not much to say other than that it felt very, very good to finally feel like i was at the top of my game for the entirety of a 5 hour tournament, especially as i gear up for my world series events in a couple weeks. i've been working on getting back the same, relentlessly aggressive style that i utilized during my run of 2005, and to be honest, tonight was the first time that i really felt like i was running on all cylinders again. i've still got to get better, though, if i'm going to go anywhere in those wsop events.
and let's try some hand discussion, shall we?
this wasn't a very important hand in the grand scheme of things, but it was one that i think i played differently than i have been over the last couple months--and in a good way.
ongame 20k, blinds 600/1200, about 70 runners remaining just after the bubble
hero (t60,000, give or take) is CO with AhTh.
all fold to hero who raises to 4000. button (t16,000-ish) cold calls, sb (t30,000-ish) reraises to 7300, hero calls, button jams for 16000, sb calls, hero calls.
now here, i KNOW i'm in serious trouble. the button has pulled this cold-calling on me before with a big pair (the only time he's ever tried to defend against my LP raises, which i'm doing every time it's open from the CO, button, or SB) so i'm probably drawing dead to an ace against him. but then there's the big blind, who's probably got my ace dominated the other way. he probably DOESN'T have another big pair, or he would have jammed after the button did so. my thinking, then, is this: since the button is already in, i'm really only calling a flop bet if i hit a ten, draw, or a straight or flush. if an ace falls, i'm out. discipline.
sure enough, the flop comes all rags, and the sb jams (guess i misread him, whoops, i think at the time). even though i'm looking at calling only 13k in a gigantic pot, i am still sure that i need 2-card help to get at the main pot, so i toss pretty easily and keep a stack of just over 35k. sb flips up AdQd for a flush draw, button shows KK, and i breathe a sigh of relief. nh, me. (button takes it down on a bricked turn and river)
why is this hand important? well, i think it illustrates a sort of situation that a lot of people (including myself circa 2 months ago) would try to avoid--getting into a huge pot, even with the proper odds to do so at every step of the raising way, with a marginal holding. now before, i would have probably tossed to the button's push considering my read on him. but tonight, i was actually EXCITED about getting into a situation where i might make a huge score and end up with a chiplead of nearly twice second place, and if i miss, well, i'm still in the top ten. those are the sorts of risks that it takes to win tournaments, and they're not the sort of risks i've been taking lately, until tonight at least.
and another hand, the only one i really think i messed up during the tournament:
blinds 800/1600 (i think--maybe still 600/1200), about 50 runners left.
hero (t50,000-ish) open raises MP3 with KcQd for 5000. CO (t27,000, same guy as button above, cold calls again, bb (t15,000) calls as well (an odd play from the bb, but he's terrible, so whatever).
flop comes Tc6c7c. bb open jams for a little under 10,000 more.
now here's a spot where i REALLY wish that the ongame network gave you more than 15 seconds to make a fucking decision. here i am, sitting with the second nut flush draw and two overs, and i've got to think about what's going on pretty intensely. now, if this hand is heads up against the bb, i've got a pretty easy call against what could pretty much be any two cards that caught any piece of the board. but what i'm worried about is the cutoff, who has not done anything to show me that he's calling with anything less than a big pair. now here, i'm really just thinking in terms of what is going to happen with the cutoff, since i've already determined that i have to call the big blind's open push. so let's play it safe, and say that the cutoff has a big pair. KK and QQ are unlikely considering my cards, so let's say he's got JJ, TT, 99, or AA (at this time in my thought process, i timed out and folded, fucking bastards--give me a time bank). with any of those cards, he's probably calling, and the only one that makes a call here a terrible one is AA with the ace of clubs. now if i had had the time to think all that through, i probably end up calling here. but i time out and fold, and the hand plays out.
the cutoff instacalls, the big blind flips up 89o for a flopped straight sans flush draw, and the cutoff flips up QQ with the queen of clubs. sure enough, the turn comes the 4c and i lose out on a gargantuan pot to the lack of a time bank. thank you, ongame network. my read was generally correct here on the cutoff (though of course, i didn't think KK or QQ was likely since i had one of each), but i was pretty much flabbergasted by the play of the big blind, as i had been all night. oh, well, back to stealing blinds.
but really, there was a lesson in all of this, maybe even two: first, that aggression really fucking pays off; and second, that trusting your reads and taking the time to think through hands pays off as well. all night long, i was open raising absolutely any two cards (unless i had utter trash and had raised the two hands prior) in the CO, button, or SB, and that relentless stealing had allowed me to stay in a tournament through two long periods of having seriously no cards to speak of. raise preflop, continuation bet 1/2-2/3 pot if it was HU, and fold to a raise. i was fortunate to be at a weak/tight table for most of the tournament, but regardless, this was a good sign for my tournament game as i gear up for vegas. and of course, my reading ability is coming back, perhaps even better than it ever was when i was running so well in 2005. i was pretty much spot on in my reads on almost every hand that mattered, and i acted in accordance with them when ongame allowed me the time. let's try to keep that up.
1. go to brantford charity casino, sit at 5/10. notice table is too tight to overcome the rake, change tables to the new one opening up up front. smile at the 80% to flop average for the first 20 minutes. then start catching cards only to have queen high draw out on you not once, but twice, maybe three times if you're lucky. proceed to win a total of 3 pots in four hours without making a single discernable mistake. smoke a cigarette, kick a puppy, lose 36 big bets before feeling the tilt coming on, even just a little, and get up and leave.
2. enter the 20k on the ongame network. rebuy immediately, play 2 hands in the first orbit (JJ, AQ, fold the latter to a raggedy flop checkraise), then proceed to get zero legitimately playable hands until the end of the second hour. steal with utter air to stay afloat, and add on in the process. go on a brief but wicked run of cards, going from a stack of 3500 to 17k in three hands (QQ, AQ, AA) by getting paid off on each. recommence stealing, work your way up to the final two tables playing pretty brilliant poker including folding top pair in a blind battle to a read on a flush draw that got there, then proceed to go card dead and steal 55 into JJ for a 181 dollar payday in a field of horribly weak/tight idiots.
ok, let's reflect a bit. in the first bad night, i can see some good things and some bad things coming out of all that mess.
good: noticed when a table got too tight, noticed that the night crowd, which is always much worse, was forming a new table, and left a table where i was up slightly to join the new, better table. noticed tilt coming when they started just mopping the floor with me with their three outers and left before i started playing anything less than my best.
bad: to be honest, it's terrible that i let myself tilt at all in such a juicy game as that one. by not keeping my head in line, i probably lost out on at least 30-40 big bets over the course of a night. i really need to work on making myself go out for a smoke or some such thing when i take a vicious beat, taking a brief walk, and clearing my head so that i can laugh those sorts of things off. like, really.
as for the second night (that being tonight), well, there's not much to say other than that it felt very, very good to finally feel like i was at the top of my game for the entirety of a 5 hour tournament, especially as i gear up for my world series events in a couple weeks. i've been working on getting back the same, relentlessly aggressive style that i utilized during my run of 2005, and to be honest, tonight was the first time that i really felt like i was running on all cylinders again. i've still got to get better, though, if i'm going to go anywhere in those wsop events.
and let's try some hand discussion, shall we?
this wasn't a very important hand in the grand scheme of things, but it was one that i think i played differently than i have been over the last couple months--and in a good way.
ongame 20k, blinds 600/1200, about 70 runners remaining just after the bubble
hero (t60,000, give or take) is CO with AhTh.
all fold to hero who raises to 4000. button (t16,000-ish) cold calls, sb (t30,000-ish) reraises to 7300, hero calls, button jams for 16000, sb calls, hero calls.
now here, i KNOW i'm in serious trouble. the button has pulled this cold-calling on me before with a big pair (the only time he's ever tried to defend against my LP raises, which i'm doing every time it's open from the CO, button, or SB) so i'm probably drawing dead to an ace against him. but then there's the big blind, who's probably got my ace dominated the other way. he probably DOESN'T have another big pair, or he would have jammed after the button did so. my thinking, then, is this: since the button is already in, i'm really only calling a flop bet if i hit a ten, draw, or a straight or flush. if an ace falls, i'm out. discipline.
sure enough, the flop comes all rags, and the sb jams (guess i misread him, whoops, i think at the time). even though i'm looking at calling only 13k in a gigantic pot, i am still sure that i need 2-card help to get at the main pot, so i toss pretty easily and keep a stack of just over 35k. sb flips up AdQd for a flush draw, button shows KK, and i breathe a sigh of relief. nh, me. (button takes it down on a bricked turn and river)
why is this hand important? well, i think it illustrates a sort of situation that a lot of people (including myself circa 2 months ago) would try to avoid--getting into a huge pot, even with the proper odds to do so at every step of the raising way, with a marginal holding. now before, i would have probably tossed to the button's push considering my read on him. but tonight, i was actually EXCITED about getting into a situation where i might make a huge score and end up with a chiplead of nearly twice second place, and if i miss, well, i'm still in the top ten. those are the sorts of risks that it takes to win tournaments, and they're not the sort of risks i've been taking lately, until tonight at least.
and another hand, the only one i really think i messed up during the tournament:
blinds 800/1600 (i think--maybe still 600/1200), about 50 runners left.
hero (t50,000-ish) open raises MP3 with KcQd for 5000. CO (t27,000, same guy as button above, cold calls again, bb (t15,000) calls as well (an odd play from the bb, but he's terrible, so whatever).
flop comes Tc6c7c. bb open jams for a little under 10,000 more.
now here's a spot where i REALLY wish that the ongame network gave you more than 15 seconds to make a fucking decision. here i am, sitting with the second nut flush draw and two overs, and i've got to think about what's going on pretty intensely. now, if this hand is heads up against the bb, i've got a pretty easy call against what could pretty much be any two cards that caught any piece of the board. but what i'm worried about is the cutoff, who has not done anything to show me that he's calling with anything less than a big pair. now here, i'm really just thinking in terms of what is going to happen with the cutoff, since i've already determined that i have to call the big blind's open push. so let's play it safe, and say that the cutoff has a big pair. KK and QQ are unlikely considering my cards, so let's say he's got JJ, TT, 99, or AA (at this time in my thought process, i timed out and folded, fucking bastards--give me a time bank). with any of those cards, he's probably calling, and the only one that makes a call here a terrible one is AA with the ace of clubs. now if i had had the time to think all that through, i probably end up calling here. but i time out and fold, and the hand plays out.
the cutoff instacalls, the big blind flips up 89o for a flopped straight sans flush draw, and the cutoff flips up QQ with the queen of clubs. sure enough, the turn comes the 4c and i lose out on a gargantuan pot to the lack of a time bank. thank you, ongame network. my read was generally correct here on the cutoff (though of course, i didn't think KK or QQ was likely since i had one of each), but i was pretty much flabbergasted by the play of the big blind, as i had been all night. oh, well, back to stealing blinds.
but really, there was a lesson in all of this, maybe even two: first, that aggression really fucking pays off; and second, that trusting your reads and taking the time to think through hands pays off as well. all night long, i was open raising absolutely any two cards (unless i had utter trash and had raised the two hands prior) in the CO, button, or SB, and that relentless stealing had allowed me to stay in a tournament through two long periods of having seriously no cards to speak of. raise preflop, continuation bet 1/2-2/3 pot if it was HU, and fold to a raise. i was fortunate to be at a weak/tight table for most of the tournament, but regardless, this was a good sign for my tournament game as i gear up for vegas. and of course, my reading ability is coming back, perhaps even better than it ever was when i was running so well in 2005. i was pretty much spot on in my reads on almost every hand that mattered, and i acted in accordance with them when ongame allowed me the time. let's try to keep that up.
posted by jamie at 12:14 AM
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