Friday, June 1, 2007

Riverchasers... and a funny story!

Thursdays are generally my basketball night but since I've tweaked my back, I haven't been playing for a while, just to let it heal up good instead of trying to play through it and aggravating it. Back pain is one thing I don't mess with. So, anyways, instead, I played in the Riverchasers tourney on FTP and even though I felt like I was solidly chipping up, I busted 19th out of 57 players when I jammed with AK preflop and got called by the chip leader (or at least top 5 chips) who had pocket 10s. 10 on the flop sealed the deal and I was out... bummer, considering I felt like I was playing well.

Well, the starting table was relatively quiet until a few people got moved around and Pushmonkey72 came to our table. While NewinNov was entertaining us with the live commentary on the Spelling Bee contest on ESPN last night, Pushmonkey72 had a funny story. I initially copied the chat log cuz I thought it was hilarious but it's not fair to take his story and make it mine so if you want to read it, go to his blog or click here. It's kinda sad that we find this story funny... I guess that's what happens to online poker playing degenerates...

A Recess Rampage??? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... too funny. I could see how it could be a hit or miss though... many people going to check out what this funny story is could be disappointed... if you are, again, you have to be a little sick I think...

I'll post a May recap later but last night, I played cash game for a little while before the tourney started and winning over a buy-in at the 2-4NL helped bring my May total over 4 digits. Considering this has been a rough month which at times looked like it might become my first month down in a long long time, I was pretty happy about that. Having said that, there was one sick suckout that I dropped on someone else last night in a hand that I thought was ahead... (granted, the guy had a short stack so I played it the way I did).


Full Tilt Poker Game #2553976693: Table Wetlands Park - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:57:17 ET - 2007/05/31

I'm up to $570 at this point and the villain had $213 before the hand started.
I'm dealt AK so I raise pot sized to $14 UTG.
Villain in UTG+1 calls and I kind of don't like that call. I mean what do you call a UTG+1 raise from a fairly tight player with? Pocket pair? AK, AQ, AJ?
Folds around to the BB who also calls the extra $10 and we go 3 handed into the flop.

*** FLOP *** [8s 2d As] (pot = $42)
BB checks
RecessRampage bets $34 <--- bet TPTK
Villain calls $34
BB folds

I had mixed feelings about the call. I had no info on the villain so I had to base my reads on my impression of him based on his stack size. At this point, based on the preflop actions, I figured the possible holdings would be 22, 88, or Ax. I felt like if he hit it hard with a hand like 88, he would raise because a) there's a flush draw and b) it's gotta be pretty obvious that I like my hand. So, I started thinking that maybe he has AQ or AJ or a moderately high pocket pair like 10s and above that maybe he couldn't let go. (I don't know if he bought in short but if he bought in full, he's already down $200).

*** TURN *** [8s 2d As] [5s] <--- I have the Ks so this is actually not a bad card
RecessRampage checks (I decided to stick with my read of him having AQ or AJ so I'm ahead AND I have a nut flush draw on the river... perfect time to trap, I thought)
Villain bets $68 (into a pot of $110)
RecessRampage raises to $316 (he had less than a $100 behind so no way I'm gonna fold)
Villain calls $97, and is all in (quick call... uh oh, did he slow play a set?)
RecessRampage shows [Ac Ks]
Villain shows [Ah Ad] <--- oh snap!

Well, thank you river!!!



*** RIVER *** [8s 2d As 5s] [3s]
RecessRampage shows a flush, Ace high
Villain shows three of a kind, Aces
RecessRampage wins the pot ($439) with a flush, Ace high

Hey, nothing wrong with things going your way. :)

4 comments:

Fuel55 said...

Wheeeeeeeeeeee ! We all deserve a break once in a while.

Alan aka RecessRampage said...

In my defense, at least when I pushed, I had 9 outs... does that make it a little better?

No?

Ok... :)

Schaubs said...

Do you ever recommend buying in short? say for the minimum?

Alan aka RecessRampage said...

This is a comment I left on Schaub's blog and a response to his comment on mine:

Variance does suck. And no, I would never recommend anyone buying in short... unless, they don't think they can beat the game. It limits the moves that you can put on someone and also, it commits you to a pot way too early. Depending on the texture, by the turn, you're already pot committed because your stack is less than what's in the pot. It just depends I think but I feel that if I have the edge in cash games, regardless of the variance (which we all have to ride through), I want to make sure that my double up opportunity is for the max cash. Now typically, I don't reload (I should but I don't and I actually can't explain why) but again, I think it's important to have enough in your stack for set mining opportunities also. Like if you bought in for $80 at 1-2NL, what would you do, if you are dealt 88 and there's a limper and a guy with 200 raises it bigger to $15? Would you still call? You're getting bad odds because even if you hit (you know the odds so I won't even go into that), AND double up, you didn't have the right odds to do it.

I just think that if you're comfortable with buying in $80, you should be hitting the $.50/$1 NL games. I am convinced that you can make as much if not more doing that and buying in at the max, rather than trying to hit the higher level with a shorter stack.

PS, no matter what you did, I doubt that dude with TT woulda gone anywhere preflop.