EDIT - fairly amusing HH at the very bottom if you just want poker stuff. Part 3 is related to the upcoming blogger battle so you might want to read that too. If you have time to kill, Part 1 and Part 2 are probably ok too.
Part 1 - "Old Car"
I always joked with the guys at my previous job that I was like an old car. Once I get going, I'm fine but it takes forever for me to find that groove. This applied to work. I would get into work, boot up my laptop, get coffee, stop by someone's cube, chat, catch up on a few things, finally get back to my office where I would plop down with what is now a half a cup of coffee and... I browse the internet. Catch up on some emails. Eventually, I start working. But it takes me a while to get to that point. I'm never one to be able to get to work and start working immediately. And just in case many of you were nodding in agreement, when I say a while, it's at least one hour from the time I get to work to when I actually start working. So, I actually like meetings in the morning. What a good way to ease into work.
Well, this actually translates into many things in my life. For example, basketball. It takes me a while to warm up. I was always that way. When I warm up, I can play well. My body is loose, my shots feel good, etc. But when I hurry to go play and there's no time to warm up, I get tired quicker, my shots are off, and I just generally play atrocious. Last night, we had a county league basketball and that was a good indication. Because of work, I didn't get to the game until like 5 minutes into it. I felt like I was thrust into the game and I played ok I suppose but it just took a while to get going.
And since I told you this will intertwine with poker, I noticed that this is the case for me in poker. It takes me a while to get into the groove. I usually have to "warm up" before I get into a groove. That generally means I have to play in a game that I'm more comfortable in before I play games that are generally out of my comfort zone. For example, heads up matches. Despite my decent success in HUC 5 and my winning streak so far in HUC 6, HU is just not something I play enough of to be comfortable in. So, I noticed that I need to play 2-4NL 6max which is a game I'm getting very comfortable in recently, in order to warm up for the heads up matches. I don't know why, it's just the way it is for me.
Part 2 - Poker strategy posts, where have you gone?
There are poker degenerates... and then there is me. Fuel sometimes emails out HHs from his sessions... and I don't mean a few HHs to analyze but rather the entire session. I am generally one of the very few (I assume) that actually goes through every single hand. Probably sounds boring to most of you. But I actually like that. The analysis is saved for the select few and recently, I made a comment about how blogs for a lot of people are turning into a "I did this and I did that" report which is fine but starting to become thin on strategy posts. I don't know why. I don't know if it's because people no longer want to share their "secrets" or what. For some, I know that it probably got to the point where there's no point in posting to a blog. But there are still some of us that try to post some strategy or HH material. The obvious ones that come to mind are cmitch and gnome. I also try to but with mine, sometimes you have to sift through garbage posts like this one.
One thing I noticed is that I personally have no problem divulging my thought process. If someone thinks I'm thinking incorrectly, I want to know that too. If anyone can benefit from what I post, that's great too. The way I see it, over the past year, the blogging community and the blogs I commonly link/refer to have made me a much better poker player today than I was a year ago. The least I can do is give back to the community that's given me so much. Having said that, I miss seeing deep strategy posts from some of the very successful players. And since I can't get to P5 and 2+2 from my work computer, my "studying" time is kept to a minimum.
This is just a long ways of saying whenever I have a chance to chime in with the guys I respect on way a certain hand is played or how a session is played, I do because it helps me. And never at any point did I feel like someone sharing their strategy made them exploitable. All I thought about was how I can incorporate some of their moves into mine. And if that means I have to sift through a 150+ hand HU match session histories, that is what I will do. I told you I'm a degenerate.
Part 3 - BBT3 is here!!!
I kinda stopped playing in a lot of the blogger tourneys. Because I started playing ball in the mornings, I didn't want to play in tourneys that could potentially force me to stay up till 1:00am. Especially if the stakes aren't high enough. I know a lot of people play the blogger tourneys for fun but again, I just didn't want to get stuck in a situation where I am up until 1 or 1:30, just to win a few hundred bucks. I know I sound high and mighty but it's really not like that. I just felt the cost/benefit ratio in terms of money, sleep, and bball in the morning just wasn't worth it to me for me to play in the blogger tourneys that all start at 10pm EST. However, this is about to change for obvious reasons. You can go here for all the details. I'm assuming a seat to the WSOP is involved. I mean if BBTwo winner was going to Australia for a $18k package, a $12k package to go to the WSOP ME is a no brainer right? Whatever it is, I want it.
Part 4 - Just cuz I have this HH... there's a donkey at every level.
And some things just cannot be explained...
Full Tilt Poker Game #5246390462: Table Cranwood (6 max) - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:37:30 ET - 2008/02/13
Seat 1: LooseKnit ($400)
Seat 2: willw9 ($400)
Seat 3: Luffy-san ($653.70)
Seat 4: RecessRampage ($386)
Seat 5: JeffSqueak ($193.10)
Seat 6: tammi62 ($141)
tammi62 posts the small blind of $2
LooseKnit posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Kc Qh]
willw9 folds
Luffy-san raises to $14
RecessRampage calls $14
JeffSqueak folds
tammi62 calls $12 <--- SB
LooseKnit folds
*** FLOP *** [7c 8s Ks]
tammi62 checks
Luffy-san checks
RecessRampage bets $35
tammi62 calls $35
Luffy-san folds
Since he didn't reraise preflop for a squeeze, I didn't put the SB on AK. I figured him for a K, a spade draw, or maybe a straight draw.
So, when the safe card on the turn falls, I thought I was overbetting for value (if he has a worse K) or pushing out the draws.
*** TURN *** [7c 8s Ks] [5h]
tammi62 checks
RecessRampage bets $116
tammi62 calls $92, and is all in
RecessRampage shows [Kc Qh]
tammi62 shows [As 4c] <--- sometimes, my read is sooooo off
*** RIVER *** [7c 8s Ks 5h] [9c]
RecessRampage shows a pair of Kings
tammi62 shows Ace King high
RecessRampage wins the pot ($297) with a pair of Kings
tammi62 is sitting out
A-high. Calls off stack for the sucker end of a gut shot straight draw. Impossible to put him on that hand. Well played by the villain to truely conceal his holding. I never would have guessed A4o. Tricky tricky.
7 comments:
Hilarious HH.
Yeah, I agree that more strategy posts on certain blogs would be very welcome (including mine, as I feel my game is stagnating due to insufficient study).
Fairly obvious that you were just trying to get aggressive with a flush draw, so a call there with Ace-high is an easy one, imo.
I'm with you on posting hand histories and letting everyone know what I was thinking during a hand. I'm at a point in my development as a poker player that I need feedback. The stakes are getting higher and it'll get costly if I can't plug up some leaks before they happen at the table (or before they happen more than once or twice).
As for Part 4 of your post, I was sure I'd see one of the hands I recently played and posted. I can confirm that there's at least one donkey playing the $1/$2 limits at Full Tilt and Stars.
That HH was the rare and elusive bluff call.
1. you are a slacker, get back to work.
2. I've heard of hand histories like this, I dream of them, i've even seen 1 or 2, just never against me. Actually, you are lucky he didn't spike an ace, that would be more normal.
3. fuel's comment, so funny.
4. get back to work.
LOL @ A4.
I intentionally stopped doing strategy posts. I had people give me grief for posting strategy on my blog.
I see a lot of these hands down at the microstakes. Guess you've forgotten your roots, haha!
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