Knowing when to Hold 'Em: Great fun!

March 2004

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Great fun!

Wow, I had a blast yesterday morning. I played in a $3 or 750 Ultimate Points, Hold'em multitable tournament. This is the cheapest multitable that I know. 170 players started at 6 a.m. my time. I finished 6th - and busted out at 9:20 a.m.

I saw some horrible play, and some great play. And I also watched others play!

I must admit that I should have finished in the top 4 - but I tilted a bit at the final table (I was late meeting some friends).

Starting out, I tried to remember everything that I have read on other Poker Blogs and the links to the left. Given that this was a multitable, survival was the key early on. I played very tight for the first two hours. When I finally had a big stack, I used it to bully the small stacks. My luckiest hand was an all-in on AA. My opponent had 99. The flop had a 9, but the river was an A. There is justice!

I won $25 (not a great amount per hour). The learning and enjoyment were worth much more than a $3 investment. I love winning, and would love to build a huge bankroll. But even more important at this stage of my poker career is the sheer fun of competition and the daily learning.

I highly recommend these cheap tournaments as great fun for the value.

If you are not a member of UB, and are considering joining, please email me so that I can be your sponsoring member. We both benefit significantly from your first deposit!

February 09, 2004 in My general musings | Permalink

Comments

This is a good website. I like reading the commentary and then being able to add my own reflections. From what I've read most of the players on blog are probably a step less experienced than myself in their poker careers which is cool because I can pass some of my hard earned knowledge along. (I like theorizing about poker almost as much as I like playing) I have been on the worst slide of life on both on the felt and online the last month. Part of the reason is that a series of personal issues have been affecting my play and the other half has been some sheer bad luck on the river, so tonight I decided to play the low limit 2/4 game at Foxwoods and start out playing the "Phil Helmuth super tight for beginners strategy" with a few tweaks.(Don't call four bets with 77 and don't be afraid to raise in late position with A J being the notable exceptions) Since I was playing Phil's basic concept to start I was thinking about the man whom I consider to be the baby king of poker. The thing I have noticed from watching him as well as reading about him and hearing third person accounts is that he is clarvoyant and can see his oppenents cards. I've seen Phil make so many great laydowns that I shake my head when I hear dumbasses at the low limit tables bashing his game. The guy makes millions every year, is regarded by the pro's as one of the handful superstar's in the poker world and hasn't had to work a day in his life and some meat man losing his shirt at the 2 /4 table claims that he is a shitty card player because he whines alot. Any way back to the essential point, now that I got that out of my system.
Once you master basic poker skills it truly becomes a game of instincts and when you develop your insticts from countless hours at the table you have to learn to trust them. Here is an example of a hand tonight where I did everything Hellmuth would have done except for one key ingredient: TRUSTING MYSELF. I was dealt AA in late position and raised ( I almost always fast play aces,I wrote my theory on that if you want to post back)and I got all three limpers calling. Immediatly I sensed my own nerves as I knew that my chances of being sucked out in a four way pot were very strong. I often get more nervous when I have the best hand than when I am bluffing because I'm just waiting to get a miserable beat. The flop came down a pretty picture for me Jd 8s 2c but to my suprise there was a raise and a reraise on front of me. I went into the tank for a minute ( would a player in early postion slow play JJ or 88 rather than trying to isolate themselves in advantage situation?)I three bet the flop in order to find
out where I was at, and the original raiser immediatly capped it. He has a set of jacks dammit, I said to myself as I called the raise. Damn who plays two jacks this way. WTF. On the turn card he immediatly threw another raise into the pot and the one remaining fool between the two real hands finally decided to fold. Three jacks I kept telling myself as I called the turn and the river. Whats the difference between me and the great Phil Hellmuth there? We both started with the best of it and then deduced where we were at on the flop in the same fashion however that is where the great play diverges into my amueter foolishness. My poker instincts allowed me to understand the exact hand that I was up against but instead of laying down the best hand on the turn showing the aces and gaining even more respect from my fellows at the table I checked and called two more bets into the trash and let a player employing poor strategy(not raising jacks in early position then allowing an easy read on his hand by excitably capping the flop when there is no real logically draw to beat him)to take two more bets from me. The morale to the story is this: Trust your gut instincts. Depending on how good you are 60% to 95% you'll be right and the times that your wrong all you'll be doing is passing a hand you would have played passively any way. Furthermore you'll inspire fear in your opponents who realize that you won't pay off second best hands. They will cower at your raises and lay down draws that could beat you in future pots because they will feel that they are unlikely to get paid off even if they do get there. RESPECT IS EVERYTHING ON THE POKER FELT. By the way, besides a few silly mistakes like the one i listed I had a good night and felt my confidence returning today. I should have won about 250 but I walked out up 150 and happy to have played B- poker. I hope this tip helps whoever reads it so keep playing tight and aggressive and stacking monster pots.
-Micheal Corloene

Posted by: Matt | August 05, 2004 at 11:56 PM

Posted by: Matt | August 05, 2004 at 11:57 PM

I went down to foxwoods on today Monday evening expecting to find a fairly tough table since it was a weekday afternoon however to my suprise I was situated at the loosest table full of suckers imaginable. For three hours I suffered the bane of watching bad players play bad cards horribly. My holdings were way to shitty to play so I was reduced to being a spectator and thinking what could have been. After I took a bad beat I counted out my chips and realized I was only down twenty five bucks. Then I had a nice run of cards and went up about two hundred bucks. All I had to do was wait and four suckers paid me off all the way to the river on a hand that was capped pre-flop! One idiot had an A 3 off suit!
I wanted to write about playing AK since that was the hand that made my rush today but also cost me a few bucks on a couple occasions. Big slick is a hand that plays well in a multi-way action pot since it is essentially a drawing hand but you must proceed very carefully unless you flop the nut flush draw. If you flop the nut draw in limit poker I would advocate raising or reraising on the flop. Unless someone flopped two pair of a set than you are a favorite against a made top pair. The more money you get a fish to committ to the pot the more likely they will pay you off on a later street, plus betting gives you the added advantage of being deceptive since most people will not bet a draw. Trust me, pumping up the pot in this situation will lead to monster payoffs when you do make your hand and when you don't you probably would have been calling anyway. One more note is that in a multiway pot do not pay off the river unless you get there, A high is a hand that has just about no chance. The second situation with AK is when you flop top pair. With this hand I would rather flop kings than aces because alot of bad players love to see flops with Ace rag hands so when the ace hits the board there is always a possibility that someone flopped two pairs. When you flop top pair with AK you must be very aggressive on the flop in order to find out where you are at. If you reraise and someone three bets you, or even more poingnitly if someone caps the flop you are probably in trouble, but I suggest you pay for this information before the betting limits double. In a multiway pot be careful of drawing hands, count out which cards are likely to beat you and commit to throwing your hand away on the turn if someone raises when one of those trouble cards hits the board. EVery so often you will throw away the best hand by playing like this, but keep in mind that most of the time in a big pot someone is drawing for a flush or calling with the second pair on board. If the drawing cards missed than continue raising, if you are reraised than you are probably up against a set. So in retrospect the important thing about AK is to be aggressive when you have it. If someone steals the lead from you on the turn then 8/10 you should throw your hand away. Shit happens man, although big slick is the fourth best starting hand in Hold'em it gets beat by rags all the time in limit poker. If you can't be a raiser don't be a caller. Keep in mind that top pair is not a good drawing hand and if you feel like you're beat you probably are. Peace.
Michael Corleone

Posted by: Matt | August 16, 2004 at 11:20 PM