I made two extremely crucial wrong decisions in the poker game. Here is the scenario of the first (or at least my best memory). I wake up with pocket aces in the big blind. The person directly after me calls. I get a raise from the last person in the hand. So three players in the hand. Blinds were at 300-600 and he makes it 2,000. I smooth call. Other caller does as well. Flop comes out semi scary for straight possibilities. I believe it was 865. I check. Player 2 goes all in for $8,000. Player 3 calls. I call as well.
Next card is a 4 opening the door for the straight to be fulfilled with a 7. Player 3 goes all-in for a significant amount which would probably be all or most of my chip stack. I agonize over it, then fold, showing the pocket aces. River card is a blank that would have had no effect on any hand. Player 1 turns over something like 8-10, meaning she had top pair on the flop. Player 2 shows pocket kings. I would have taken down this monster hand early in the tournament and probably knocked out two people in one swoop. Instead I handed about half my chip stack over to another player.
I had been very dominant chip stack and now I was run of the mill again. My thinking on the hand was one of them had to have hit a straight or at least trips. Reflecting on that hand today, I realized player 2 probably doesn’t go all-in with a made straight so I should have called if nothing else to take the just as big side pot. I showed a lot of discipline, but disciplined poker is losing poker if you’re not making the right calls. I asked some other players at the table what they would have done and I think one or two said they fold right there too.
What do you guys think? In my poker mind, I’m pretty shaken up about it or at least I was. I think I’m ok now as I realize this was an obvious sign of rust. If I was in more of a rythym pokerwise, I think theres a good chance I do things differently. Or maybe not? Maybe I just gave more respect than was deserved, but at the time all I was thinking was scary flop and two all-ins ahead of my pocket aces. I was sure they were no good and so I put them down. I think what also threw me off was a lot of poker players check down once someone is all-in and they’re just playing for the side pot. I thought player 3 would do this as well. (I actually don’t believe in checking down on a sidepot (with an all-in player) pot when I think I can win more chips but we’ll get into that later.) Anyways, he went all-in trying to get a drawing hand out which probably doesn’t make sense because I would have had a made hand at that point.
So back to the question - well disciplined move with perhaps too much respect for my opponents plays or weak play on my part?
I have about two weeks worth of blogs from the game last night. I even took some pictures to give you some visuals of the 4 1/2 hour marathon. Usually the game only lasts 3 hours give or take but this one was a much longer affair. I finished fourth and the game ended about 30 minutes after I was knocked out. We started at 10 players. I played well overall, but misplayed a few major hands and I believe it cost me the tournament. Some players may have been card dead but I was catching monsters all over and I know a few other players were too. I had pocket aces three times! The eventual winner told me they had pocket aces four times! Third place had pocket kings twice. Another had pocket kings once. Another had pocket aces once. Second place caught pocket aces as well. I had a number of other great starting hands: AJ, AQ, pocket 10s, pocket 9s, pocket 8s. The game lasted a long time, but not long enough to see that many great hands. Next blog entry I want your opinion on what you would have done. I layed down a big hand that would have won the hand. That hurt.
Let’s see if we can get around all the audio and visual effects as well as the constant camera angle turns, then we might get down to some poker tips once Phil Hellmuth gets done talking about all the different colors of karate. In this segment, Phil is talking about online poker and stresses you can make money by having the disclipline to play the same way on the Internet as you do in real life. He says the buttons have made it to easy to raise so that’s what people are gravitating towards.
An interesting detail he included was that some pro players play online, and play bad, because they aren’t used to playing for so low of stakes (only $300/$600). He elaborated that they’re used to playing $4,000/$8,000. Again, how much money do these guys have? That’s an insane amount of money to have as your small and big blinds.
I don’t play online poker. I’m more of a fan of the game and to me online poker is poker at an entirely different level. I prefer to sit at the felt with the feel of my surroundings.
It’s been awhile but tomorrow I touch the felt once again. My hope is that I play good and win so I can write victoriously afterwords. I’ll be sure to give you my blogger-insider point of view rather than my traditional non scrutinizing perspective. Seeing as how I haven’t played cards in awhile, I’m going to play very conservatively to see if that can’t help me last longer. One thing I also want to give you guys is some notes I’ll pick up from other players around the table. None of us take it overly seriously (or at least I don’t think) - well I take it back, I can take it pretty seriously for a $20 buy-in game. When rebuys are flowing, the pot can get pretty serious at a 9 player table. This game I want to avoid rebuying at all costs (if I get bad beat, then so be it) and try to last on $20 alone.
I almost feel as if this blog will help me. I feel accountable to you guys and while I merely convey most of the information on here (a lot of it is tips from others), I still feel like I owe you a decent poker player. I mean besides pure entertainment value, why would you want to read poker thoughts from someone who is clueless? I’ll be representing you tomorrow and so hopefully I bring home a healthy stack of money that I can scan in and show you.
I’ll put in another warm-up entry before the game tomorrow so don’t worry, there are more updates still to come before Saturday. Also, I’m really sorry about my spelling on here. I’ve noticed I have a horrible habbit of writing “tale” instead of tell.
This poker video by Gavin Smith gives me a different outlook on how important the button is, but it’s probably not going to change the way I play. Playing the role of bull of the table just because you’re at the end of the action doesn’t mean translate to winning for me. I absolutely love slow playing monster hands. I do it all the time because people are hammered with the idea of aggressive play. Don’t get me wrong, I am pro aggressive play, but you shouldn’t always be aggressive - especially against other smart players. If you’re going to play the button hard you better really sense weakness - especially with a large field. Where I think it’s a great strategy is when you actually do pick up a hand on the button and you play it as if you’re just playing position.
My poker tip for you is if you do pick up a monster with someone who feels obligated to force the action on the button, punish them for it.
I came across some neat, quick videos by FullTiltPoker on YouTube. The video below is instructed by Jennifer Harmon. Her poker tips involve a subconscious tale people might give off when betting. If the poker player throws the chips further away from them, it could mean they’re bluffing and subconciously sending chips away. If the poker player tosses them very closely, it means they expect to win and are keeping the money close to their chip stack. This is interesting. I hadn’t thought about it before. As I’m sure Jennifer herself would tell you, there’s no absolute sure thing, but if you can gain an edge by detecting a pattern in a player’s subconcious level, you will certainly have a big advantage over your opponent.
Poker After Dark never quite leaves me satisfied serious poker is being played. It feels too forced, like the players are only playing because they’re getting a ridiculous amount of money (go figure). Anyways, in this hand Sammy gets mixed up with Phil Ivey and Ivey catches a lucky Queen on the river to make a full house. Both had great hands after the flop with Ivey hitting a set of sixes and Sammy with a made straight and potential flush (technically it was a potential straight flush but Ivey had the 6s so it couldn’t have happened).
Sammy is usually so collected, but he appeared to get flustered at the table. I think he was being a little too cordial with Phil Hellmuth badgering everyone like a schoolgirl regaling stories, opinions, and poker tips. The playful back and forth left Sammy open for shark Phil Ivey’s comment that he looked nervous. As soon as Ivey said that, Farha did in fact look nervous. Ivey has that way about him where he’ll send a few piercing words your way and catch you off guard. Farha nicely tried to catch himself but he had already stumbled.
Phil Hellmuth has one of the most interesting personality complexes I have seen. When he does interviews outside the game, he seems normal enough, but at the poker table he’s so high strung he makes guitars jealous. Watch him as he gets interrupted by anything said and becomes growingly concerned when nobody gives a darn about what he has to say.
The video below has so much going on it’s almost too perfect. Paul Snead and Scott Montgomery are locked up in a crucial hand at the end of a big tournament (if it’s the WSOP sorry I hadn’t seen the clip on ESPN yet). Montgomery re-reraised Snead to go all-in. Snead would be very low stacked if he lost. So for one, we’ve got a major bluff going on here. Montgomery has A4 with nothing on the flop and Snead hit a top pair of jacks with a 7 kicker. Snead is talking the hand through when Tiffany Michelle somebody calls clock on him. He really hadn’t taken that long. She justifies the clock call because she’s short stacked and the blinds are really big.
The calling of clock is denounced by both Snead and another player after the hand. Michelle says there’s a lot of money at stake and she’s low stack so she’s got to do what she’s got to do. Snead eventually makes the very tough but correct call and gets pierced by a crushing non-heart ace on the river, giving a incredibly huge pot to Montgomery on pure luck.
I’m torn on this issue. I don’t think I’ve ever called clock on anyone, but with millions at stake, I’m sure a lot of things would change in my approach. I embrace a survivalist way of thinking when the conditions call for it. I really don’t know what I would have done here. I might have just kept my mouth shut for a little while because I wouldn’t have thought that he had taken that long. I mean what are you going to call clock on someone because they think for 30 seconds? 20 seconds? I’m sure if I did feel they were beyond the time reasonable I would call clock, but from what I’ve witnessed calling clock usually only takes more time because then a side issue arises about the fact that you just called the clock.
I didn’t even know about anything happening to the “Shiek” until I read a comment passing by on YouTube. Apparently past convictions of Shawn Sheikan may result in him being deported. The government is seeking his deportation because of two seperate crimes involving moral terpritude. He is currently a legal permanent resident. Not a fan of the way he acts at the poker table, but he is interesting. Here is the link on Shiekee.
Question for the readers out there: Do you have a favorite poker hand? If so what is it? Mine is J7. I’m not particular about the suit, but obviously I prefer suited cards over non-suited. I’ve always felt that Jacks and Sevens are the luckiest cards you can have and so I feel like I have a playable hand when I’m dealt these two cards. I have no proof, but I feel I’ve had a fair amount of success with these cards. Plus, it’s always good to have a little wild card in your where you might raise with nothing and then follow through with it. Even better if your cards hit. Nothing throws off experienced poker players more than when you do something that doesn’t make sense. Hitting on this type of hand can really result in a windfall for you. After all, not many people will put you on J7 or 102 in Doyle Brunson’s case.
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