recent online poker sessions

My weekly cash game at my friend Andy's house hasnt been happening for me the last few weeks. mainly due to lack of attendence by other regulars and also a busy music schedule for me this month. Over the weekends and weeknights off, I feed the monkey by playing online.

I have done OK online lately. I play on Full Tilt for those of you who are interested. I much prefer to see the people I'm playing with. Online is really tricky for me, especially when the stakes are so low (cuz i dont have thousands to play with, sorry). Also when the stakes are low people are able to make "bad plays" that cause you to go broke when they river you. This seems to happen WAY more often online than in real life. Again probably only because you see so many more hands per hour than you do live. Its obviously the same statistical probability but because things happen so much faster it seems to happen more often.

Cash games are my jam but I want to get more into tournaments. Money has been a little tight lately and you can play an online sit 'n go tournament for like $10-$20 and play for hours. For a 90 person tournament you can stand to win $200+. The top 9 cash. I also like to play the KO tournaments. This means every player has a bounty and if you knock them out you get their bounty. Lately I've been doing a $13 buy-in for a 90 person KO sit 'n go. $10 goes to the prize pool, $2 goes to your bounty, and $1 goes to Full Tilt. Last Sunday I won one of these tournaments and won $288 for the win plus $2 for each person I knocked out. I ended up winning about $326ish. I knocked out a bunch of people, Its great to win and it encouraged me to keep going.

After that I would play one or two a week and I didnt win, but went fairly deep. I'm realizing that tournament play is a lot different. I've been playing poker for only about a year so the whole thing is a little new to me. I find its a little less profitable to make "plays" with weak starting hands, especially at the beginning of a tournament. Mainly because chip stacks are pretty even to start, and you dont want to get short stacked right away forcing you to put all your money in with Ace, 3 offsuit or something like that.

Last night I called it a night early and decided to try and do some damage on Full Tilt. Didnt do well at all. I played 3 tournamets (at once) that I ended up doing pretty well in, but unfortunately not the last 9 in any of them. Two of them I busted out after calling "all-in" bets with the best hand and getting drawn out on (meaning they had "outs" to beat my hand and they caught them), and the other I made a bad read and called All-In when the guy had the nuts (best possible hand given the cards on the board). It was a great play by him/her and I should have stuck to my tight strategy but didnt. I then went on to play heads up cash games (which i dont do often) and got smoked. I was totally on tilt after my three tournament bust outs and I continued to get hammered heads up. I was playing well I just couldn't seem to make hands like 2 pair and straights (which are monsters heads up) hold up. It was amazing. Not saying I didnt make some bad plays, but a few times I had huge hands that got rivered and those of course are the ones that stick out. While I was doing this I also sat down at a full table cash game to try and recoup some of my funds (famous last words right?). I actually did OK.

I sat down at a higher stakes table than usual (again, HORRIBLE idea) and I started getting hammered. It was an aggressive table and I'm not used to the stakes, so I was basically playing with scared money. Playing with scared money is the absolute best way to lose everything. You have to sit down and not care about losing it all. So I sat down with $100 and fairly soon was down to about $65. Then after a while I was in late position and i got dealt KK. the second best starting hand in No Limit Texas Hold 'Em (from now on refered to as NLHE). With hands like KK or QQ or JJ etc I am usually aggressive preflop most of the time. I hate having KK and getting some yahoo with A,6 offsuit getting an Ace on the turn and beating me. So ahead of me someone raises the blinds ($.50/$1. i play this a lot live, but online i'm usually at lower stakes tables.) to $3.50. A pot sized raise. anything from 3 to 5 times the big blind is standard. I have to re-raise in this spot. I want to see where I stand. I make it $8 to go and he calls. The flop came Q,9,5 with 2 clubs. This is a great flop for Kings. I am worried about QQ hitting top set, but A,Q suited is just as likely. I decided to raise his continuation flop bet. A lot of times I would just call and try to trap. but again draws seem to always hit online, and I'm worried he has a flush draw. He called my raise so I'm putting him on a club draw or A,Q (both of which I beat) or top set of Queens which means I'm dead to another King. The turn is a brick. I think it was the 7 of diamonds so there is a straight out there, but 6,8 is an unlikely holding given the pre-flop action. He leads out with a little more than 1/2 pot sized bet (there is probably about $45-$50 in the pot). This is making me lean more towards A,Q or a flush draw. I feel like after watching this guy's betting patters (which is all you really have online, which is why I dont like it) and also concidering relatively standard poker strategy, a set would probably check-raise in this spot. Especially since I had him covered and we were both kinda pot committed. I decide to call. I was fairly certin I had him beat, and I wanted to trap. Basically as long as an Ace or a club didnt come on the river I was calling anything. Although I think a check would scare me enough to POSSIBLY make me check it down. The river was a total brick. Any draw missed. I'm pretty sure it was a deuce or a trey, and DEFINATELY not a club. He shoves for his last 26 or so dollars and I insta-call. I drag the $120 or so pot with KK. He had A,Q of hearts. Cant really blame him. I kinda played the hand like either a moster or a monster-draw. I think my smooth call on the river told him i was drawing for a flush and when it didnt hit he thought he was good. He left cuz I took all his money and he didnt want to rebuy.

So now I'm sitting with about $150. I got it to over $200 when this magical hand happened:

I was in the big blind with A,4 offsuit. Any time the table folded all the way around to the small blind this guy would raise me. I was sick of it. I had an ace and when he raised me (as I KNEW he would do) I re-raised him and he smooth called. Now I'm in trouble. What is he calling me with? did he actually have a monster the time I finally take a stand for my big blind? wouldnt be the first time that happened. Even if I flop an Ace I gotta be either out kicked or the guy has a pocket pair and i have him beat. so its the two of us with $16 in the pot. Flop comes A,A,Q. I actually feel great right now. I think one Ace on the flop would be more scary for me. Its not out of the question that he has an Ace, but pretty unlikely. he leads out with about a $7 bet. less than half the pot. I'm a little suspicious actually. Thats a small bet and im starting to think he has an Ace. And given the preflop action, a BIG ace. I have 2 decisions: 1.) fold, or 2.) big raise. I chose option 2. I had trip Aces and a much bigger stack. I put in a big raise to I think $25 or $30. He smooth calls. I'm pretty much ready to wave the white flag. The turn bricks and he puts in another smallish bet. Its a value bet and I have to call even though I KNOW i'm beat. So far he basically value bet, called my raise on the flop, and value bet again. I'm totally screwed. The river is 7 and he shoves for his last $20 or so. If i call i still have over the $100 I bought in with. I'm certainly getting pot odds to call, but of course hes putting the rest of his money in knowing that I have odds to call. i call and he shows Q,7! he had three pair! (AA, QQ, 77. 3 pair is not actually a hand, but its funny to say). i busted him out with trip Aces. I had big time kicker issues, even though it seemed unlikely he had an ace. I decided that I won $100+ back and I should just cut my tournament and heads up losses. I was still down for the night, but not THAT down with over a $100 win at a full table.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more from JRod at a later date...