Poker Over the Weekend
Least interesting result items first. I played in four sit and gos last night, all on PokerStars, all of the "turbo" variety. Two of them were the new $105+9 limit, and the other two were $55+5 (one was a 2-table SNG). I took down first place in one $55+5 single, and took horrible beats on all three of the others to either get knocked out or have my stack crippled. It was frustrating, obviously.
But I had a nice little moment looking over my session tracking spreadsheet (see link on the left), when I realized how often I have been making the money lately. I counted up my single-table finishes for the last ten days or so, and I have cashed in 17 out of the last 28, even including my 1 for 3 last night. So even without a lot of 1st place finishes, I guess it’s fair to say that I am running pretty good.
On Friday night I ran, dealt, and played in a home game with my ex-boss, who I’ll refer to as Boog (his nickname). Since Boog reads my blog, I have to careful what I say about this game. None of the players had really played no limit before, and several people had only seen hold’em on TV, so I had to go over the general rules very carefully, especially the way the blinds work. The blinds are always the trickiest basic rule for new players to understand.
I decided on a $.50/$.50 equal blind structure, with a $25 max buy-in, and a full re-buy when your stack got under $15. Everyone was instructed to come with a budget of $100, and I figured allowing people room to re-buy three times was perfect-the night was more about fun than about money, and I wanted to be sure that no one would be busted out in an hour (or less).
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love to deal. I don’t know if it’s the control freak in me, or just that I love to handle the cards and chips, but I enjoy the hell out of it. It detracts a little from the "social" fun of playing poker, as you have to watch the cards and keep the action going, but it forces you to really focus on the game, and that can never be a bad thing.
Boog played pretty well himself. Every time he bet, he declared, “I don’t bluff.” That worked marginally well until someone caught his ass trying to bluff a bunch of times. Then he got drunk, and started playing hands blind. I don’t mean limping in pre-flop, I mean playing hands blind all the way to the river, at least a few times with BIG pots. I think the biggest pot of the night involved him calling all-in blind on the river, only to turn over an unpaired 72o against a flopped full house. A few hands later, he called blind to the river in a hand where the betting wasn’t quite as heavy. He had a low pair, and took down the pot. So basically he went 1 for 2 playing blind, for a net loss of around $25. Gooooooooooooooooooooooo Boog!!!
Overall, the game had a few solid players (probably intuitively decent players, as none of them had played much before). For the majority of the game, it played like a limit game. The pot could be $4, and someone would bet the fifty cent minimum, and if there was a raise behind, it would generally be another fifty cents. This made calling with a drawing hand a non-decision-it was almost always profitable to draw to even an inside straight.
But the worst plays were overly optimistic calls on the river, to prevent someone from buying the pot. The phrase “keeping him honest” was pretty common at the table.
Key Concept: An opponent calling too much is probably the most exploitable weakness in No Limit Texas Hold’em.
I finished well ahead for the evening. Even early on, when I was getting terrible cards, I had little doubt that I would do well.
I am running out of time for updates today, so I may not be able to get a trip report chapter up. I’ll at least get started on it, and try to have it ready for tomorrow.
But I had a nice little moment looking over my session tracking spreadsheet (see link on the left), when I realized how often I have been making the money lately. I counted up my single-table finishes for the last ten days or so, and I have cashed in 17 out of the last 28, even including my 1 for 3 last night. So even without a lot of 1st place finishes, I guess it’s fair to say that I am running pretty good.
On Friday night I ran, dealt, and played in a home game with my ex-boss, who I’ll refer to as Boog (his nickname). Since Boog reads my blog, I have to careful what I say about this game. None of the players had really played no limit before, and several people had only seen hold’em on TV, so I had to go over the general rules very carefully, especially the way the blinds work. The blinds are always the trickiest basic rule for new players to understand.
I decided on a $.50/$.50 equal blind structure, with a $25 max buy-in, and a full re-buy when your stack got under $15. Everyone was instructed to come with a budget of $100, and I figured allowing people room to re-buy three times was perfect-the night was more about fun than about money, and I wanted to be sure that no one would be busted out in an hour (or less).
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love to deal. I don’t know if it’s the control freak in me, or just that I love to handle the cards and chips, but I enjoy the hell out of it. It detracts a little from the "social" fun of playing poker, as you have to watch the cards and keep the action going, but it forces you to really focus on the game, and that can never be a bad thing.
Boog played pretty well himself. Every time he bet, he declared, “I don’t bluff.” That worked marginally well until someone caught his ass trying to bluff a bunch of times. Then he got drunk, and started playing hands blind. I don’t mean limping in pre-flop, I mean playing hands blind all the way to the river, at least a few times with BIG pots. I think the biggest pot of the night involved him calling all-in blind on the river, only to turn over an unpaired 72o against a flopped full house. A few hands later, he called blind to the river in a hand where the betting wasn’t quite as heavy. He had a low pair, and took down the pot. So basically he went 1 for 2 playing blind, for a net loss of around $25. Gooooooooooooooooooooooo Boog!!!
Overall, the game had a few solid players (probably intuitively decent players, as none of them had played much before). For the majority of the game, it played like a limit game. The pot could be $4, and someone would bet the fifty cent minimum, and if there was a raise behind, it would generally be another fifty cents. This made calling with a drawing hand a non-decision-it was almost always profitable to draw to even an inside straight.
But the worst plays were overly optimistic calls on the river, to prevent someone from buying the pot. The phrase “keeping him honest” was pretty common at the table.
Key Concept: An opponent calling too much is probably the most exploitable weakness in No Limit Texas Hold’em.
I finished well ahead for the evening. Even early on, when I was getting terrible cards, I had little doubt that I would do well.
I am running out of time for updates today, so I may not be able to get a trip report chapter up. I’ll at least get started on it, and try to have it ready for tomorrow.