Cappuccino in the High limit room at Borgata
Cappuccino. To some it is a special treat in the morning, a $5 drink at Starbucks, pricey, but well worth it, if you're into that kind of thing. In the high limit room at the Borgata, cappuccino takes on a whole new meaning, a 4 bet capped pot. I have heard poker players say "cappuccino" in live games before, but never as much as last Saturday night. Actually, it's a good thing, a player's dream in a full ring game, if you have nothing but time. Unfortunately, for me, I don't have the time to weather the storm of bad card runs, so I finished out the night with a loss, albeit a small one, playing a full 20-40 game. As usual, some a-hole tried to take my seat, and I didn't let him.
There were several capped pots, 3 way, 4 way, 5 way, it was pretty insane. For a while, I was getting paid off big time, as every small pair went to a set or better. Then, that one hand that killed my night. The action really picked up, even though the players didn't seem like action players. In a four way capped pot, I sit in the big blind with pocket Aces. This is a good thing, right? The flop comes queen, deuce, six. One guy gets them all in, and I end up headsup with a woman who played queen six in early position..."but they were sooted!" I don't berate her until later on when there's a board of qq6xx. This was a few hours later, she was like, "I don't remember. Oh, I was in the blind...I was in position...oh yeah, they were suited! I never give people a hard time about anything, but I was kinda teasing her a little, but she didn't get the joke. I thought she was a really bad player until this morning, I gave her a little credit. I wound up in the same situation in that game later on, as I was extremely card dead for hours. I would pick up suited connectors in early position, raise with them hoping to collect the blinds, and it would be capped by the time it got back to me. At that point, the two bets were worth calling with all the pot odds. A straighty or flushy flop could bring down a monster pot. But my monsters never hit.
I had a few bad beat hands, one in which I flopped a small flush vs. a big flush, and another in which I flopped top pair vs. a set, which I got away from luckily.
I think I am playing well right now, the high limit room doesn't scare me any more. I think my grasp of limit poker is maybe only slightly lower than the rest of the 20-40 players. I still don't have the results, but I think my game is on, and my instincts are getting better. I laid down a lot of hands that proved to be good moves. I just need to work on bluffing, which is hard to do when there are showdowns such a high % of the time.
edit: One more thing, when the guy went all in, he lost to the two pair, he got up to leave, but he demanded the dealer flip over my hand, which I mucked. The dealer flipped over my aces, I was a little pissed, but didn't say anything. I don't know the protocol in this situation. The guy was a well liked regular in this game, but he was literally walking away from the table when the dealer showed my hand. Should I have said anything?
There were several capped pots, 3 way, 4 way, 5 way, it was pretty insane. For a while, I was getting paid off big time, as every small pair went to a set or better. Then, that one hand that killed my night. The action really picked up, even though the players didn't seem like action players. In a four way capped pot, I sit in the big blind with pocket Aces. This is a good thing, right? The flop comes queen, deuce, six. One guy gets them all in, and I end up headsup with a woman who played queen six in early position..."but they were sooted!" I don't berate her until later on when there's a board of qq6xx. This was a few hours later, she was like, "I don't remember. Oh, I was in the blind...I was in position...oh yeah, they were suited! I never give people a hard time about anything, but I was kinda teasing her a little, but she didn't get the joke. I thought she was a really bad player until this morning, I gave her a little credit. I wound up in the same situation in that game later on, as I was extremely card dead for hours. I would pick up suited connectors in early position, raise with them hoping to collect the blinds, and it would be capped by the time it got back to me. At that point, the two bets were worth calling with all the pot odds. A straighty or flushy flop could bring down a monster pot. But my monsters never hit.
I had a few bad beat hands, one in which I flopped a small flush vs. a big flush, and another in which I flopped top pair vs. a set, which I got away from luckily.
I think I am playing well right now, the high limit room doesn't scare me any more. I think my grasp of limit poker is maybe only slightly lower than the rest of the 20-40 players. I still don't have the results, but I think my game is on, and my instincts are getting better. I laid down a lot of hands that proved to be good moves. I just need to work on bluffing, which is hard to do when there are showdowns such a high % of the time.
edit: One more thing, when the guy went all in, he lost to the two pair, he got up to leave, but he demanded the dealer flip over my hand, which I mucked. The dealer flipped over my aces, I was a little pissed, but didn't say anything. I don't know the protocol in this situation. The guy was a well liked regular in this game, but he was literally walking away from the table when the dealer showed my hand. Should I have said anything?