Play poker, Quit Work and Sleep Till Noon

The title of today's post is brought to you by the book of the same name... I should get it.

So things are going pretty good so far - other than the slimy boredom that I get from sleeping in and sitting at a computer all day by myself. I suppose it’s not much different than my old office jobs other than I don’t have to shower, which is a plus.

So I've been doing this for 5 days now, and while the results so far are obviously not a strong indicator as to my future success, I'm pretty pleased with my 5 day total (+$848). Which is a bit shy of my goal of $200/day, but I've been fooling around with the 6 table Sit&Go's too much to realize my true profits.

Speaking of those Sit&Go's, I had my best session of 6 last night. It even impressed me, which is hard to do given my huge poker ego. It was 6 $10 buyin 9 person tables, and I cashed in every one. Placed 1st twice, 2nd three times and 3rd once. Of course I should have probably gotten first in at least 4 if not 5, but thats what I always say when I get 2nd, but it was more true this time since I had to end up playing 3-4 people heads up simultaneously, which definitely was –EV. And this morning I played 6 more and got first in 3, and didn’t cash in any of the others. I think I get too carried away with stealing blinds in these things, especially when they are low. It’s all that Harrington’s fault – him and his damn M ratings. I also sprinkled some $20/$30 tables into the mix and did reasonably well, didn’t get blown away so I think if I continue to do this I’ll do it at a higher level since I really don’t feel the skill level is any different until you get to about the $50-$100 buy in games, which I have dabbled in with less success.

But I need to play more cash games. Since I’ve been hovering around the $2k bankroll status I’ve jumped up to the 1/2 NL games and have had continued success. At this point I would like to highlight RikkiDee’s Hand of the Day™

It was at a particularly wild table where these two maniacs and a supreme calling station were creating just massive pots every hand with terrible hands. I decided to take the ultra conservative route and play supersolid/tight, since I’ve been burned many times against maniacs when I start to dabble in less than stellar hands.

And keep in mind that when I played this hand I told myself that it would be my last for the night because I had to go out and get ready.

Table 'Garumna III' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: RikkiDee ($286.75 in chips) <--- The Man
Seat 2: tralph85 ($112.70 in chips) <--- The Maniac
Seat 3: Heaven Cloud ($167.40 in chips)
Seat 4: slinger33 ($75.45 in chips)
Seat 5: 1337 smoker ($78.05 in chips)
tralph85: posts small blind $1
Heaven Cloud: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RikkiDee [7c 9h]
slinger33: folds
1337 smoker: calls $2
RikkiDee: calls $2

Usually wouldn’t limp in with this hand, but I knew it would be my last

tralph85: raises $6 to $8

Big raise from the SB maniac, could mean anything

Heaven Cloud: folds

1337 smoker: folds

RikkiDee: calls $6

Weak call I know, but I couldn’t let up the opportunity heads up against the maniac, and its my last hand give me a fucking break.

*** FLOP *** [9c 2s As]

tralph85: checks

After his check I’m very happy with my hand, since every time he had checked before he was very weak, he bet almost every flop especially after taking the preflop raise. It is possible that he is slow playing a monster (ie trip aces?) but generally this check means weakness. Besides, I can find out later with a reraise.

RikkiDee: checks

I check to induce his bluff on the turn

*** TURN *** [9c 2s As] [8d]

tralph85: bets $6
RikkiDee: raises $12 to $18

Looking back I probably should have just called if I truly did think I was ahead (so he can bluff the river), but I was worried about him drawing out on the river if he has something like KQ and hits.

tralph85: calls $12

His call now tells me he may have a mid pocket pair since fake slowplays don't work on fishes, I’m no longer happy. His call also tells me he does not have a monster.

*** RIVER *** [9c 2s As 8d] [3d]

tralph85: bets $10

At this point he bets into me on the river, and unless he has 45 (I’m joking) his bet makes no sense, even if that 3 helped him somehow he should expect me to bet the river since I just reraised him on the turn. This is the classic “weak lead” on the river to avoid a reraise. Now Double A’s has posted a ton on weak leads on the river. Some really good players use them to induce the type of bluff I am about to pull off, but since in this situation I cannot give my opponent credit for this type of super savvy move, so I’m going to assume what it usually means, that he is super weak.

RikkiDee: raises $70 to $80

I have to raise here since I am pretty sure that he has some trash like TT JJ and if I call I’ll obviously be beat, so I’ll break out the big bat and put him all in. It’s a risky move, one I will almost never use but since I had such a tight image (well hopefully they had been watching) I should be able to pull this off from time to time. If had just checked I would have checked it down, but that weak lead screamed too much weakness. He doesn’t want a reraise? Well you are getting one! He took his sweet time and layed down what he said was AQ but I’ve seen him call much worse.

tralph85 has timed out
tralph85: folds
tralph85 is sitting out
RikkiDee collected $74 from pot
RikkiDee is sitting out
RikkiDee: shows [7c 9h] (a pair of Nines)
RikkiDee said, "got u back"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $76 | Rake $2
Board [9c 2s As 8d 3d]

I probably shouldn’t be so reckless and of course I show the bluff even though I’m not even playing any more, kind of a dumb/pointless move I guess, but he had shown me a lot of bluffs when I was way ahead so I felt it right to balance out the universe by showing it. That is if he truly did lay down the winner, he may of just had an 8 – not unreasonable by any means.

So there we have it, RikkiDee’s (long winded) Hand of the Day™. Don’t worry it’s not really going to be every day I’ll do this.