Unforgetable Hands
You ever experience hands that you don’t realize at the time but end up staying in your mind for the rest of your poker playing career? They seem rather insignificant or average at the time, but some key details stick in there and you can’t shake them. They end up keeping you awake at night as you replay them over and over.
Well maybe you don’t think like that, but when I am obsessed with something, that’s what happens. So I thought I would briefly go over some of the hands that keep me up at night, maybe if I expel them onto this blog from my mind they will leave me at peace.
Coincidentally, they are all hands that I have played live. My live play accounts for about 0.01% of my experience, but because it was live, you remember more, and therefore have stuck. Most of these happened while I went to Vegas for the first time.
Alright, first hand.
I was playing 1/2 NL at MGM Grand. I had been playing at this table for about 5 hours now, and had already dropped one buy-in, but had made some of my money back. I held the Q9 of spades and limped in. Flop comes T87 with one spade. I check, someone bets with one caller and I call with my straight draw. Turn comes a second ten – which is a spade, giving me a flush draw on top of my open ender. I decide to take the lead now – representing a ten perhaps, and make a sizable raise into the pot. The guy beside me who originally bet, says that he had 87, and folds since he assumes someone has a ten. The final guy – who was a real unknown to me at this point takes a look at his hand. He then laughingly shows it to the guy behind him like “heh, the 2nd ten showed up and someone is betting into me” and calls me. I was worried by his actions, even though I didn’t know what they meant. The river comes another ten, making the board read T87TT. I froze up. From what he did on the turn, I had already figured that he had been holding a ten, and now just made quads. I sat there for a good minute, trying to figure out what to do. I was wearing sunglasses at the time, so I was able to study him some more. He was staring me down intently. He was an older larger guy, one who seemed to have a past of intimidation and violence. I thought about betting, but because of his actions on the turn, I was convinced I was beat and decided after more than a minute of waiting to check (terrible move on my part, a long pause followed by a check is usually always extremely weak). He then quickly checked after me, showing A9. He scoops in the pot with his ace high and straight draw, letting out a big sigh of relief. I immediately knew I played horribly, and from this day on every time this scenario comes up I never give up on the pot. There were so many reasons I should have bet that on the river and simply because of his actions on the turn, I couldn’t. The fact that he was staring me down, trying to intimidate me should have been the most obvious clue, but I haven’t really played much live poker so I can’t put too much faith in my reads. If he had quads, would he really try to intimidate me from not betting? Of course not. I needed to make a semi-large bet there, and hope they would fold. I felt like an idiot all day after this one.
2nd hand.
Same game, same opponent. I had JJ on the button and raised it to 15 (in a 1/2 game!) and got the same guy to call me. Flop comes like 9 high rainbow, and he checks to me. I make a standard bet of I think about $20 and he calls me. Turn comes a K and this time he bets into me, I suppose he is representing a K. I can’t really put him on a K since I would assume he would check raise me, plus why would he chase with a K in his hand unless he had 9K, and even still why would you call a massive raise preflop with K9? So I just didn’t’ believe him and I called. The river is a blank and he puts in another big bet of about $50 this time. And what is different this time, is that he isn’t even looking at me. He is staring off into nowhere, not even paying attention to me. Again, I should have read right through his transparent ruse, but I still just didn’t believe he hit that king. Of course I paid him off, and he flips over AK. I feel like an even bigger idiot. But I did learn a real nice lesson. Strong means weak and weak means strong! Wow, that actually applies in real life, not just in poker books. Again, I was new to the live game and couldn’t put a lot of faith in my reads, but these 2 hands have given me the confidence to at least have a little reading ability. What I really should have figured out is that this obvious fish wasn’t bluffing. On the last hand with ace high he just checks when he could have (maybe should have?) bluffed on the river. He bets into me after I’ve shown strength AND willingness to call, always a sign of strength – not bluffing. So I guess I learned my lesson, and had to pay about $100 for it.
3rd hand.
This one is a happy story. There was this maniac who just sat down at our table. He was truly insane, overbetting the shit out of pots and showing complete bluffs. He had only been playing at our table maybe 10 hands but his presence was immediately felt. Every hand he would play, he would reraise preflop. Like if someone raised to $10 – he would raise to $50 then show his 8T offsuit when the original raiser folded. He even had a little posse behind him since he was clearly fun to watch. So I pick up a measly A8s on the button and everyone folds to me. He is in the BB. I raise it to $10 and he surprisingly just calls this time – no reraise. I’m pretty sure he is weak here. The flop comes A55 and he immediately fires out a massive bet of $50 (into a $20 pot). When I saw him get involved with my pot I knew I was going to have to deal with this. The dude beside me who I had been conversing strategy and plays all day with whispered to me, “if you have an ace call him!” Yea, easy for him to say. I hemmed and hawed for about 30 seconds before just calling, hoping he would slow down. Turn comes a T and he quickly fires out another $100 bucks. The whole table erupts and I’m not sure what to do. I hem and haw for another minute deciding that if he does have like a 5 in his hand, he surely wouldn’t be betting like this, combined with my perceived reluctance to call – I think he is just continuing to try to bluff me. So I figure either I’m winning or going bust on this hand and say that I’m all in (the first time I said it in a live cash game! I got an immediate erection). My friends are watching this and are going nuts at this point. He calls me, not sure why, with his last $50. River comes another blank, and since neither of us had seen each others cards I ask him, “can you beat an ace?” He doesn’t really respond, and to further the point I then show him my hand and ask him again, “can you beat this?” He smiles, mucks his cards and says good hand, laughs and walks away. I still don’t know what he had, but I know what I had, a fucking massive pile of chips to stack and a raging boner to contain.
Last hand, I promise, and it will be quick.
I’m sitting to the left of a real old guy who had been playing super loose and pretty aggressive. Everyone at the table had been referring to him as “crazy joe” and he didn’t seem to mind. I had been playing for about 1.5 hours and hadn’t won a pot yet. I had folded about 95% of hands, and he was constantly laughing at me for folding. It was clear that the table was aware of my tight image since he was very vocal about it, so I decided to use it to my advantage. In the hand in question, there are a few limpers and Crazy Joe raises it up to $15 from the button (he did this every hand). To my surprise I look down in the SB and find two black kings staring at me. Finally, a playable hand. I decide to get tricky (not sure why) and call rather than reraising. In hindsight, I should have reraised since I know he would have called an all in at that point, being as loose as he was, but I was playing really weird that day. So I call, and a few limpers fold, but one limper – who had been playing really tight/weak calls as well. Crazy Joe then says to me, “welcome to the game”. Indeed! So of course the flop comes with a fucking ace on it and 2 diamonds. I want to shit my pants at this point, but decide to figure out where I am at and fire out a $20 bet, and the weak/tight player and Crazy Joe both call me. I want to fold my hand. The turn brings the third diamond, and I check, as does the tight/weak player. At this point Crazy Joe says, and I’m not sure why, “no no no no” like he didn’t want to give a free card, and bets like $40. At this point the table is pretty vocal, and is asking “who has the flush?” I immediately take this cue and reraise up to $120. Immediately the table gasps as it’s the first bet I’ve put in all afternoon, and even one guy says, “ahh there it is” (referring to the flush). I think in my head, thanks for the support! The weak/tight guy thinks for a bit and folds (I think he must have had like AQ or something) and then Crazy Joe looks at me, shows me his hand (Q9 of spades?) and says, “this guy is serious!” and folds. I show the bluff, and the table goes nuts. Joe sincerely congratulates me way and I leave the table. It was one of the only bluffs I pulled of in live play, and it felt damn good, especially against the maniac who I feared would call with any thing.
All these hands were at the MGM 1/2 NL tables, which is where I played most of the time. Playing live was extremely fun, but I would never do it for profit, since there is so much I don’t know or am uncomfortable with in the live game. When I got to Vegas I thought that the players would be able to read every twitch and hand gesture I made, so I decided to play super tight and solid, rarely bluffing. I wore sunglasses and a hat – something I’m not really proud of since it was such low stakes. I figured out that these players were tourists like me, and had no more reading abilities than I did. Everyone there was there for a good time, tipping the dealers and whatnot. You know you are playing against serious pros when no one tips the dealers – they are there for their daily feeding frenzy on the tourists, and any tips will cut into their profits. But if everyone is laughing, talking and tipping, you know you are playing against armatures like your self, and need not worry.
Hopefully I can rest in peace and these hands will stop haunting me at night.
Well maybe you don’t think like that, but when I am obsessed with something, that’s what happens. So I thought I would briefly go over some of the hands that keep me up at night, maybe if I expel them onto this blog from my mind they will leave me at peace.
Coincidentally, they are all hands that I have played live. My live play accounts for about 0.01% of my experience, but because it was live, you remember more, and therefore have stuck. Most of these happened while I went to Vegas for the first time.
Alright, first hand.
I was playing 1/2 NL at MGM Grand. I had been playing at this table for about 5 hours now, and had already dropped one buy-in, but had made some of my money back. I held the Q9 of spades and limped in. Flop comes T87 with one spade. I check, someone bets with one caller and I call with my straight draw. Turn comes a second ten – which is a spade, giving me a flush draw on top of my open ender. I decide to take the lead now – representing a ten perhaps, and make a sizable raise into the pot. The guy beside me who originally bet, says that he had 87, and folds since he assumes someone has a ten. The final guy – who was a real unknown to me at this point takes a look at his hand. He then laughingly shows it to the guy behind him like “heh, the 2nd ten showed up and someone is betting into me” and calls me. I was worried by his actions, even though I didn’t know what they meant. The river comes another ten, making the board read T87TT. I froze up. From what he did on the turn, I had already figured that he had been holding a ten, and now just made quads. I sat there for a good minute, trying to figure out what to do. I was wearing sunglasses at the time, so I was able to study him some more. He was staring me down intently. He was an older larger guy, one who seemed to have a past of intimidation and violence. I thought about betting, but because of his actions on the turn, I was convinced I was beat and decided after more than a minute of waiting to check (terrible move on my part, a long pause followed by a check is usually always extremely weak). He then quickly checked after me, showing A9. He scoops in the pot with his ace high and straight draw, letting out a big sigh of relief. I immediately knew I played horribly, and from this day on every time this scenario comes up I never give up on the pot. There were so many reasons I should have bet that on the river and simply because of his actions on the turn, I couldn’t. The fact that he was staring me down, trying to intimidate me should have been the most obvious clue, but I haven’t really played much live poker so I can’t put too much faith in my reads. If he had quads, would he really try to intimidate me from not betting? Of course not. I needed to make a semi-large bet there, and hope they would fold. I felt like an idiot all day after this one.
2nd hand.
Same game, same opponent. I had JJ on the button and raised it to 15 (in a 1/2 game!) and got the same guy to call me. Flop comes like 9 high rainbow, and he checks to me. I make a standard bet of I think about $20 and he calls me. Turn comes a K and this time he bets into me, I suppose he is representing a K. I can’t really put him on a K since I would assume he would check raise me, plus why would he chase with a K in his hand unless he had 9K, and even still why would you call a massive raise preflop with K9? So I just didn’t’ believe him and I called. The river is a blank and he puts in another big bet of about $50 this time. And what is different this time, is that he isn’t even looking at me. He is staring off into nowhere, not even paying attention to me. Again, I should have read right through his transparent ruse, but I still just didn’t believe he hit that king. Of course I paid him off, and he flips over AK. I feel like an even bigger idiot. But I did learn a real nice lesson. Strong means weak and weak means strong! Wow, that actually applies in real life, not just in poker books. Again, I was new to the live game and couldn’t put a lot of faith in my reads, but these 2 hands have given me the confidence to at least have a little reading ability. What I really should have figured out is that this obvious fish wasn’t bluffing. On the last hand with ace high he just checks when he could have (maybe should have?) bluffed on the river. He bets into me after I’ve shown strength AND willingness to call, always a sign of strength – not bluffing. So I guess I learned my lesson, and had to pay about $100 for it.
3rd hand.
This one is a happy story. There was this maniac who just sat down at our table. He was truly insane, overbetting the shit out of pots and showing complete bluffs. He had only been playing at our table maybe 10 hands but his presence was immediately felt. Every hand he would play, he would reraise preflop. Like if someone raised to $10 – he would raise to $50 then show his 8T offsuit when the original raiser folded. He even had a little posse behind him since he was clearly fun to watch. So I pick up a measly A8s on the button and everyone folds to me. He is in the BB. I raise it to $10 and he surprisingly just calls this time – no reraise. I’m pretty sure he is weak here. The flop comes A55 and he immediately fires out a massive bet of $50 (into a $20 pot). When I saw him get involved with my pot I knew I was going to have to deal with this. The dude beside me who I had been conversing strategy and plays all day with whispered to me, “if you have an ace call him!” Yea, easy for him to say. I hemmed and hawed for about 30 seconds before just calling, hoping he would slow down. Turn comes a T and he quickly fires out another $100 bucks. The whole table erupts and I’m not sure what to do. I hem and haw for another minute deciding that if he does have like a 5 in his hand, he surely wouldn’t be betting like this, combined with my perceived reluctance to call – I think he is just continuing to try to bluff me. So I figure either I’m winning or going bust on this hand and say that I’m all in (the first time I said it in a live cash game! I got an immediate erection). My friends are watching this and are going nuts at this point. He calls me, not sure why, with his last $50. River comes another blank, and since neither of us had seen each others cards I ask him, “can you beat an ace?” He doesn’t really respond, and to further the point I then show him my hand and ask him again, “can you beat this?” He smiles, mucks his cards and says good hand, laughs and walks away. I still don’t know what he had, but I know what I had, a fucking massive pile of chips to stack and a raging boner to contain.
Last hand, I promise, and it will be quick.
I’m sitting to the left of a real old guy who had been playing super loose and pretty aggressive. Everyone at the table had been referring to him as “crazy joe” and he didn’t seem to mind. I had been playing for about 1.5 hours and hadn’t won a pot yet. I had folded about 95% of hands, and he was constantly laughing at me for folding. It was clear that the table was aware of my tight image since he was very vocal about it, so I decided to use it to my advantage. In the hand in question, there are a few limpers and Crazy Joe raises it up to $15 from the button (he did this every hand). To my surprise I look down in the SB and find two black kings staring at me. Finally, a playable hand. I decide to get tricky (not sure why) and call rather than reraising. In hindsight, I should have reraised since I know he would have called an all in at that point, being as loose as he was, but I was playing really weird that day. So I call, and a few limpers fold, but one limper – who had been playing really tight/weak calls as well. Crazy Joe then says to me, “welcome to the game”. Indeed! So of course the flop comes with a fucking ace on it and 2 diamonds. I want to shit my pants at this point, but decide to figure out where I am at and fire out a $20 bet, and the weak/tight player and Crazy Joe both call me. I want to fold my hand. The turn brings the third diamond, and I check, as does the tight/weak player. At this point Crazy Joe says, and I’m not sure why, “no no no no” like he didn’t want to give a free card, and bets like $40. At this point the table is pretty vocal, and is asking “who has the flush?” I immediately take this cue and reraise up to $120. Immediately the table gasps as it’s the first bet I’ve put in all afternoon, and even one guy says, “ahh there it is” (referring to the flush). I think in my head, thanks for the support! The weak/tight guy thinks for a bit and folds (I think he must have had like AQ or something) and then Crazy Joe looks at me, shows me his hand (Q9 of spades?) and says, “this guy is serious!” and folds. I show the bluff, and the table goes nuts. Joe sincerely congratulates me way and I leave the table. It was one of the only bluffs I pulled of in live play, and it felt damn good, especially against the maniac who I feared would call with any thing.
All these hands were at the MGM 1/2 NL tables, which is where I played most of the time. Playing live was extremely fun, but I would never do it for profit, since there is so much I don’t know or am uncomfortable with in the live game. When I got to Vegas I thought that the players would be able to read every twitch and hand gesture I made, so I decided to play super tight and solid, rarely bluffing. I wore sunglasses and a hat – something I’m not really proud of since it was such low stakes. I figured out that these players were tourists like me, and had no more reading abilities than I did. Everyone there was there for a good time, tipping the dealers and whatnot. You know you are playing against serious pros when no one tips the dealers – they are there for their daily feeding frenzy on the tourists, and any tips will cut into their profits. But if everyone is laughing, talking and tipping, you know you are playing against armatures like your self, and need not worry.
Hopefully I can rest in peace and these hands will stop haunting me at night.
posted by RikkiDee at 9:45 AM
3 Comments:
damn playa
smith i play Poker stars like everyday cept I search u and your never there.. you remove your name from search thing? if so but it back on I WANNA SEE U PALY!
I play on other sites too - to collect deposit bonus'
Only play on stars when they have a bonus or I feel like playing tourneys.
Post a Comment
<< Home