beanie
07-26-2004, 11:25 AM
I woke on Day 2 about 2 hours before the tournament, it started at 4pm, rested and ready, I had the same breakfast I had the day previous a ham and cheese omelet with a cappuccino. I am not necessarily superstitious but I filed this under the heading of “it didn’t hurt yesterday” category. To my immediate right was David Gray(?) and once again Ben Roberts was at my table. Our table was to break soon, which was fine by me; there were many stacks similar to mine. Once my table broke I was moved to a table with Sam Farha and Josh Arieh. Both are seemingly in every hand and so am I so it was clear we would be doing battle. The table changes seemed more frequent than normal and didn’t make sense at times. Also at my table was Legato from online fame. I wanted to let Sam and Josh know their duo had become a trio so the first suited anything I found I jumped on the bus. Then this hand happened.
I raised about middle position with 77, Josh was close to the button and doubled my raise, and if you lay down in this situation you should just hand your chips to him, so I didn’t. Flop come Q 8 7, bingo, now how do I get one of the best players in the world to give me some checkers. I knew the first plan of action, the second was unclear, I would check and let him take the lead. He did and bet 9000 into what had become an almost 12000 pot. I flat called. Next card brings another 8, I am hoping Josh has AQ or KK, so I check and so does he, damn no AQ and I was fairly sure the eight didn’t hit him. On the river an Ace hit and I was fairly sure of what he had JJ; I bet 5000 into a 30000 pot and couldn’t get a call, too many scare cards.
This was the other hand I was referring to earlier when I talked about hands I was proud of the way I played, a frequent raiser opens for a standard raise, though they raise a lot and as a general rule I like to see pots with this type of player. With a little money committed I called with a J 8 off suit (suits didn’t apply in this hand) from the small blind. Here is one thing I think is funny about NL holdem, everyone always talks about the value of being the last person to act when in fact the person that is first to act gets to control the pot. Anyway, the flop brings 2 matching high cards and a baby (I am intentionally not being specific here). I check and the raiser fires a pot size bet, I call, I have nothing with no draw to anything. Next card brings a different high card. Since I want to represent that I have one of the paired high cards on the board, I bet about half the pot, which is coincidentally would I would do even if I had it. He folds and so far I have played maybe 6 of the 10 hands since I sat down. Then I got moved.
Staying with my strategy to see lots of pots and play them to the best of my ability I won some and lost some. I was basically staying even as we approached the money. After taking the worst of a couple of these I came across two situations. David Gray was at my table again and he re-raised an UTG raiser a huge amount. I looked down to find JJ, both of our stacks were about even, but I was in a pickle, I was the first to act and unless I hit my Jack I would never truly know where I was at, though I was fairly confident I had David beat for the moment. Then there was the other guy, I could easily put David on a couple of hands he might raise like that with that I didn’t want to look at, AK and QQ, throw in what I don’t know about the other guy and I folded. Andy Bloch thought I made a mistake and should have gone with my instincts and as a general rule I do but small pot poker got me here and she was the gal I was gonna dance with, for now. The second hand was also against David, I called a raise of his from the small blind with 10 10. The flop comes J J 4, I checked and David bet we were like 5 from the money, which of course didn’t matter to David and also didn’t matter to me. I check raised the flop, a move I hate but I had taken the bad end of a couple of these lately and just wanted to pick up the pot and did. I was at about 70k. With 5 left before the money and enough short stacks that we should be done soon no one would play them, so it lasted about another 3 hours.
I raised about middle position with 77, Josh was close to the button and doubled my raise, and if you lay down in this situation you should just hand your chips to him, so I didn’t. Flop come Q 8 7, bingo, now how do I get one of the best players in the world to give me some checkers. I knew the first plan of action, the second was unclear, I would check and let him take the lead. He did and bet 9000 into what had become an almost 12000 pot. I flat called. Next card brings another 8, I am hoping Josh has AQ or KK, so I check and so does he, damn no AQ and I was fairly sure the eight didn’t hit him. On the river an Ace hit and I was fairly sure of what he had JJ; I bet 5000 into a 30000 pot and couldn’t get a call, too many scare cards.
This was the other hand I was referring to earlier when I talked about hands I was proud of the way I played, a frequent raiser opens for a standard raise, though they raise a lot and as a general rule I like to see pots with this type of player. With a little money committed I called with a J 8 off suit (suits didn’t apply in this hand) from the small blind. Here is one thing I think is funny about NL holdem, everyone always talks about the value of being the last person to act when in fact the person that is first to act gets to control the pot. Anyway, the flop brings 2 matching high cards and a baby (I am intentionally not being specific here). I check and the raiser fires a pot size bet, I call, I have nothing with no draw to anything. Next card brings a different high card. Since I want to represent that I have one of the paired high cards on the board, I bet about half the pot, which is coincidentally would I would do even if I had it. He folds and so far I have played maybe 6 of the 10 hands since I sat down. Then I got moved.
Staying with my strategy to see lots of pots and play them to the best of my ability I won some and lost some. I was basically staying even as we approached the money. After taking the worst of a couple of these I came across two situations. David Gray was at my table again and he re-raised an UTG raiser a huge amount. I looked down to find JJ, both of our stacks were about even, but I was in a pickle, I was the first to act and unless I hit my Jack I would never truly know where I was at, though I was fairly confident I had David beat for the moment. Then there was the other guy, I could easily put David on a couple of hands he might raise like that with that I didn’t want to look at, AK and QQ, throw in what I don’t know about the other guy and I folded. Andy Bloch thought I made a mistake and should have gone with my instincts and as a general rule I do but small pot poker got me here and she was the gal I was gonna dance with, for now. The second hand was also against David, I called a raise of his from the small blind with 10 10. The flop comes J J 4, I checked and David bet we were like 5 from the money, which of course didn’t matter to David and also didn’t matter to me. I check raised the flop, a move I hate but I had taken the bad end of a couple of these lately and just wanted to pick up the pot and did. I was at about 70k. With 5 left before the money and enough short stacks that we should be done soon no one would play them, so it lasted about another 3 hours.