Back in the trenches

Made it to the no limit game yesterday. Man it felt good to sit and play poker all night and be a total degenerate again!


The game as a $2 big blind and one guy has dropped a $1000 in the first 30 minutes I've sat down. He buys in for another $1000 and promptly cuts it in half with K5o on a flop of A72. Yep. This guy is live. Another time he opens for $50 and gets two callers behind him. The flop is T39 and he bets $200 into them. They fold and he shows his J3.


He is constantly in the pot with an older wiser man named Joe. At one point, OWM bets the turn on a board of J552 and two diamonds. The live one raises and the OWM starts to think. Live one flips over a card and it's a Jack. OWM says "don't show me any more" in a serious warning tone. The river is another Jack and OWM bets a few hundred more. Probably the biggest mistake of the night. He had a good $700 left behind him and was going to get called FOR SURE. How could he not put it in? Live one smells a rat and just calls (which is amazing) and loses to quad fives. "don't show me any more" Classic!


I limp on the button with J9s and $400 behind. Flop is all rags with two of my suit. All check. Turn is a 9, giving me pair + flush draw. Crazy live guy is directly on my right and bets $120 after all check to him. The chances are VERY good I'm ahead, so I push in. Oops. He calls (this was foregone, he'd call with K high in this spot) and shows me 9 with a better kicker. How did this happen?


A grumbling grumpy whining white guy is in the game. I raise a few limpers to $30 with my AQs and the GGW re-raises $30 more from the small blind. He's done this several times tonight and then shut down on the flop, so I don't even care what my cards are at this point.


Flop is all rags and he checks. I check behind. Turn is a T and he bets a mere $40. Now I KNOW he has AK or maybe has me tied. I call. River is a brick. He check-folds to my $100 bet and flings the cards into the muck, angrily muttering to himself.


Those kind are my favorite.


My biggest mistake of the night. In a four handed pot, I make the nuts cheap on the turn, an ace high straight using only the ace. I also have a redraw to the nut flush. I bet $100 only and got called. Nobody can call here without an ace, but they'll call any amount. That was dumb. Should have just pushed it all in. Caught the flush on the river though! Gotta love freerolling. /images/smile.gif


natedogg

nate-web@thegrovers.com

Nice message Mr. Natedogg.


I've been very happy to note a surge in no limit games around the country in the last six months. What is the cause of this do you think?


The majority of the recent games I've enjoyed were very easy. Perhaps one other person at the table generally has had a clue.


A recent example: Blinds 5/10. First position opens for $40. Middle position calls, I'm one off the button with QhJh. I raise to $60. Button calls, SB calls, BB calls. First position makes it $100. All call. I have $2500 at this point.


The flop is real nice. Kh10h2c. Small blind checks, big blind checks, first position checks. Hmmm. Middle position checks. What to do? I want all my money in on this one if two players with decent stacks will call. I bet $100. Button calls, blinds call, first position raises to $300, middle position folds. It's fairly obvious what the raiser has. I read that he won't fold here, no way, no how, and I'm starting to get the idea that the three to act behind me just might call. I call. Button calls all-in, both blinds call.


Good call on my part but what's going on here boys?


The turn is 9d. Thanks Lord. Sometimes this game is just so damn easy. Small blind bets all-in for about $300, big blind calls, first position goes all-in for the rest of his stack, maybe $700. I call. The big blind calls all-in.


River was a 4 of something. I First position had AKo. Man, did I misread him? Figured him for KK, or AA minimum. I had a straight of course. Button mucked. Small blind had 22. Big blind mucked.


They all bought in again.


Curious what you all think of my preflop raise? I think it was, well, insignificant here, but all in all pretty good. But what do I know. I'm just a long term loser. Best of luck to you all. LTL

I am pretty bad player tho i manage to stay above the water long term... I have seen some ppl do what u did, re-raising with drawing hand before flop (TJ off suit, etc) and hit nice flop and on. and it usually threw me off because i had no clue what they got, at least didn't put them on TJo. However IMHO, i wouldn't make this play too often, for it makes my draw very expensive and tend to trap myself into fancy raises... I would call with nice drawing hand.


peace

its a very bad preflop raise. The first position made it 4times the bb, and with all those callers, it is an easy call, but u make it 60? It really isnt a good move. What if first position moves you all in?? Do you call? Obviously not.Dont make a play that allows you to be bet out of the pot, when you have a nice hand to play like that. You stand to lose the 60 to a big reraise when he has something big, and you dont gain a lot by making the raise. Nice pot though.

"its a very bad preflop raise"


Well, maybe, maybe not.


I had several reasons for the raise. The one bit of info I did give you was that this was an example of a very soft game.


My primary reason for raising, and it was a pretty tiny raise, was to buy the button. In no-limit against two confirmed opponents with decent stacks I will risk losing one or more players behind me, when holding a definite drawing hand, to own the button. Also, at the very least it just might make a good-but-not-great button or blind hand think before reraising it bigtime and ruining any chance I have to see the flop.


That "buy the button" ploy didn't work in this case of course.


As it turned out first position reraised, but THAT bet for THAT amount was very bad. The only one he'd possibly knock out with that kind of bet would be the middle position guy. All he succeeded in doing was building the pot by a smallish amount which was also more than fine by me. (The one thing he did cause me to do was misread his hand with that reraise. But that was a stupid misread on my part, not a clever bet on his part).


There are other reasons for the pre-flop raise. In no-limit I just don't like to announce "I need the flop to hit hard otherwise I'm out of here". And that's what calling often does. It tells the aggressive players, hell it even tells the scaredy pants players, you're willing to be financially abused.


I do limp, and I do make cold calls, but usually not with the "traditional" hands.


Good preflop raise? Bad? Turns out it was totally meaningless in this case. But what do I know? I'm just a long term loser. Best of luck to you all. LTL

I can't believe the WOM didn't shove his stack in. What a blunder!


Also, you definitely should have shoved all in with the straight and nut flush redraw. You are right. What happened on the river in that hand?


Nice post by the way.