mike l.
05-29-2003, 09:31 PM
this is a trip report. it's a trip report about overnight 3 handed hold em. 20-40.
we go from 5 handed to 4 handed when a too tight asian kid leaves around 3 am. there's this older guy who is a good player his name is tony. there's this overweight 30-something white guy who plays just sickeningly tight in ring games. he is a very weak player but he is a winning player because in the games he plays in his opponents play terribly. and there's me. that's 3 winning players. sorry guys, at least one of us has gotta leave here broken hearted. or at least broke. and the 4th guy? he's coming close to broke. he didnt know it but i came into the card room that night with the specific intention of trying to beat his brains in (pokerwise only of course). see, i folded the best hand a few nights before on the river when i botched things a bit, he made a pointless stab at the pot w/ a weak pair, some idiot made a worse call with a worse pair and i folded the winner. in retrospect we figured out on medium stakes that it was my fault, but i dont care, i still wanted blood. now that would leave one thinking "ooh bad, that means you will be loosening up against him and giving him even more of your money mike". no dont be daft. i played it strategically and tighty tight tight. i even got to do the honors of sending him home by getting all his money in against me when my 55 stayed good over his AKs. he wasnt pleased.
so there we are 3 handed, 3 winning players, no one ready to go though. tony just got there a little while ago in fact. he may be expert status. he tells me he likes to play 40 and 80 up at commerce. he tells me that they play so badly in the 40 game that anyone who plays well can make a fortune playing it. i neglect to tell him that i couldnt beat that game to save my life, that they eat me alive up there. tight white is across the table and he's quiet. so tony and i talk a lot while we play. i have trouble finding any leaks in tony's game. i checkraise him a few times on the turn and get him to lay down. then he catches me doing it w/ absolutely nothing. so he starts 3 betting with things like top pair. he tells me that he caught me and now i wont get away with it again. i have T7s and i live straddle on the button. i learned this from tommy angelo. i was openraising nearly every hand on the button so i figured why not just live straddle straight up and then play last preflop. works pretty nicely. anyways tight white folds, tony makes it 60 and i just call. the flop is KJ7. he bets, i call. the turn is a 7. he bets, i raise, he 3 bets, i just call. he checks to me when the river is a 3 and i feel stupid for not having 4 bet the turn. he calls i win of course.
im stuck, that's why im still there. before i even got into the 20 i dropped $600 playing the 8-16 kill game. i managed to play pretty darn tight surprisingly but get a lot of money in the pot on kill hands w/ AA and KK when super drunk mexican guy flopped trips, hit his gutshot on the river, etc, etc. after i get into the 20 he drops 4 of his 5 racks back to the rest of the table and then leaves and then comes back and then his credit card "wont work" so he cant buy in to the 20. super damn.
anyway i lose a bit more playing 20 so im good and stuck by 330 am. does tony have any leaks im thinking? tight guy is too tight so i can steal his blinds a lot more than normal and fold to his bets a lot more. plus he plays weak so i can take free cards from him. nevertheless i start to lose more. im playing pretty loose and pushing little pairs and
bluffing probably too much and it's just not clicking. i am stuck 2k now. i go to the cashier to get another grand while my two foes patiently wait, licking their chops. i decide while im waiting for my chips that a: if i bet they will call, so i must bluff a lot less, but bet for value way more, and b: they do not bluff often enough so i must respect their bets much more. plus i had noticed a tendency in tony to push very hard on the flop and turn w/ just top pair so i must punish him for his aggressiveness and overbet my hands that beat one pair. and i noticed that he liked to bet the flop and then checkraise the turn. if he checked the flop he may check the turn just out of weakness, but if he bets the flop and then checks the turn it is usually with the intention of checkraising. he figures i will bet like clockwork, so i must check behind him sometimes and take advantage of that tendency in him. i start to do these things after my new buy in and i also happen to hit some hands. i start getting paid off constantly by tight guy when his A high misses and misses and misses. tight guy actually starts to tilt! this is actually good for his game though because it means he starts constantly openraising on the button when before he had been constantly folding his button (and sb). but he doesnt seem comfortable playing his junk so he still checks too much postflop. i catch AA in the sb when tony openraises w/ JJ. i flat call for a change up i rarely make. the flop is J85. we go 7 bets on the flop before i realise holy shiit he has a set! the turn is an A and we go to 5 bets on the turn before he realises holy shiit he's got a bigget set. nice pot, nice suckout. i feel cheated that he didnt make it 6 bets on the turn actually. and i regret not flat calling his 4th bet on the turn and then checkraising the river where he'd probably make it 3 bets. missed at least 2 more big bets! maybe 3! not good. earlier in the night i had AA on an AK7-K-K board and he called after i made it 5 bets on the turn and he called my river bet and all he had was AQ.
the night turns to morning and im killing them. i start just betting my best hands, i stop live straddling the button and start throwing away more hands preflop. they are chopping their blinds with each other and i pretend not to notice. i see them thinking "let's not fight each other, when there's all this dead money in front of us (me)" and i see tony thinking "this works great, i easily get the best of this deal because i pull back my bb and all he gets is his sb" and im thinking "this is great, i get to play all the more hands against them and not wait around for them to play hands". i eventually get up over the 3k im stuck when more people start to show up. tighty white looks like a ghost, tony goes off to buy in more, frowning. things did not work out as they had planned. how did the fishy that seemed to be so loose and overaggressive start win their money? surely he's not good enough to recognize weaknesses in their play and adjust his play accordingly? surely this kid is not a winner like us!?
nevermind that i dont leave even though im tired and i should and i end up losing plenty back when it's a full table again. this is about a revival in my shorthanded game. this is about keeping my head on straight and using some serious hand reading and play evaluation tools and putting them to great use. im quite proud of this shorthanded session. specific short handed hands from future sessions to come.
we go from 5 handed to 4 handed when a too tight asian kid leaves around 3 am. there's this older guy who is a good player his name is tony. there's this overweight 30-something white guy who plays just sickeningly tight in ring games. he is a very weak player but he is a winning player because in the games he plays in his opponents play terribly. and there's me. that's 3 winning players. sorry guys, at least one of us has gotta leave here broken hearted. or at least broke. and the 4th guy? he's coming close to broke. he didnt know it but i came into the card room that night with the specific intention of trying to beat his brains in (pokerwise only of course). see, i folded the best hand a few nights before on the river when i botched things a bit, he made a pointless stab at the pot w/ a weak pair, some idiot made a worse call with a worse pair and i folded the winner. in retrospect we figured out on medium stakes that it was my fault, but i dont care, i still wanted blood. now that would leave one thinking "ooh bad, that means you will be loosening up against him and giving him even more of your money mike". no dont be daft. i played it strategically and tighty tight tight. i even got to do the honors of sending him home by getting all his money in against me when my 55 stayed good over his AKs. he wasnt pleased.
so there we are 3 handed, 3 winning players, no one ready to go though. tony just got there a little while ago in fact. he may be expert status. he tells me he likes to play 40 and 80 up at commerce. he tells me that they play so badly in the 40 game that anyone who plays well can make a fortune playing it. i neglect to tell him that i couldnt beat that game to save my life, that they eat me alive up there. tight white is across the table and he's quiet. so tony and i talk a lot while we play. i have trouble finding any leaks in tony's game. i checkraise him a few times on the turn and get him to lay down. then he catches me doing it w/ absolutely nothing. so he starts 3 betting with things like top pair. he tells me that he caught me and now i wont get away with it again. i have T7s and i live straddle on the button. i learned this from tommy angelo. i was openraising nearly every hand on the button so i figured why not just live straddle straight up and then play last preflop. works pretty nicely. anyways tight white folds, tony makes it 60 and i just call. the flop is KJ7. he bets, i call. the turn is a 7. he bets, i raise, he 3 bets, i just call. he checks to me when the river is a 3 and i feel stupid for not having 4 bet the turn. he calls i win of course.
im stuck, that's why im still there. before i even got into the 20 i dropped $600 playing the 8-16 kill game. i managed to play pretty darn tight surprisingly but get a lot of money in the pot on kill hands w/ AA and KK when super drunk mexican guy flopped trips, hit his gutshot on the river, etc, etc. after i get into the 20 he drops 4 of his 5 racks back to the rest of the table and then leaves and then comes back and then his credit card "wont work" so he cant buy in to the 20. super damn.
anyway i lose a bit more playing 20 so im good and stuck by 330 am. does tony have any leaks im thinking? tight guy is too tight so i can steal his blinds a lot more than normal and fold to his bets a lot more. plus he plays weak so i can take free cards from him. nevertheless i start to lose more. im playing pretty loose and pushing little pairs and
bluffing probably too much and it's just not clicking. i am stuck 2k now. i go to the cashier to get another grand while my two foes patiently wait, licking their chops. i decide while im waiting for my chips that a: if i bet they will call, so i must bluff a lot less, but bet for value way more, and b: they do not bluff often enough so i must respect their bets much more. plus i had noticed a tendency in tony to push very hard on the flop and turn w/ just top pair so i must punish him for his aggressiveness and overbet my hands that beat one pair. and i noticed that he liked to bet the flop and then checkraise the turn. if he checked the flop he may check the turn just out of weakness, but if he bets the flop and then checks the turn it is usually with the intention of checkraising. he figures i will bet like clockwork, so i must check behind him sometimes and take advantage of that tendency in him. i start to do these things after my new buy in and i also happen to hit some hands. i start getting paid off constantly by tight guy when his A high misses and misses and misses. tight guy actually starts to tilt! this is actually good for his game though because it means he starts constantly openraising on the button when before he had been constantly folding his button (and sb). but he doesnt seem comfortable playing his junk so he still checks too much postflop. i catch AA in the sb when tony openraises w/ JJ. i flat call for a change up i rarely make. the flop is J85. we go 7 bets on the flop before i realise holy shiit he has a set! the turn is an A and we go to 5 bets on the turn before he realises holy shiit he's got a bigget set. nice pot, nice suckout. i feel cheated that he didnt make it 6 bets on the turn actually. and i regret not flat calling his 4th bet on the turn and then checkraising the river where he'd probably make it 3 bets. missed at least 2 more big bets! maybe 3! not good. earlier in the night i had AA on an AK7-K-K board and he called after i made it 5 bets on the turn and he called my river bet and all he had was AQ.
the night turns to morning and im killing them. i start just betting my best hands, i stop live straddling the button and start throwing away more hands preflop. they are chopping their blinds with each other and i pretend not to notice. i see them thinking "let's not fight each other, when there's all this dead money in front of us (me)" and i see tony thinking "this works great, i easily get the best of this deal because i pull back my bb and all he gets is his sb" and im thinking "this is great, i get to play all the more hands against them and not wait around for them to play hands". i eventually get up over the 3k im stuck when more people start to show up. tighty white looks like a ghost, tony goes off to buy in more, frowning. things did not work out as they had planned. how did the fishy that seemed to be so loose and overaggressive start win their money? surely he's not good enough to recognize weaknesses in their play and adjust his play accordingly? surely this kid is not a winner like us!?
nevermind that i dont leave even though im tired and i should and i end up losing plenty back when it's a full table again. this is about a revival in my shorthanded game. this is about keeping my head on straight and using some serious hand reading and play evaluation tools and putting them to great use. im quite proud of this shorthanded session. specific short handed hands from future sessions to come.