rigoletto
08-19-2003, 06:43 PM
My first B&M session was a positive experience (as my last post on the subject revealed), so I decided to do another trip a week later (last friday). Arriving at the casino in Malmö i bought a membershipcard for 250 SKK (swedish Kroner, about $40), they have an entrance fee of 30 SKK, so with 9 visits the membership will be paid for.
Just like last weekend they only spread a $15-$30 game (later in the evening they opened the $6-$12 game, but nobody showed) and half the faces are familiar. Last week it was all swedes but this time we have two americans and even a fellow dane. One of the americans are sitting to my immidiate left and right of the bat he tells me that he lost $2,300 last time he was here (later I understand why). On my first hand I get 33 on the button, one limper to me and my american friend raises in the bb. Flop comes 434 - me like - bb bets, limper folds, I raise, bb reraises, I smooth call and procede to raise the turn, he calls down and shows me his AA. About 5 hands later he gets another AA cracked.
Considering seating in a physical environment is new to me. Online you often just take the vacant seat and if I can choose I consider the known players (sit to the left of the loose ones etc.). I've often read that you should seat yourself at the end of the table (if players are unknown) in order to observe everybody. After trying out a real pokertable I've decided never to sit at the end: players seated here cock their heads when they read the board and it makes them look like chickens trying to find food - you just can't look like a chicken and expect your raises to be respected.
The table is loose, weak and mostly passive - I think I made 75% of the 3-betting preflop in the entire session. One guy raises a lot (for this table) preflop though, but only to check/call the flop and check/fold the turn most of the time. After a while I realize that he raises any A which resultet in this hand: I openlimp LMP with 22 (yeah I know but these guys hang in there with anything till the river, so the implied odds are good), folded to any A dude on the button and of course he raises, blinds fold. Flop has no A and no paint but a 2 flush, I check, he bets, I checkraise, he calls, turn is a rag, I bet, he calls, river is a 9, I check (hoping to induce a bluff), he checks behind and takes it down with A9o.
Just like last time I observed some weird plays. In this game flush draws are being bet and raised like there is no tomorrow while other draws are played very passively. A lot of times the turn gets checked around even after action preflop and on the flop. This usually mean one of two things: 1) the flop agressor just hit his hand and is now slowplaying (they absolutely love to checkraise the river, they will rather checkraise one opponent on the river than collect multiple calls on the turn), 2) a draw appeared on the turn and now the agressor waits till the river to make sure his hand is good. Have any of you ever noticed similar behavior???
A bad beat to demonstrate the looseness of the game: After about one hour I'm up maybe 10 BB and get red cowboys UTG+1, UTG limps, I raise 3 coldcallers and UTG calls. Flop: Q 4d 5d, UTG checks, I bet, call, call, fold and then UTG chekcraises (probably a flush draw), I 3-bet, dane and one more coldcalls, fold, call. Turn is 7c, I bet, call, fold. HU on the river that comes 6s, I bet, dane raises, I know I'm beat (I'm thinking 67s), but want to see his hand so I call. He shows T8o for the rivered straight and says (apollogetically): 'the pot was to big I just couldn't fold /images/graemlins/tongue.gif (and yes Rock, you have my permission to use this on your site: against the winner I'm a 95% favorite on the flop and a 91% favorite on the turn).
I hate chasing after big pots, and I'll let you judge if this was a suckout: I call with 66 in LP after a gazillion limpers. Button (mr. any A) raises, sb folds and everybody else calls, 9 to the flop for 2 sb. Flop: 58J two clubs, somebody bets early and there is a gaziallion callers to me, I call and the american to my left raises, button and blinds fold. Turn: 4c, checked to the american who bets, 3 call including me. River: 7, checked to me and I bet, american calls. He shows 55 and I take down a monster pot. The best part of B&M versus online is stacking chips. I love it /images/graemlins/laugh.gif. The weight of the chips in your hand is just great. I make random stacks of equal hight, so I don't know excactly how much is in front of me, does anyone keep count?
At my first B&M session I was a bit intimidated by the whole thing and played a bit on the weak side. This time I played my usual agressive style. It lost me some hands against weak players who just refused to raise without the nuts but it also got me a lot of calls on strong hands since I was hard to read. In this hand I did play it weak though: Late in the session, I get AKs in LP, a lot of limping, I raise, 7 or 8 to the flop: 346 one spade, sb (the only woman in the game, she plays tight/passive and on the weak side) bets, 3 or 4 callers to me, I raise and now sb 3-bets. Besides my own there hasn't been many flop 3-bets in this game and I imidiatly worry about a set or two pair. I call, turn: A, she bets, I think a long time and then call, river: A, she checks, I bet, she calls and shows JJ. I must admit that an overpair never occured to me (especially when she bet into the A on the turn).
As the session draws to an end I have a mound of chips in front of me and believe I must be up about 25 BB, but when I count it I've actually won 46 BB. The american to my left donated a lot of this. He kept loosing and rebuying, and definately matched his loss of his last session. I made sure to convey my sympathy (I would love to see him at my table again), but you can't really feel sorry for a guy who sees 80% of the flops and 60% of the turns (and seems to be wealthy enough to sustain the loses). At the end he wouldn't even bet or raise his good hands because he believed he couldn't win.
Anyway, I took the train home feeling good about buying a 1 year membership (and I haven't even mentioned the hot, charming and very effecient female dealers).
Just like last weekend they only spread a $15-$30 game (later in the evening they opened the $6-$12 game, but nobody showed) and half the faces are familiar. Last week it was all swedes but this time we have two americans and even a fellow dane. One of the americans are sitting to my immidiate left and right of the bat he tells me that he lost $2,300 last time he was here (later I understand why). On my first hand I get 33 on the button, one limper to me and my american friend raises in the bb. Flop comes 434 - me like - bb bets, limper folds, I raise, bb reraises, I smooth call and procede to raise the turn, he calls down and shows me his AA. About 5 hands later he gets another AA cracked.
Considering seating in a physical environment is new to me. Online you often just take the vacant seat and if I can choose I consider the known players (sit to the left of the loose ones etc.). I've often read that you should seat yourself at the end of the table (if players are unknown) in order to observe everybody. After trying out a real pokertable I've decided never to sit at the end: players seated here cock their heads when they read the board and it makes them look like chickens trying to find food - you just can't look like a chicken and expect your raises to be respected.
The table is loose, weak and mostly passive - I think I made 75% of the 3-betting preflop in the entire session. One guy raises a lot (for this table) preflop though, but only to check/call the flop and check/fold the turn most of the time. After a while I realize that he raises any A which resultet in this hand: I openlimp LMP with 22 (yeah I know but these guys hang in there with anything till the river, so the implied odds are good), folded to any A dude on the button and of course he raises, blinds fold. Flop has no A and no paint but a 2 flush, I check, he bets, I checkraise, he calls, turn is a rag, I bet, he calls, river is a 9, I check (hoping to induce a bluff), he checks behind and takes it down with A9o.
Just like last time I observed some weird plays. In this game flush draws are being bet and raised like there is no tomorrow while other draws are played very passively. A lot of times the turn gets checked around even after action preflop and on the flop. This usually mean one of two things: 1) the flop agressor just hit his hand and is now slowplaying (they absolutely love to checkraise the river, they will rather checkraise one opponent on the river than collect multiple calls on the turn), 2) a draw appeared on the turn and now the agressor waits till the river to make sure his hand is good. Have any of you ever noticed similar behavior???
A bad beat to demonstrate the looseness of the game: After about one hour I'm up maybe 10 BB and get red cowboys UTG+1, UTG limps, I raise 3 coldcallers and UTG calls. Flop: Q 4d 5d, UTG checks, I bet, call, call, fold and then UTG chekcraises (probably a flush draw), I 3-bet, dane and one more coldcalls, fold, call. Turn is 7c, I bet, call, fold. HU on the river that comes 6s, I bet, dane raises, I know I'm beat (I'm thinking 67s), but want to see his hand so I call. He shows T8o for the rivered straight and says (apollogetically): 'the pot was to big I just couldn't fold /images/graemlins/tongue.gif (and yes Rock, you have my permission to use this on your site: against the winner I'm a 95% favorite on the flop and a 91% favorite on the turn).
I hate chasing after big pots, and I'll let you judge if this was a suckout: I call with 66 in LP after a gazillion limpers. Button (mr. any A) raises, sb folds and everybody else calls, 9 to the flop for 2 sb. Flop: 58J two clubs, somebody bets early and there is a gaziallion callers to me, I call and the american to my left raises, button and blinds fold. Turn: 4c, checked to the american who bets, 3 call including me. River: 7, checked to me and I bet, american calls. He shows 55 and I take down a monster pot. The best part of B&M versus online is stacking chips. I love it /images/graemlins/laugh.gif. The weight of the chips in your hand is just great. I make random stacks of equal hight, so I don't know excactly how much is in front of me, does anyone keep count?
At my first B&M session I was a bit intimidated by the whole thing and played a bit on the weak side. This time I played my usual agressive style. It lost me some hands against weak players who just refused to raise without the nuts but it also got me a lot of calls on strong hands since I was hard to read. In this hand I did play it weak though: Late in the session, I get AKs in LP, a lot of limping, I raise, 7 or 8 to the flop: 346 one spade, sb (the only woman in the game, she plays tight/passive and on the weak side) bets, 3 or 4 callers to me, I raise and now sb 3-bets. Besides my own there hasn't been many flop 3-bets in this game and I imidiatly worry about a set or two pair. I call, turn: A, she bets, I think a long time and then call, river: A, she checks, I bet, she calls and shows JJ. I must admit that an overpair never occured to me (especially when she bet into the A on the turn).
As the session draws to an end I have a mound of chips in front of me and believe I must be up about 25 BB, but when I count it I've actually won 46 BB. The american to my left donated a lot of this. He kept loosing and rebuying, and definately matched his loss of his last session. I made sure to convey my sympathy (I would love to see him at my table again), but you can't really feel sorry for a guy who sees 80% of the flops and 60% of the turns (and seems to be wealthy enough to sustain the loses). At the end he wouldn't even bet or raise his good hands because he believed he couldn't win.
Anyway, I took the train home feeling good about buying a 1 year membership (and I haven't even mentioned the hot, charming and very effecient female dealers).