I'm a big, fat, hairy liar! Don't you realize that yet? JESUS!
Whenever I make a promise in my blog relating to what my next post is about, or when it will be, Just mentally edit it into "Waa-wa-waa, waa-wawa-waaa" (ya know, like Charlie Brown's teacher) and ignore it.
Cause it's a lie.
A big lie
A big, fat lie.
A big, fat, hairy lie.
And yes, I would like my pants flambé please.
Anyway...
So I am now posting my first post about Poker! YAY!
I started playing poker about a year ago. I mean, REALLY started playing. I'd done a few games of draw for pennies and things like that when I was a kid, but nothing even remotely serious. I had, at best, a passing acquaintance with the ranks of hands.
And then a year ago I, like everyone else, got swept-up in the TV poker craze and fell in love with the game.
I watched it on TV for awhile, felt confident about my skills, and went out and organized a home game.
At which I promptly got absolutely skooled. It wasn't pretty. I lost every dime I put in (about 40 bucks in all).
Yeah, that was an eye-opener. So I went out and bought the bible (that's Doyle Brunson's "Super System" to you foolish outsiders), read sections on Hold Em (mostly the no-limit stuff) and went to my next home game.
And broke about even. And damn did I learn a lot too. Not just about Hold Em, but also about a variety of other games. And also about playing the cards and the people.
The next few home games, I won increasing amounts of money, having gotten a pretty good read on my regular opponents.
Almost none of us in the regular game are massively good players (yeah, we don't invite those), but there are some solid folk in there (more skilled, at the time, than I, to be certain).
But what I lacked is experience and skill, I made up for with aggression. And since they tended to be a tight lot, it worked fairly well most of the time.
And then, they started catching-on to my blatant aggression (I was modeling my game after Gus Hansen, minus his actual skill). And at about the same time, we moved the game down to RI for a two-month tour at JD and Berna's house, which was when they entered our poker group.
And let me tell you, those three factors combined tossed my game out the window COMPLETELY!
I lost big the first time out. We kept the limits way too low (.25 & .50) for the entire night (so bluffing was much harder) to boot. I lost pretty much everything I put in the night, in my first losing game in most of a year.
And the next month was only a little better. I started trying to tighten my game up from its wildly-aggressive default and succeeded only marginally. But that was almost completely offset by the addition of Berna (JD's wife, who is very hard to read and play), and Mary (who was an issue for mostly different reasons).
I lost less that night (about 20-25 bucks), and realized I needed to work on my game even more.
So the last month (August), I hosted at my new house (ain't I so proud of the Scottish Chateau?). Hoping to break the RI curse and gain myself some home field advantage.
I also worked yet again on tightening up my game, and trying to take some of the lessons of the past 2 sessions to heart.
I succeeded somewhat, only losing 6 bucks in the Dealer's Choice half of the night and going out 4th (out of 7) in the NL Hold Em tournament we close the evening at.
I was fairly happy with my play, but knew it still needed some more work.
So enter this evening.
An acquaintance of mine has been trying to get me to join her semi-regular game for a month or two now, and I finally had the free time.
I went in knowing I'd probably be one of the better players at the table (I'm about in the middle at my home game, so it was a strange place to be) and I was. It was also a classic home game, with several extremely loose newbies and a few mediocre to mid-range players.
I'd never played against a truly amateur newbie before (well, unless you count Constantine; I love ya bud, but you SUCK at poker), so that was another interesting learning point for the night.
Since I went in knowing this would be the setup, I figured it would be a good time to really try to force myself to play the game I WANT to play, which is tight-aggressive. I've clearly got the aggressive part down, now I just needed to work on the tight part. It was also a good chance to practice my reads against an entirely new group of players.
So, I drove off, starry-eyed about all the learning I'd be doing.
The game was pretty much exactly as I expected it to be.
We had Mr. Tight, Insane Woman, Senor Speed-Change (he was originally Mr. Super-Tight in my head, but switched-up on me several times just when I though I had a read on him), Lucky Newbie-Girl and Solid but New Guy.
And there I was, quiet Mr. Tight-Aggressive (or so I hoped).
It was a six-handed NL Hold Em game with a 5-dollar buy-in, and there was a plan to have two such games for the night (we actually ended-up doing three).
My plan was to slow-play the first game to get a good read on everyone, stealing a few pots only when it was absolutely clear to me that I could get away with it, and otherwise only going in big when I was confident I had the nuts.
And that's pretty much exactly how it worked out. Early on, I laid down a few semi-good hands (hands the old super-aggressive me would have played in a heart beat) and grabbed a few blinds and took down a few strong hands to get a good-sized chip lead.
The only hands that stand out in my memory was one where I limped in before the flop with a pair of ladies and then check-raised to take the pot after the flop and a hand where I was pretty sure I had the Insane Woman beat after the flop (I'd put her on a straight draw and I had flopped a pair), but also knew she was going to call me all the way down anyway, no matter what I put in, so I decided to fold when she made a Post Oak Bluff after the turn (she bet 100 chips into a pot that already had 600 in it). I was pretty sure she didn't have it, but also knew I didn't want to risk a large portion of my chip playing against her pure luck.
She just couldn't be pushed out of any pot she decided to play. I saw her call and small-bet a pot all the way down to the river with nothing. Literally nothing. The board was almost all paint, and she had something like a 5-8 unsuited in the hole.
So yeah, I really didn't relish being in hands against her, because there was basically no skill involved. Fun woman, and very pleasant, but a complete wild-card at the poker table.
And of course, who do I end up going head's up with to finish the game?
She sucked-out Senor Speed Change at the river to knock him out, leaving me head's up with her.
I had about a 2-1 chip advantage, but the blinds were escalating VERY quickly (every two rotations of the table, meaning every 4 hands head's up), so the game became very driven very quickly.
I tightened way the hell up, figuring it was all I could do. My plan was to pick two good cards to make my stand with while I still had the bigger stack and then go with them, knowing she'd call almost anything I did.
And she did, and I won, thank god.
The prize structure was $25 for first and $5 for second, so I was guaranteed ahead for the night at that point.
I think it made me a little too cocky, which is always my downfall.
The second game went about the same, except that my stack fluctuated much more wildly, as I'd gotten more aggressive (damn you cockiness!).
This time, I ended-up head's up with Senor Speed Change, and since he had changed speeds on me twice during the game, I'd lost my read of him.
As the blinds escalated to 400-800 (about half my stack a round), I started pushing harder except when I thought he had me, and I eventually misread him and he took me out.
It was a good game though, and my second place finish paid for the buy-in, so I considered it a win and was, in general, pleased with my play.
The third game went much like the second, with the continued heightened (but not out of control) aggression, and corresponding swings of my stack size. But when it got down to three, I had a significant chip lead (I think I almost had both the other players covered), so I was in a good position. It was myself, Lucky Newbie Girl and Senor Speed Change, with stacks in that order.
And then a hand came where I knew I had Senor Speed Change beat before the flop, but he was also far enough down that if he had any hand at all, he had to go all in, which is what he did. Lucky Newbie Girl called and I re-raised all-in to push her out (which worked).
The cards flipped, and I had him handily covered, and kept ahead all the way down to the river, where he sucked me out and tripled up.
The very next hand, I got a solid three-player hand (I believe it was AQ unsuited), and since the blinds were at 400-800 at that point, and I was on the button, I went all in to do some blind stealing. Senor Speed Change folded, but Lucky Newbie Girl decided to go all in and call me.
When we flipped, she was fairly far behind (something like a J-9 unsuited, as I recall). Unfortunately, she sucked me out at the river, and crippled me badly.
We played another few hands where I managed to keep just ahead of the blinds with a few blind steals, and then got called by Lucky Newbie Girl when I had an A-8 suited. When we flipped, she had A-7 unsuited, and I felt like I was in heaven. This would double me up (and then a bit) and I'd be back in the running.
But she killed me at the river again, pulling a 7 (an ace had come on the flop) to get two pair and knock me out.
I was, obviously, annoyed, especially as the river antics continued and she won the game in similar fashion (nice girl, but even she would admit that she barely knew how to play the game).
But I can console myself with the fact that every time I went in and the cards were flipped, I was ahead... generally by a lot.
So I ended the night 15 bucks up (and was tied for the most money won that night) and was generally happy with my play. I learned a few things more about my game, including the fact that I CAN play tight-aggressive like I want to, but need to watch out for when I get cocky, as I start getting too aggressive again.
I think a few more games and I may just get my style down finally. Thank god.
Then all I have to do is work on my reads more, and I may actually be able to play this game on a fairly workable level.
Anyway... that's my poker post. Isn't it FUCKING LONG?!
Yeah. There it is. Yay.
Okay, enjoy. And if you have any fun poker stories of your own, please feel free to let me know.