My day in short!
Made a decision that today I was sorting all those jobs that just never get sorted but hang on to you and don't let go till you have to do them. Ring the council, sort the visa, make a claim for my mobile which hit a wall at 100mph last week (on the claim form it fell out of my pocket) them kind of tasks.
Chatting away to some pals of mine online and downing 5 cups of coffee per hour and generally thinking this is not so bad. I decided to load a table up on Betfair looked at the £10/20 no limit and it was a tough line up, if you want wages out of this table you need more than patience cos these players know how to make it and limit losing it. However, I decided I would have an hour because I could sort my work out plus play some poker not getting too bored in the process cos i'm busy enough anyway.
Turned out a great day for me and I feel I had one of those days where you really knew you had taken something away from the game (not just money by the way). I played what I considered as good as poker as anyone on the table was playing, managed to get legged up once but generally gave a good performance that I think has finally put me back on track. To me it's great winning money and topping up the bank account, but I’m big into the mental side of the game (yes I’m crackers) and the feeling like you've conquered certain emotions whilst playing (hope I’m making sense here).
Anyway when I say got legged up, I was the SB (Small blind) everyone folded to me and the BB (Big Blind) and I was holding KJ off. Now me and the BB have had few hours on the tables before now he is definitely one of the above average (solid/aggressive) players on the site. I made a decision to flat call to the BB deducing he would raise because it was about time for him to do so (it's a play he makes regular with anything), if he didn't no problem its then "hope i hit the flop time", otherwise I would re-raise (I’ve been very conservative btw). True to my calculation he raised to £60 to which I re-raise to £120. He calls and the flop comes with no real texture (3,8,10) rainbow, he then bets £200 and I re-raise to £400 representing my monster hand; he then re-raises to £900. OOOooeeeer I thought i’m f****d here! I’ve got £1400 left in the kitty if I call the £900 i’m pot committed, I have overcards but?? and at that I fold. The player collects the pot and shows me A7 off suit, brilliant I can honestly say I laughed and couldn't do any other than realise I was outplayed by a better player.
He was winning about 8.5k at the time which possibly made him braver here but I congratulated him on a job well done and cracked on with the game in hand. I would be very interested in opinions here please.
The only other skirmish I believe is worth a mention is being dealt pocket 10's there was two of us in from a £120 raise. Flop came 10 J J lovely hope I get some action here I like this flop a lot. Anyway player bets about half the pot and I flat call, I decided i’m checking and calling to see what I can get out of this pot and try keep my holding hidden away, turn comes 6 he bets £160 and I think relative to the pot he's unsure about his hand, keep him in and try to extract a little more, but i’m sure i’m in front.
Now the river is where i’m going to re-raise him and try get some value for my hand, it comes a queen... Timer goes down a little and £340 bet thrown in.. Before I chuck em all in a little alarm bell rang in my head £340 now i'm a little concerned and instead of my re-raise I flat called it, the bugga had pocket queens and had hit is Q's over Jacks full house on the river.. In the past I would have been all in without thinking then scratching my head at the lucky twat who rivered me. This time I actually thought about it and although going all in against his 2.5k stack seemed a nice prospect I felt there would be better times to get my chips in and settled for the £340 on the end, sorry just lost the £340 on the end. Obviously again there are more to these hands than just betting etc. certain players i wouldnt have even considered anything but all in, but here my instincts worked for me. An emotional victory lol.
Still £900 up on the day so had my tea and now a nice bottle of chardonnay... GL
posted by MrDigital at 7:28 pm
4 Comments:
great blog. been following yours and Dpommos.Plays like the A7 hand has given me a great insight into where i have went wrong.Basically i have been playing out of my league in the £5/£10 tables and i am going to drop right down until my bank can afford me the luxury of making plays and betting strategically like that. i have won big at the tables but lost bigger and i am beginning to realise that you can't just wait about for big hands to make you money (they don't always win anyway) and that i have been badly bullied at the higher stakes tables.
ATB and stay lucky
pjc2004
Great call on the river in the second example, Toshi -- it must have felt like winning the £900 odd that you saved. Similar thing happened to me the other day -- i slow played the fh to the river, which is where my opponent put me all in after catching the better fh. Needless to say I called.
Depending obviously on your opponent, but if you had played your hand aggressively at the start it is quite possible that you would have been all in before the river and then you would have been really pissed off!
Another thought has just occured to me -- more to do with the psychology of poker and the strong urge to see the opponents cards whatever the cost.
If instead of betting £340 on the river, your opponent had gone all in, would you have called even though alarm bells would be ringing?
Well jake that is a very good question because like you said the urge to see cards is a big factor, but i have been in this scenario before and had my arse slapped. Because i had the possible cards that he could be holding whirling round in my head, and the scary layout of the board i would have folded. Then prayed he showed me either way!!
PJC2004 - He played the person more than the cards with only two of us in, A 7 isn't the worst hand in the world. Your right you cant always wait for the monsters but play your position and stay ahead of the blinds, the hands do come eventually that's when the fun starts.. GL and thanks for the comments.
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