The Importance of Being Patient

I waited a couple of days to post this, and I am glad that I did, because there’s an additional chapter to the story that hadn’t occurred earlier.

I was playing at a $2/$5 no-limit table, like usual, and suffered a really terrible beat that risked putting me on a massive tilt jag.  It took a lot of discipline not to just donk off the rest of my chips . . . or resolve to give up poker altogether!

First of all, I had been playing my game really well all evening, and had started to build up a respectable stack.  I was suitably tight, very attentive to the play and to my opponents, and feeling really good about the session.  Then, along came the following hand.

I was under-the-gun and found Ace/King of clubs, a premium hand if there ever was one.  Like I usually would with this hand, I raised it to $15, and action continued to the player on my left.  He re-raised me to $50.  Now, he was also playing quite tight and I had a lot of respect for his game.  But I wasn’t going to surrender my nice hand before at least seeing the flop.  Everybody else folded; I called; and it went to the flop heads-up.

The flop was Ace-rag-rag, so I had top pair and top kicker.  There were no straight or flush draws.  Very, very nice.  I put out a $40 bet, and he insta-called me.  This confused me, but we went to the turn.

The turn was another rag.  I thought I still had the best hand, but his behavior was baffling, so I just checked.  He checked behind me; this gave me quite a bit of confidence.

When another brick came on the river, I put out a bet of $100.  He raised all-in, which was not much more.  I had him covered, so I called and turned over my pair of Aces with top kicker.  He turned over his pocket Aces, for a flopped set!  I was behind from the start.  Worst of all, I really couldn’t blame anybody for the hand.  I’m just not going to surrender Ace/King suited pre-flop; I think it was just fated for me to lose.  I lost everything I had won that session, as well as a decent chunk of what I had brought to the table.

I played on for a few more rounds, extremely tight, more as an exercise in forcing myself not to tilt.  But the cards didn’t break my way at all, and ultimately I just got up and left.  It was a truly horrible experience.

So that’s where it stood for a day or two, and I had decided to post the hand here as a therapeutic measure.  But tonight, the next chapter was writ; I’m glad I waited to post, because I see both of these hands as part of a matching set.

The theme of this entry is patience.  If I hadn’t had patience, what happened next probably never would have.  And if I hadn’t had a fundamental faith in my game – perhaps my best poker quality – it definitely wouldn’t have.

Another day; another $2/$5 game.  I sat down still dejected from the last session, with a rather fatalistic outlook on the world, and pretty much expecting to see my chip stack wither away either gradually or through one classic crash-up like before.

After a couple of rounds where I was starting to build my stack (like usual), and playing very carefully and (if I do say so myself) quite disciplined and good, I looked down under-the-gun and found pocket Aces.  I brought it in for a raise ($15).  The player on my left, somebody I hadn’t ever played with before but who I pegged as relatively tight, raised it to $50.  This seemed eerily like the previous day’s fiasco, although this time I held the Aces.  It folded around to me, and I said (to myself), oh, the hell with it, and I just shoved in my stack; around $500 (I had my opponent covered).  He insta-called, and all we needed now was a board.

It came Queen, Jack, and three rags.  I turned over my pocket Aces.  He turned over his pocket Kings.  I won a huge pot; even bigger than the one I had lost the day before.  All was right with the world once more.  My opponent got mad and left.

I never think it’s wrong pre-flop to shove with pocket Aces, in a cash game at least.  At worst, I am 80% to win.  I don’t feel the same way about Kings though; nor even (generally) about calling somebody else’s all-in while holding Kings.  I have some more thoughts about playing Kings, and I’ll post those some time.  But I did want to make this entry for the time being.

2008 Pendleton Fall Poker Roundup

I have to say, this is one of the very best tournaments that I've ever been to.  Not only were the tournaments good, but the side action was some of the consistently best poker I've ever seen.  It was a great place to play poker!

I took a walk around downtown Pendleton Saturday morning, and although there's not much to it I must admit it's a pretty decent town after all.  And it isn't as small as I originally expected; all in all it's probably about the same size as the town I went to college at in Nebraska.  So it was a very comfortable place to be.

The motel I was at was as cheap as could be, but not a bad joint at all.  Best of all, the wireless Internet worked!  And it was next door to the 24-hour Denny's restaurant, so I had decent breakfasts all weekend (and a few nice lunches too).

Along with around 300 other folks, I played the $500 buy-in tournament on Saturday.  Much to my surprise, there were a lot of pros who were there!  I didn't expect this, because of the WSOP circuit tournament going on in Tahoe, but there they were:  Susie Isaacs, Marsha Waggoner, Tom McEvoy, Barbara Enwright, Linda Johnson, a few others too.  When I saw Tom McEvoy, I remembered that I happened to have brought one of his books with me to read on the plane, so I resolved to bring it back the next day and see whether he would autograph it for me.

I made it more than half-way through the field, but busted out before the money.  But on the other hand, I saw that I had outlasted every pro except for Linda Johnson, so I guess that's something.

The next day (Saturday) was the "Main Event", with a $1000 buy-in.  But I was having such a good run at the cash games that I decided to skip it and just play $2/$5 after all.  I brought my book for McEvoy to sign -- but he never showed up!  I guess when he busted out of the Friday tournament so early, he just decided to head out.  Bummer!  I really wanted to meet him.

Sunday was the "Last Chance" tournament, with a measly $200 buy-in.  Just for fun, I played a $20 satellite to see whether I could get in for cheap; made it all the way to heads-up, and then cut a deal with the other guy.  I gave him the win, and he gave me $75.  So I decided to go ahead and play that tournament.  There were over 200 entries.

I made it to the final five tables . . . but they only paid the final two tables.  So I nearly made it.  Then, back to the cash tables for more money-making.

At one of my cash games were two pros that I'd never heard of before:  Vince Burgio and Howard "Tahoe" Andrew.  It's probably a good thing that nobody told me they were pros until after they had left or else I might have probably been intimidated.  As it was, I pretty much wiped the table with them.  "Tahoe" especially received a lot of pain from playing pots against me.  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure they haven't heard of me either.

They play either two or three of these "Poker Roundups" each year; not clear to me yet which it is.  But I can promise you that I will definitely be back!  I have found a group of really good poker players, top to bottom, and it's a totally terrific environment to play in!

Pendleton Fall Poker Roundup

So here I am in beautiful tiny Pendleton.  I flew into what was certainly the smallest commercial airport I have ever flown into -- and I've flown into plenty of tiny airports.  Long Beach, Santa Barbara, and Traverse City come to mind.  As for this place -- the waiting area was smaller than the turboprob plane that brought me there!  Since it's only 40 miles away from Walla Walla, I'm surprised that it's even still open.

The motel I'm staying at reminds me of the places in Kansas City they used to close down because of all the drug trafficking.  Sometimes I'm so cheap I can't even explain it to myself.  The difference in price between this joint and the casino hotel is basically one decent no-limit pot, so it's not like I wouldn't be able to afford the upgrade.

Then I popped over to the casino, expecting to be seriously disappointed.  The casino itself (the Wildhorse) looks like any other Indian casino, the kind that you find every thirty miles or so in Michigan.  I thought, okay, their poker room has maybe six tables in it, if I'm lucky (turns out it has four).  I wandered about the slot area (smoking section of course), looked through the gift shop, then walked over to the convention center to take a peek.  Many times, big tournaments are held in the convention area rather than the poker room (like the WSOP).

I ended up walking into one of the largest poker rooms I'd ever seen outside of Las Vegas and L.A.!  There must have been 50 tables set up, maybe more.  It was extremely impressive.  So, just to get the feel for the crowd, I sat down at the $2/$5 no-limit table and bought in for $400.

That $400 lasted me around six hours, but I had one of the worst runs of cards I can remember.  In fact, there's really only two key hands that I played where I put in more than $15-$20.  In the first, I had pocket Queens, and my opponent had Ace/Jack.  The board flopped a Jack, and the third Jack came on the river, so I lost a decent pot there (around $200).  The second hand, I had Ace/Jack suited on the button, and I ran into a flopped full house (pocket nines caught a nine-five-five flop).  That pretty much did it for me.

When I have a session with bad hand after bad hand, I start to think, well, I hope I got all the bad hands out of the way so next time I get better hands.  I'll see whether this holds true, because I'll be playing the $500 no limit tournament today.  Some of the dealers said they expect around 500 players -- this would make for a prize pool of $250,000!  I think it will be fun.

Tomorrow is a $1000 tournament.  I will probably play that one too, but to be honest I haven't decided yet.

Some Interesting Hands

For one reason or another, I found a few hands I played recently rather interesting, so I’ll post them in case anybody else does too.  They’re all from the $2/$5 no-limit table.

For the first hand, I was in the big blind.  The first player folded.  The second player called the big blind of $5.  He was a very loose player, seeing a lot of flops, so his call didn’t mean a thing to me.  (Although I don’t believe I will EVER understand why somebody in early position would ever just call the big blind.)  The only other caller was the small blind, another loose cannon.  I looked down to see Queen/Six of clubs – true garbage – so I checked and the three of us saw the flop.

It was Seven of Diamonds, Queen of Hearts, Jack of Clubs.  So I had flopped top pair with rotten kicker, but almost certainly the best hand.  The small blind checked; I bet $5 into the $15 pot and got both players to call.  Nice.

The turn was the Six of Diamonds, and suddenly I had two pair.  Oddly enough, at this point the small blind overbet $40 into the $30 pot.  There’s no way he had me beat; I’d seen him play enough to know that if he had either a set (because of a pocket pair) or a better two pair than me, he’d have bet it earlier.  So I just smooth called his bet.  The third player folded out of the way.

The river brought the Nine of Spades.  At this point, my opponent checked.  I value bet a measly $60 (the pot was over $100) and without much delay, he called.  I showed my two pair; I don’t know what he had because he mucked.  But I brought home a nice $220 pot.

As for the next hand on the agenda, I was in late position.  The player under the gun raised to $20 or four times the big blind.  (Now that is how to come in from early position!)  This guy was moderately tight, so I was a bit concerned about what he might have.  The next player folded; then the one after that called the bet cold.  He was a very loose player and his call didn’t really mean much to be as he had been playing a lot of pots.  Frankly, I put him on two high cards.  The next player folded; I looked down at the two red Queens.  Now, believe it or not, frequently in this situation I would strongly consider folding!  That is, a tight player in first position coming in for a raise, with one player calling the bet cold . . . absent any other information, I’d assume at least one of them had Aces or Kings.  But this was a very loose table, with everybody calling every bet with bizarre hands, so I thought that it was extremely possible that I had the best hand here.   So I went ahead and called.  The player to my left (who was the button) also called – but I actually liked that, because he was a truly terrible player and I saw it as a chance to take some chips from him.  The two blinds folded.

The flop was pretty good for me:  Seven of Hearts, Three of Hearts, Three of Spades.  I thought that it was extremely unlikely that it had hit anybody; with that much pre-flop action, you’d have to believe everybody had cards higher than seven.  The betting round confirmed my hunch, as the first two players checked (at this time I put the UTG guy also on two high cards).  I put $60 into the $87 pot; the button called and the other two players folded (whew!)

The turn was the Jack of Clubs; my Queens were almost certainly still good.  This time I put $140 out (the pot was around $200) and again my calling-station opponent came along for the ride.

River:  Three of Diamonds.  Now, only three hands beat me:  the case Three, or pocket Aces or Kings.  No way my button buddy had those.  I put him all in for another $120 (I had him covered).  He thought a good long time before folding, and the $460 pot was mine.

Big deal, you’re thinking, anybody can play pocket Queens.  And you’re right.  So this last hand is about as opposite a hand as you’ll find . . . in fact, it played out so odd that I just cracked up when I was over.  I won’t tell you my holding until the very end.

I was in the big blind.  The first player folded; the next one limped (he might be the tightest player I’ve ever seen); another fold, then the next player min-raised to $10 (why oh why such a ridiculous raise?).  The one to his left called the raise; it folded around to me.  At this point, with the pot odds I’d have called another $5 with any two cards, so I did.  Mr. Tight also called, so it was four to the flop.

The flop came two black Aces, and the Deuce of Diamonds.

When I see a flop like this, I have two competing reactions: (1) The fact that two Aces came makes it less likely that anybody else held an Ace pre-flop; and (2) If anybody does in fact hold an ace in their hand, it will become pretty clear during the betting that is to come.

I checked; so did Mr. Tight.  The pre-flop raiser put out a min-bet of $5, and I was the only caller.

The turn was the Three of Spades, and it went check-check.

The river brought the Ten on Clubs.  The pot held just over $50 by now.  I value-bet a miniscule $20 into the pot; my opponent called, and I turned over (what I knew from the flop on was) the winning hand:

Seven/Deuce of Clubs!

I don’t know what my opponent had for sure but it must have been two high cards.

I’m going to be playing at the “Poker Round-Up” at the Wildhorse Casino in the massive metropolis of Pendleton, Oregon next week.  Just a change of pace to shake things up.  I’m going to enter a couple of events there in addition to playing the cash games; I’ll let you know how I did.