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Another good day yesterday. Nothing spectacular, just a steady accumulation of chips. indeed, the best performance by me was one in which I minimized my loss, rather than maximized my gain. It's an important tenet in poker; a dollar not lost is as valuable as a dollar won.
I didn't have a single double-through, but I won five or six "reasonable" sized pots through bets on the turn, and a few more of a reasonable size when I adopted the sound strategy of having the best hand at showdown (this is intrinsically linked with another sound strategy – improving your hand on the flop).
Hands worth commenting upon:
1) 7d6d in cutoff. I throw in small raise of a couple of limpers (a) to build pot (b) to make it a multi-wayer and (c) to make any inveterate larger raisers behind me or in the blind have second thoughts. Flop comes Kd Qd Jd. I put in a pot-sized bet (a) because I'm happy to win a $40 here and now and (b) I can't see the bare Ad or Td having the courage to fold. No callers. Said to dealer. "Wrong straight flush!" (There's a $100 bonus for a straight flush and a $500 bonus for a Royal Flush - using two cards in hand).
2) Ah4h in late. Same strategy of a small raise to build pot. Five callers. This time, the flop is the less generous 4s5hJd. I fire a $16 continuation and get two callers (button and big blind). Turn brings 9h, giving me bottom pair and a nut flush draw. I push in a $37 bet and, rather disappointingly, I get a caller – the button. River is As, making a board of 4s 5h Jd 9h As. There's about $120 in pot and I have about $100 behind. Opponent has about $80. I bottle it and check, intending to evaluate whether I call opponent's bet on how big the bet is. TBH he doesn't look like a bluffer. Unfortunately if I put in any bet above $15, I'm kind of committed to calling his raise (he might have a worse two pair). Anyhoo, he turns out to have JhQh – also a flush draw, but beating me on the flop and turn. I suspect he would have called a $15 bet from me and not much more. Slightly annoyed at myself for not extracting maximum value on the river.
3) KsKh in late. Raise, get three callers, including early limper. Flop comes 9c 5d 4d and early limper fires out $20 bet into $30 pot. I think for about three seconds and fold. Other players fold and original bettor obligingly shows his top set of nines. I doubt that many players could find a fold there, but he didn't look tricky enough to me to be betting a draw. I was fairly sure that he would check an overpair, so the logical conclusion was that, like many weak players, he saw not only his set but also the scare cards 5d4d, and made the mistaken assumption that "there is always a draw out there". Was very pleased indeed with this fold, which I don't think I would have found a few months ago. With $1-$2 players, most of the time what you see is what you get. A big bet represents a big hand, not a draw.
Greg Hawes was playing the $500 one-dayer at Planet Hollywood, and despite building up to 10x his starting stack in a 43-runner field, managed to lose three coin-flips in a row to move from chip-leader to bust in 18th. That's the way he plays and it seems to work.
That permitted us time for a pleasant dinner at Lombardi's (opposite V Theater on Miracle Mile – where I saw Bob Dylan in 2005!) and, despite it being an Italian, I spoilt myself with an excellent 16oz bone-in rib-eye steak, with shitake mushrooms, asparagus, and small diced roast potatoes. I didn't finish the potatoes! Greg had a shrimp-based pasta dish followed by a cheesecake and Irish coffee.
Had an interesting discussion with Daniel the maitre d' about how the definition of "medium rare" had become something of a movable feast in the USA over the past decade, with some restaurants moving very close to the European definition, while others have moved less quickly.
Also we had an odd moment when the waitress asked Greg whether he wanted whipped cream and crème de menthe. I thought she was referring to the cheesecake, but apparently she was referring to the Irish coffee. It took me several minutes to work out why anyone would want to mix crème de menthe with coffee and whiskey – a combination of flavours which sounds to me to be utterly repulsive. Th answer of course was in the colour of crème de menthe, not the flavour. Personally, if I was determined to put green colour into anything called "Irish". in this case I would choose Green Chartreuse rather than crème de menthe (a drink forever in my mind associated with the Billy Connolly story told at The Secret Policeman's Ball, "What does the pope drink? Creme de Menthe? Two pints of that then please".)
Dinner was made even more pleasant by the fact that Greg insisted on paying. May he cash in WSOP tournaments more often!
And so, back to the apartment rather early, rather tired and rather full.
Plus $205 for the day, plus $273 for trip. I am now just trying to beat my plus $978 performance in December.
I didn't have a single double-through, but I won five or six "reasonable" sized pots through bets on the turn, and a few more of a reasonable size when I adopted the sound strategy of having the best hand at showdown (this is intrinsically linked with another sound strategy – improving your hand on the flop).
Hands worth commenting upon:
1) 7d6d in cutoff. I throw in small raise of a couple of limpers (a) to build pot (b) to make it a multi-wayer and (c) to make any inveterate larger raisers behind me or in the blind have second thoughts. Flop comes Kd Qd Jd. I put in a pot-sized bet (a) because I'm happy to win a $40 here and now and (b) I can't see the bare Ad or Td having the courage to fold. No callers. Said to dealer. "Wrong straight flush!" (There's a $100 bonus for a straight flush and a $500 bonus for a Royal Flush - using two cards in hand).
2) Ah4h in late. Same strategy of a small raise to build pot. Five callers. This time, the flop is the less generous 4s5hJd. I fire a $16 continuation and get two callers (button and big blind). Turn brings 9h, giving me bottom pair and a nut flush draw. I push in a $37 bet and, rather disappointingly, I get a caller – the button. River is As, making a board of 4s 5h Jd 9h As. There's about $120 in pot and I have about $100 behind. Opponent has about $80. I bottle it and check, intending to evaluate whether I call opponent's bet on how big the bet is. TBH he doesn't look like a bluffer. Unfortunately if I put in any bet above $15, I'm kind of committed to calling his raise (he might have a worse two pair). Anyhoo, he turns out to have JhQh – also a flush draw, but beating me on the flop and turn. I suspect he would have called a $15 bet from me and not much more. Slightly annoyed at myself for not extracting maximum value on the river.
3) KsKh in late. Raise, get three callers, including early limper. Flop comes 9c 5d 4d and early limper fires out $20 bet into $30 pot. I think for about three seconds and fold. Other players fold and original bettor obligingly shows his top set of nines. I doubt that many players could find a fold there, but he didn't look tricky enough to me to be betting a draw. I was fairly sure that he would check an overpair, so the logical conclusion was that, like many weak players, he saw not only his set but also the scare cards 5d4d, and made the mistaken assumption that "there is always a draw out there". Was very pleased indeed with this fold, which I don't think I would have found a few months ago. With $1-$2 players, most of the time what you see is what you get. A big bet represents a big hand, not a draw.
Greg Hawes was playing the $500 one-dayer at Planet Hollywood, and despite building up to 10x his starting stack in a 43-runner field, managed to lose three coin-flips in a row to move from chip-leader to bust in 18th. That's the way he plays and it seems to work.
That permitted us time for a pleasant dinner at Lombardi's (opposite V Theater on Miracle Mile – where I saw Bob Dylan in 2005!) and, despite it being an Italian, I spoilt myself with an excellent 16oz bone-in rib-eye steak, with shitake mushrooms, asparagus, and small diced roast potatoes. I didn't finish the potatoes! Greg had a shrimp-based pasta dish followed by a cheesecake and Irish coffee.
Had an interesting discussion with Daniel the maitre d' about how the definition of "medium rare" had become something of a movable feast in the USA over the past decade, with some restaurants moving very close to the European definition, while others have moved less quickly.
Also we had an odd moment when the waitress asked Greg whether he wanted whipped cream and crème de menthe. I thought she was referring to the cheesecake, but apparently she was referring to the Irish coffee. It took me several minutes to work out why anyone would want to mix crème de menthe with coffee and whiskey – a combination of flavours which sounds to me to be utterly repulsive. Th answer of course was in the colour of crème de menthe, not the flavour. Personally, if I was determined to put green colour into anything called "Irish". in this case I would choose Green Chartreuse rather than crème de menthe (a drink forever in my mind associated with the Billy Connolly story told at The Secret Policeman's Ball, "What does the pope drink? Creme de Menthe? Two pints of that then please".)
Dinner was made even more pleasant by the fact that Greg insisted on paying. May he cash in WSOP tournaments more often!
And so, back to the apartment rather early, rather tired and rather full.
Plus $205 for the day, plus $273 for trip. I am now just trying to beat my plus $978 performance in December.
