Trading places
Dec. 12th, 2005 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksWell, I had my first losing day of the trip. However, since I was at one point $300 down and got back to $39 down for the day, it felt more like a win than the day when I gave back $210 of my $420 gain.
It was really just a day of bad cards rather than bad beats. A lot of limit hold'em at this level consists of just three types of hands: (a) hands where you want to get in cheaply and hope to hit, winning a very big pot (you would expect one or at most a couple of these in a four hour session) (b) hands where you want to thin the field pre-flop and hope that no-one who decides to come in hits their hand. Typical sequence. Raise of a limper, Big blind defends, limper calls. You have AJ. Flop comes Kxx. Check to you. You bet. One person folds, the other calls. Turn is a rag. Check to you, you bet, other person folds, you take the pot. This kind of hand (and variations thereof) is your bread and butter. When, as happened yesterday, you are continually either being called down or check-raised on turn or generally facing opponents who have a piece of the flop, then you lose two or three big blinds a hand quite often. And finally, (c) monsters such as AA and KK which you push and hope to win a big pot, but would settle for a small pot.
After a long sequence of (b)s I found myself about $200 down and I picked up Aces UTG. I raise and get three callers plus the big blind coming in for obvious value. The first caller, to my immediate right, definitely has a hand. Of the other two, they probably have any kind of calling hand and will be in for two bets as well as one. No difference to them. $84 in pot.
Flop comes J82 two hearts (I have Ace of hearts). I bet. UTG+1 raises. Now I can be certain he is either on Kings or Aces (perhaps, just perhaps, Queens). The two cold-callers now fold, and BB calls. Uh-oh, I think. This is either a Jack or a heart draw. $132 in pot.
Turn brings a second Jack. BB checks, I check and UTG+1 bets. BB raises. I fold. UTG +1 calls. $196 in pot.
River brings a 7. BB bets and UTG+1 calls. BB shows QJ suited and takes down $224 pot. UTG+1 had QQ btw.
So, an irritater, but little more than that. I'm pleased this trip with the genuine mental reaction that I have felt to hands like this when they occur, even when I am down. A couple of years ago I would have been really fed up by this point (and that would have been at $4-$8). Yesterday it was just another hand at which I was pleased that my read was correct and that I didn't call to the end to show people how unlucky I was.
+++
By past midnight three youngsters had wangled their way onto the table. I had a hunch that two of them might be working together, but they weren't that good (indeed I had hammered one of them with one of my A-9 raises, continued on flop and turn without any help from the board, and still got him to fold) so I wasn't concerned.
But the other players clearly were and, one by one, the experienced guys left. Stay short-handed with two cheaters and two fish (+ 1 unknown) or leave? My mind was made up when a guy sat down and posted. Three seat (one of the youngsters) raised. Four seat (another one of the youngsters, but not one I had previously seen do anything untoward) three-bet it. Poster folded. Three seat calls. Flop comes 632 two spades. Three seat checks, Four seat bets, three seat folds, four seat throws cards to the muck and one of them flips over, revealing a six.
Now, what kind of hand could he have to three-bet that had a six in it?
I picked up my chips and left.
It was really just a day of bad cards rather than bad beats. A lot of limit hold'em at this level consists of just three types of hands: (a) hands where you want to get in cheaply and hope to hit, winning a very big pot (you would expect one or at most a couple of these in a four hour session) (b) hands where you want to thin the field pre-flop and hope that no-one who decides to come in hits their hand. Typical sequence. Raise of a limper, Big blind defends, limper calls. You have AJ. Flop comes Kxx. Check to you. You bet. One person folds, the other calls. Turn is a rag. Check to you, you bet, other person folds, you take the pot. This kind of hand (and variations thereof) is your bread and butter. When, as happened yesterday, you are continually either being called down or check-raised on turn or generally facing opponents who have a piece of the flop, then you lose two or three big blinds a hand quite often. And finally, (c) monsters such as AA and KK which you push and hope to win a big pot, but would settle for a small pot.
After a long sequence of (b)s I found myself about $200 down and I picked up Aces UTG. I raise and get three callers plus the big blind coming in for obvious value. The first caller, to my immediate right, definitely has a hand. Of the other two, they probably have any kind of calling hand and will be in for two bets as well as one. No difference to them. $84 in pot.
Flop comes J82 two hearts (I have Ace of hearts). I bet. UTG+1 raises. Now I can be certain he is either on Kings or Aces (perhaps, just perhaps, Queens). The two cold-callers now fold, and BB calls. Uh-oh, I think. This is either a Jack or a heart draw. $132 in pot.
Turn brings a second Jack. BB checks, I check and UTG+1 bets. BB raises. I fold. UTG +1 calls. $196 in pot.
River brings a 7. BB bets and UTG+1 calls. BB shows QJ suited and takes down $224 pot. UTG+1 had QQ btw.
So, an irritater, but little more than that. I'm pleased this trip with the genuine mental reaction that I have felt to hands like this when they occur, even when I am down. A couple of years ago I would have been really fed up by this point (and that would have been at $4-$8). Yesterday it was just another hand at which I was pleased that my read was correct and that I didn't call to the end to show people how unlucky I was.
+++
By past midnight three youngsters had wangled their way onto the table. I had a hunch that two of them might be working together, but they weren't that good (indeed I had hammered one of them with one of my A-9 raises, continued on flop and turn without any help from the board, and still got him to fold) so I wasn't concerned.
But the other players clearly were and, one by one, the experienced guys left. Stay short-handed with two cheaters and two fish (+ 1 unknown) or leave? My mind was made up when a guy sat down and posted. Three seat (one of the youngsters) raised. Four seat (another one of the youngsters, but not one I had previously seen do anything untoward) three-bet it. Poster folded. Three seat calls. Flop comes 632 two spades. Three seat checks, Four seat bets, three seat folds, four seat throws cards to the muck and one of them flips over, revealing a six.
Now, what kind of hand could he have to three-bet that had a six in it?
I picked up my chips and left.
