Reel Deal Poker

Best Day Yet!

2006-09-28T15:49:00.000-04:00

Had my best day of poker ever yesterday. First, played some $1/$2 NL cash tables and took in about $250 and then played in one of PokerStars 180 player $20 SnGs. Things didn't start well as I lost 3/4 of my stack in the early going to a player that made his gutshot on the river. At one point during the first half hour I was down to about 580 chips. Things turned around quickly however and by the first break I had over 3,000 chips and was in the top 32. The second hour went well and I comfortably got past the money bubble. With only ten players remaining I was the chipleader and once we reached the final table I was 3rd in chips. Was card dead for the first several orbits at the final table and then misplayed a hand against one of the short stacks. This knocked me down to the point where I was 5th out of 6. Fought back and grabbed a big pot when I got all the money in against this year's TLB leader on Stars tenetter, my QQ held up against his KQ. Once 6th, 5th and 4th were knocked out I was chipleader going to 3-handed. Played solidly and held the lead as we went to heads-up. Nearly ended it when, with a 2-to-1 chip lead, all the money went in with my 99 vs. his KTo. Flop brought rags, however, the turn and river both brought tens. This swung the match around and it ended with me in 2nd when my AQ lost to his A9 when he rivered a flush. Was very happy with my decisions throughout the tournament and I felt I outplayed my opponent heads-up, he just caught the cards. In any event, I'm very happy with nearly a $1,000 day of poker.

Poker and Me

2006-07-18T14:33:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so poker and I are still on speaking terms. But I have to say she doesn't have the same allure she did a few months back. I've cashed in a few MTTs (including finishing 28th out of over 900 in a recent Stars MTT) and did win a seat to the Stars $650 WSOP Main Event qualifier (busted out near 100 out of 500 in that though), but a certain malaise has come over our relationship. Playing cash tables while chasing bonuses is just flat boring at times and it gets tiring building up a decent stack only to see most of it sucked away by some runner-runner gayness. So, lately I'm sticking more with MTTs. But with cashes being infrequent and small when they do come, it's not helping out the roll. So, I may cool off my on-line play for a bit... perhaps I'll get back in shape and drop some of this "poker weight" I've put on over the past few months. I'll play here and there and will definitely keep playing my monthly home game, especially since it has been very profitable lately (cashed in all 4 SnGs we played this month, for some reason the guys I play with never think I have a hand even though I'm playing tighter than anyone else at the table, if one of them ever starts to pay attention I might be in trouble)... but I digress. Anyway, I feel like poker and I are at a bit of a crossroads... we'll see what happens.

Sorry... I'm a Slacker

2006-05-08T11:30:00.000-04:00

Yeah, 5+ months since the last update... no excuses, I'm a slacker.

My poker life lately has been fairly mundane. Cashed out more than 2/3 of the roll in February and have been grinding it out and chasing boni (that would be the plural form of bonus) at the lower limits on Party, Full Tilt and UB for the last several months. Pretty much gave up trying to qualify on-line for the WSOP Main Event as I just have too much going on this summer (teaching a law school course and coaching some of the sports teams my two boys are on). The cash game grind has me bored of late so I started playing the 6-max SnGs at Party and I may have found (a) a game I really enjoy, and (b) a nice little profit source. I know this is way too small of a sample to get too excited about but I tracked the first 10 of these I've played and have finished in the money (only top 2 places pay) 7 out of 10. These games are guaranteed to have at least two or three players that are completely clueless, unless they get extremely lucky they are dead money... that leaves only 1 or 2 other players to take-out to finish in the money. Right now I'm only playing the $11 tables but will likely move up to the $22 and $33 after I track about 20-30 more of these at the $11 level.

That's all for now... I'll try to be a bit more active than the 5+ months plan. GL all.

First Step Towards the WSOP

2005-11-30T16:56:00.000-05:00

Played in a satellite to the UB $300+20 WSOP Main Event Qualifier today and won a seat!! It was a $5+.50 re-buy satellite with 57 players. Started slowly for me and had almost no playable hands for the entire re-buy period. Actually, until the final table I saw very few playable hands... but my patience paid off as I doubled-up right before we got down to the final 10. Play at the final table was very tight but the deck still ran cold so I couldn't take advantage of the tight play. When we were down to the final four (top two spots won a seat to the Qualifier), I did get a lucky river card that kept me alive. The hand was against the big stack who had been pushing around the other three of us who were well behind him... he raised pre-flop and in the BB I called with Kd5d. The flop came 345 rainbow, he checked and my only move at that point was to shove all my chips in and hope for a fold or that my pair of 5s would hold up (I put him on two big cards). He thought and said, "going to gamble" he makes the call and flips over A6o. So, my 5s are good, until the turn brings an Ace, I think I'm dead and get ready to close out the table but the river brings... a King!! After that I played solidly and actually knocked out both the 3rd and 4th place players in one hand and then it was down to the two of us. With our seats to the WSOP Qualifier both already won we went all-in on the first heads-up hand and my Q3o made two pair for the win!! The $300+20 Qualifier is Friday night at 10:30... wish me luck!!

Back-to-Back Final Tables!!

2005-11-03T16:11:00.000-05:00

Well, since I made the final table in yesterday's 11:30 a.m. Pokerroom $10+1 MTT I thought I'd give it another try today and, low and behold, made the final table again!! This time I improved on yesterday's 7th place finish by coming in 3rd and getting up closer to the decent money. Couple hands were memorable, the most being perhaps one of my best laydowns... when I was 4th in chips and there were only 30 left in the tournament I was dealt AKo in the BB, one of the medium stacks goes all-in and the SB (who was the chip leader) calls, I think and think and decide I'm probably up against AA or KK so I lay it down. The medium stack flips over AQ and the chip leader filps over QQ, for a split second I wished I had made the call, then the flop comes AQx, turn and river are blanks and the chip leaders set of queens holds up. Now I'm quite happy as I would have gone broke on that hand had I called. When we got down to about 18 players I lost a race when my 99 didn't hold up against a smaller stack that went all-in with AKo. This almost knocked me out, but within one of the next few hands I pushed all-in with ATs and was called by two others, hit an A on the flop and tripled up!! This got me back in it and I played solid poker until we were down to the final 3 where I was the short stack and finally had to push with a mediocre hand. But, I'll take 3rd and back-to-back final tables in the same event!!

First MTT Final Table!

2005-11-02T15:00:00.000-05:00

Played some lunch-time poker today and made my first MTT final table. It was the Pokerroom 11:30am $10+1 and it started with a relatively small field of 160. I've been close on a number of occasions in the last few weeks but finally got there today. Two big hands helped me get there... first fairly early in the tournament I had been playing tight-aggressive and chipped-up to about 2k, get AA in late position and was happy to see two of the smaller stacks go all-in ahead of me, I call and one holds a small PP while the other has A9s... the aces hold up and I vault into the top 15. Again played tight-aggressive and stayed in the top 30 in chips until just before the second break, in the CO I raise 4xBB with KQs and the BB goes all-in. I've got him covered but not by a lot. I think and decide if I want to assure myself a shot at the final table this pot would probably get me there, the raiser had been aggressive and had bluffed at a number of pots... I call, he flips A3o which I'm happy to see. I catch both the K and Q on the flop, knock him out and get into the top 5! Again played tight-aggressive until we got down to the final table. The end was very disappointing though... with 7 left at the final table (I was 5th in chips) I get dealt AA in LP, the big stack raises 1.5xBB, folds around to me and I go all-in, big stack calls and flips over QQ... you guessed it, 3rd Q comes on the flop.

$1000 Christmas Challenge Update: Back at the end of September I wrote here about how I told the wife I'd make $1000 for her to use as Xmas shopping money. Well, I'm happy to report that the bankroll is now over $1,100. So, unless I turn into a complete donkey over the next month and a half, I think she's going to be getting a nice $1000 check soon.

Calling the Donkey Overbet = +EV?

2005-10-25T15:32:00.000-04:00

Played the $100NL cash tables at Titan Poker on Sunday and Monday night and netted over $325. As much as I enjoy playing MTTs, it's clear to me now that for me the best use of my on-line poker time is at the cash tables.

I also spent some time this past weekend going through the first part of Small Stakes Hold 'Em (2+2 Publication) and the section on EV got me thinking about something I see a lot at the cash tables and that's the overbet. What I started to wonder was weather calling an overbet, under certain circumstances, might result in a positive EV. Well, while the sample size is obviously way too small, I can say that I collected most of that $325 profit by calling some big overbets.

Clearly you don't want to go calling overbets all the time and without good reason, so I came up with some "rules" for myself when playing against a super-aggro overbetter. First rule: make sure you've watched them play several hands, see what cards they're playing, see how they bet those cards... most of the times these super-aggro players are extremely reckless and will play almost anything and play it hard. Next rule is that after you've tagged someone as an aggressive player that overplays their hands, be patient and wait for a good hand, with position, and then hope that the maniac wants to play. One thing you'll have to be ready to do is call or raise the aggro player's bet, they'll be big and you can't let that scare you off a good hand... if you've been playing close attention to this player and seeing the garbage they play there will be a good chance they're playing junk again. Of course, you need to be wary of the board cards, if something screwy like four of one suit hits the board you might be in trouble. But if the board has nothing scary on it, play your good hand and don't let the big bets run you off.

Case in point, last night I was dealt QQ in position, raised 4xBB and the maniac called from the SB, flop had all low cards, no flush and no real straight draw. The aggro player fires out a big bet (as he always did), I called, turn was another low card and the maniac throws out another big bet, I call, river is a J and the super aggro goes all-in, I call and he flips over K10 and I bust the super aggro and scope a very nice pot. This scenario played out several times over the last few nights and led to two very profitable nights of poker. Like I said, this sample size is way too small, but I really think that if you play it right, there is a lot of money to be made calling these aggro player's overbets.

One last thing, don't forget to take notes on these players and add them to your buddy list!!

The All-In Infatuation is All-Wrong

2005-10-11T09:25:00.000-04:00

I played a lot of poker over the weekend. Our monthly home game was Friday night and we played from 8:00 until 2:00 in the morning. I also played a number of cash game tables at UltimateBet on Saturday night and found a boat load of maniacs passing out their money. There were two particular hands over the weekend that really made me chuckle and I thought they would be worth writing about here. Both hands involved a player going all-in and both, in my opinion, were misplayed.

First, I have to say that I think the infatuation with going all-in is a direct result of the television coverage NLHE gets on ESPN and other networks. Because those telecasts are so severely edited what we wind-up seeing is 8 or 9 instances of people going all-in over the course of a one hour broadcast. So, people watching who don’t play a lot of NLHE must think going all-in is commonplace since it’s happening on TV every 6 or 7 minutes during a broadcast. ESPN has even sold a sponsorship for this play… "the Degree (deodorant) All-In Moment."

OK, so back to the hands…. at our monthly home game on Friday I was in middle position, was dealt 33 and limped in trying to see a cheap flop, a player two to my left also limped, it then went around to the SB who raised it 4xBB. Being somewhat short stacked and reading the raiser with a higher pocket pair I decided to muck my 3s. The other limper called and the flop came 3-9-10. Needless to say I was not happy seeing I would have made a set. The limper checked and the pre-flop raiser says, "all-in." Now I think, ‘great he’s probably got jacks or queens and I would have doubled-up if I would have stayed in.’ The limper thinks for awhile and then mucks his cards. I tell the raiser I should have stayed because I would have taken down that pot. He laughs and says he’s sure he had enough to beat me because only pocket 10s had him beat and I wouldn’t have folded 10s before the flop. Well, I then knew he had pocket 9s and completely misplayed the hand. The guy is a friend of mine and since I don’t want to give free advice out during our monthly game, all I said was, "OK." So, he knew enough to know that he had the nut set but didn’t know enough to play so as to maximize the pot he could win. All he got out of that set was the blinds and one call of his pre-flop raise. The only legitimate hand he had to worry about on that board was JQ and the guy left in the pot with him is the type that will call down to the river chasing, so make him pay you off!! Besides, if he does chase and hits it you’ll be able to tell since, (a) you know he’s probably chasing a straight, and (b) it will be fairly easy to tell if he hits the straight and you’ll be able to get away from the hand without risking all your chips. Odds are the guy will not hit his straight and you can maximize the winnings from the hand by making pot size or two-thirds size bets that he’ll be more likely to call than an all-in. If your read was wrong and he’s got a pocket pair (other than 10s), then it’s even better for you if you can keep him in the hand.

The other misplayed "all-in" I saw over the weekend was at a $50NL cash table at UltimateBet. There was a pre-flop raiser and one caller. The board was something like 2-6-J rainbow, the pre-flop raiser checks, the pre-flop caller puts out a half the pot bet and the pre-flop raiser goes all-in. I thought, please call, I want to see these hands. The all-in does get called, the pre-flop raiser has pocket Qs and the caller has pocket 8s. The pre-flop raiser has no way of knowing where he stands in the hand and his all-in bet puts him in a position of thereafter never being able to know and just hoping that he has the best hand. The guy got lucky and was called by a lower pair that didn’t improve and won a big pot, but he didn’t win it based on skill he won it based on luck. If he’s up against a set or a higher pocket pair he’s now lost all his money at the table, a loss that could have been avoided if played properly. I love playing with people like this, they get bolstered by a win like that and then play even more loose… sure enough, I wound-up taking most of this guys $$ over the next 45 minutes.

So fish, keep watching poker on TV and keep going all-in every 5 or 10 minutes, the rest of us appreciate it!

The Poker Gods don't care that it's your Birthday

2005-10-04T09:54:00.000-04:00

Turned the big 40 yesterday. After the wife and kids were in bed I thought I'd "celebrate" by playing in a couple MTTs. Apparently the Poker Gods don't give a rip if it's your birthday or not. Got close to being in the money a couple times only to lose coin flips on each occasion. Flamed out early of the Titan tournament I entered when my 7 high straight was beat by an 8 high straight. Should have known this would be the case after watching my favorite football teams stink it up over the weekend. Anyway, going to get off the MTT kick for a while and head back to bonus chasing. Well, at least both my fantasy football teams posted wins over the weekend... all is not lost.

Back-to-Back Wins at Stars

2005-09-29T16:20:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to enjoy playing the smaller MTT Stars has in it's SnG section... the 27 and 45 player tournaments. Obviously the prize pool is considerably smaller than the huge scheduled MTTs but your chances at getting ITM are better and they usually wind-up lasting no more than an 1:30 to 1:45. I've now won the last two of these I've played. Both were $5+.50, one being a 27 player field, the other 45. The win in the 27 player field was fairly uneventful, played tight/aggressive and never laid a bad beat on anyone. Last night though, in the 45 player field, was a different story. I was in the top 8 in chips before the first break when I lost 2/3 of my chips with AKs. I hung on to make the final table and past the bubble (top 7 paid). But then the blinds ate away at my stack and after seeing a cheap flop where my K6 paired up with a K on the board I pushed all-in, only to be called by a limper with AK. Turn brought a blank and I thought I was done for the night until the river brought a 6 and kept me alive. From there I went on and played solidly, doubled up a number of times and wound-up the big stack with 3 left. I pushed around the smaller stacks until getting heads up, two hands later it was over. Here's the final hand:

PokerStars Game #2685191173: Tournament #13146861, Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (1000/2000) - 2005/09/29 - 00:31:23 (ET)
Table '13146861 4' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: jdwraith (12640 in chips)
Seat 8: ReelDeal-Jax (54860 in chips)
jdwraith: posts the ante 100
ReelDeal-Jax: posts the ante 100
jdwraith: posts small blind 1000
ReelDeal-Jax: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ReelDeal-Jax [Kc As]
jdwraith: raises 2000 to 4000
ReelDeal-Jax: raises 5000 to 9000
jdwraith: raises 3540 to 12540 and is all-in
ReelDeal-Jax: calls 3540
*** FLOP *** [8d 5h 4s]
*** TURN *** [8d 5h 4s] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [8d 5h 4s 6d] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ReelDeal-Jax: shows [Kc As] (high card Ace)
jdwraith: shows [3s Ts] (high card Ten)
jdwraith said, "gg"
ReelDeal-Jax collected 25280 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 25280 Rake 0
Board [8d 5h 4s 6d 9c]
Seat 1: jdwraith (button) (small blind) showed [3s Ts] and lost with high card Ten
Seat 8: ReelDeal-Jax (big blind) showed [Kc As] and won (25280) with high card Ace

Nice to net $106 and back-to-back wins!!

$1000 Christmas Challenge

2005-09-27T15:58:00.000-04:00

Boy am I stupid. About 2 and a half months ago I cashed out most of my on-line poker accounts. I decided it was time for a break. By mid-August I decided break-time was over and it was time to play on-line again. But, instead of making any big deposits I decided to see what I could do with the one account that had more than a few cents in it... I still had $25 at Noble Poker because there was a $10 deposit bonus on my account and I had not played enough raked hands to make a withdrawal, at that time I thought fine I'll get that out later. So, after my self-imposed hiatus I went back to Noble to play the required raked hands to get that money out... funny thing happened though, that money started to grow, rapidly. In less than a month I turned that $25 into over $350 just playing ring games at Noble and Titan. Now that $25 is up over $400. Here comes the stupid part... I told my wife I was going to turn that $25 into $1000 before Christmas so she could use it to by gifts! That was about 10 days ago, and, you guessed it... the bankroll has started to go in reverse. I'm sure I've now jinxed myself, but it will be interesting to see if I can hit that $1000 goal before the holidays. Wish me luck!

Why me?

2005-09-27T15:09:00.000-04:00

What I want to know is... did this guy have to get to a doctor's appointment or something?

PokerStars Game #2641559489: Tournament #12672526, Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2005/09/23 - 11:01:30 (ET)
Table '12672526 31'
Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: jrod888 (3050 in chips)
Seat 2: ReelDeal-Jax (4150 in chips)
Seat 3: JMSiwik (2634 in chips)
Seat 5: jerry_da_man (4275 in chips)
Seat 6: gudchips (800 in chips)
Seat 7: dzudik (5491 in chips)
Seat 8: $-SUJ-$ (2765 in chips)
Seat 9: oldcon2004 (4175 in chips)
gudchips: posts small blind
50dzudik: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ReelDeal-Jax [Ks Kh]
$-SUJ-$: folds
oldcon2004: raises 100 to 200
jrod888: folds
ReelDeal-Jax: raises 200 to 400
JMSiwik: calls 400
jerry_da_man: folds
gudchips: folds
dzudik: calls 300
oldcon2004: raises 500 to 900
ReelDeal-Jax: calls 500
JMSiwik: calls 500
dzudik: calls 500
*** FLOP *** [Js Td 3s]
dzudik: checks
oldcon2004: bets 300
ReelDeal-Jax: raises 900 to 1200
JMSiwik: calls 1200
dzudik: folds
oldcon2004: folds
*** TURN *** [Js Td 3s] [3h]
ReelDeal-Jax: bets 600
JMSiwik: calls 534 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [Js Td 3s 3h] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ReelDeal-Jax: shows [Ks Kh] (two pair, Kings and Threes)
JMSiwik: shows [7s 4s] (a flush, Jack high)
JMSiwik collected 7418 from pot

This guy calls a raise and two re-raises pre-flop with 7-4s... wow.

Level I... here we go

2005-09-27T14:27:00.000-04:00

Well, here we are at Level I, my first post on my first blog. I got introduced to poker about a year ago when I was invited into a local monthly game. Had never played any form of poker before that first night. We played three SnGs and I took 2nd in two of the three. Been hooked ever since. My preference is NLHE... tried Limit at a local B&M and did not care for it, mainly because you can't move people off drawing hands with aggressive bets like you can in NL. So, I'll stick to NLHE. In addition to playing every once in a while at a local B&M and in our monthly home game, I started playing on-line in May of this year. I mainly play at PokerStars, PartyPoker, Titan Poker and Pokerroom (only for their MTTs). Really enjoying playing MTTs but since I also like to chase bonuses and can make steady $$ at the cash tables, I spend a lot of time in ring games. So far I've won some multi-table SnGs at Party and Stars and have finished in the top 20 in several large MTTs but have yet to land a big cash out or a final table... so that goal is out there.