Ugarte's Poker Grovel #14 or Lots of LosingNot much to report (though this gets kinda long anyway). I didn’t really get to play much in Pakistan. I played some very low stakes no-limit with my host, but it was fake - just a teaching game. I also would have had something to say about the NYC WSOP qualifier, but Pauly stole my damn thunder by publishing Coach’s tourney wrap-ups. I can’t decide if I’m madder at Pauly or Coach. I’ll answer that by the end of the grovel. I do have Ferrari’s report, though, so I’ll publish his for the sake of completeness. He isn’t bitter; not at all.
I also played a couple of SNG’s last night, which were mostly uneventful, but why should that stop me. Input is requested on one of them, so please do read on.
First, Ferrari. He played in one of the WSOP qualifier tournaments a few weeks ago. He sent me a simultaneous report, but sent it to an address I couldn’t access from abroad. I would publish it as written, except he wrote it with the expectation that it was source material, not original text. So I will edit it lightly, but present it with Ferrari’s emotion.:
The level of play was MUCH MUCH better than expected. One guy, who used to work with [coworkers of ours] plays for hours online and claims to supplement his income by picking up $700 a week playing online (he was 2nd out) ? he’ll probably be showing up at my game. Another player won one of the poker sites freeroll $50K tournies and looks to be pretty damn good ? ditto (he finished 2nd). Not sure about the rest, probably all weakish players (hopefully some of them will show at my game too). I couldn’t get a read on the winner; it was a source of discussion as to whether he was any good or just really lucky.
The play was VERY aggressive. I got dealt shit - and I mean shit - all night. I never once flopped anything to help my hand. I stole a few blinds, but I am not sure if I ever actually won a pot after the flop. Everytime I came in (especially late when I got looser) I would be in with drawing hands JT, 87, etc., would get no help (not even a draw) from the flop and was getting monster raises thrown at me by larger stacks - any one of which would have finished (or near finished) me when I couldn’t risk the high probability of a call if I tried to re-raise. Basically I managed to tread water down to three players, but there was one monster stack and the second place player had a lot more than me as well. I got no good cards (not even ace highs) and got eaten alive by the blinds. The guy who won caught crazy good hands early ? flushes and full houses, often back to back to back. Basically, a few people got bounced pretty quickly, this guy built a huge stack early and rode it home. I was dying for a good hand to slow play and crack people, but never got it.
My table was a game where you needed cards to play. Play was too aggressive and too stupid at times to really try for a lot of bluffing without cards after bets had been made ? once people committed $ to the pot they rode it out to the river. I got no cards and there was little I could do about it in that kind of game.
Story of the night ? I was dealt AJo ? somebody did something with the deal and a misdeal was declared. I then got dealt crap ? the flop on the re-deal ? K-Q-10 rainbow ?. Mother fucker?I never saw a single hand better than A-J off suit the whole tourney and never even flopped a pair (or maybe once), let alone a fucking straight.
The good news is that I won it all back playing in the side game that formed amongst the people knocked out. I cleaned up in the side game though. There was a lot of aggressive play, but not so smart. There were a couple of hands where people kept re-raising into my made full houses, etc. I was winning so much that twice I raised with The Hammer from the button after everyone folded. Folded after a re-raise by the small blind once and then won the next pot when everyone folded by the turn. I did it for you, Rick.
I won $263 playing 3/6 hold ‘em, so I finished the night up $13 net of the tourney buy-in.
That is a good comeback, Ferrari. Well done. Except for the part where you invited good players to the home game. Booooo!
My own fortunes have not been as good. In Pakistan, my friend Paul and I sat down to “play” no limit with a buy-in of 210 Pakistani rupees (~$3.50) so I could teach him strategy regarding starting hands, etc. (yes, I was teaching not learning; no, you do not have permission to laugh). I put “play” in quotes because after the first game we just split up the money and played again. I lost both games. (Those who can, do ...)
In the first game, after going back and forth for a while, I fell victim to having the second best hand and my trips went down to an unlikely straight (which was slow-played quite well by Paul). In the second game the “teaching” did me in. We had been showing our cards after each hand so I could talk to Paul about laying down dominated hands and I had been bluffing quite a bit, because Paul was often telegraphing how weak his hands were. When my JJ became a set after the flop, Paul was in no mood to believe that I had anything and he called my all in bet with nothing but Ace-high. That Ace was a spade, however, and there were two spades in the flop. Then another on the turn. And another on the river. Paul’s flush put him in the lead, and he won on a forgettable hand (that I have, in fact forgotten) shortly thereafter.
I also played two NLHE SNGs last night and neither went well. In the first (5+.50), I bet into someone on the river (I don’t remember what I had) who had hit an inside straight on the last card after a series of very poorly thought out calls all the way up to the miracle river. Busted out in 9th of 9.
In the second, I played slow and steady to get myself in medium chip position with four players to go. Up to that point I had only played two hands to the river, and had won them both. In the first, a very weak starting hand in the BB became a baby straight on the turn and the minimal betting to that point allowed me to stick around long enough to pull in a nice pot. In the second, after we had dropped to 5 at the table, I raised with 8♠8 before the flop and got one caller. The flop was all small (5-7-9, I think), but all spades. With a pair better than the middle card in the flop, two chances to hit my spade and a stack I needed to improve, I went all-in. So did the caller, who flipped KK - but no spade. I caught another baby spade on the river and coasted from there to where I began this recap - four players left.
I raised with K9o to steal the blinds, but got called by the BB (and big stack). The flop came K-J-9 and I bet about 25% of my chips. He raised to about 90% of my stack. I’d love to hear what other people think I should have done here. I raised all-in. He flipped up JJ, the turn and river didn’t help either of us and I was knocked out in 4th.
Probably going to play at Coach’s place on Sunday and then at Ferrari’s on Monday. Pauly called me out, (three times!) so I have to play. And you can read the results here.
By the way, I am mad at neither Pauly nor Coach. I couldn’t have done anything with his wraps while I was away. Don’t take this so seriously, people.
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