My Craziest Hand Ever?

As a no limit poker player, there are a few situations that really scare me, and that I prepare myself to handle every time I sit down at a table. One of them is hitting top pair with a good kicker or an overpair while someone else flops a set. I think about this a lot because I derive a large portion of my poker winnings from people who refuse to lay down their top pair when I have three of a kind. There's just no way to avoid losing a bunch of money in this scenario, as you must be aggressive with your top pairs to protect them from the draws that are inevitably out against you. The key is finding the proper balance between aggression and a willingness to fold when your opponent's betting indicates that you are beaten. Typical example: you're in late position with AA and a guy raises in front of you from $1 to $5. You reraise to $15 and he calls. The flop is a 9 2 6 rainbow and the guy checks. The pot is $30 and you make a $30 bet. The guy now check raises all in for another $100. You are almost certainly beaten (by 99, most likely). A check raise generally shows a strong hand, and your opponent knows you have a big pair or maybe AKs at a minimum based on the preflop action. If I could go back in time and fold ever time this happened to me, I would be a much richer man. Alas, I had to learn the hard way.

Another scary situation is holding KK when up against AA. That might seem rare, but in my short poker career it has come up many times, and I have made a lot of money with AA vs. KK. Lately I've been folding KK preflop under certain circumstances. For example, lets say someone raises from $1 to $5 from early position. Of course I then raise to $10 or $15 with KK. With QQ or less, few people would come back over the top of me unless they were on a very short stack. So when I get reraised another $50 by a guy who is deep in money, I muck my KK.

Below is a situation where I was quite sure I was beaten preflop, but I called the last raise anyway because my implied odds were fanstastic - if I flopped top set with my QQ I could easily double up. See below for the conclusion to this absurd hand.



***** Hand History for Game 2279792448 *****
0/0 TexasHTGameTable (NL) - Tue Jun 28 23:16:57 EDT 2005
Table Table 36575 (Real Money) -- Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: MadRedBull ( $82.65)
Seat 2: karen2002 ( $91.4)
Seat 3: caldric_34 ( $174.9)
Seat 4: hystakes22 ( $111.37)
Seat 5: fishy1777 ( $129.65)
Seat 6: KS_J_Wales ( $101.5)
Seat 7: muckerchuckr ( $127.97)
Seat 8: NMDLAW ( $186.88)
Seat 9: jackariel ( $164.29)
Seat 10: Mps37 ( $100)
jackariel posts small blind (0.5)
Mps37 posts big blind (1)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to fishy1777 [ Qs, Qh ]
MadRedBull raises (4) to 4
karen2002 folds.
caldric_34 calls (4)
hystakes22 folds.
fishy1777 raises (8) to 8
KS_J_Wales folds.
muckerchuckr folds.
NMDLAW folds.
jackariel raises (14.5) to 15
Mps37 folds.
MadRedBull calls (11)
caldric_34 folds.
fishy1777 calls (7)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3d, 6c, Ts ]
jackariel bets (25)
MadRedBull raises (50) to 50
fishy1777 folds.
jackariel raises (50) to 75
MadRedBull calls (17.65)
MadRedBull is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Qd ]
** Dealing River ** : [ Qc ]
Creating Main Pot with $182.3 with MadRedBull
** Summary **
Main Pot: $182.3 | Side Pot 1: $7.35 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 3d 6c Ts Qd Qc ]
MadRedBull balance $182.3, bet $82.65, collected $182.3, net +$99.65 [ Ad As ] [ two pairs, aces and queens -- Ad,As,Qd,Qc,Ts ]
karen2002 balance $91.4, didn't bet (folded)
caldric_34 balance $170.9, lost $4 (folded)
hystakes22 balance $111.37, didn't bet (folded)
fishy1777 balance $114.65, lost $15 (folded)
KS_J_Wales balance $101.5, didn't bet (folded)
muckerchuckr balance $127.97, didn't bet (folded)
NMDLAW balance $186.88, didn't bet (folded)
jackariel balance $81.64, bet $90, collected $7.35, lost -$82.65 [ Kh Kc ] [ two pairs, kings and queens -- Kh,Kc,Qd,Qc,Ts ]
Mps37 balance $99, lost $1 (folded)

Reading hands

Last night I went out to a club that was offering free drinks. You could order anything at all with no catch. It wasn't long before I had a good buzz going, and a bunch of us hit the dance floor to get our groove on. There was a girl in our group who I didn't recognize, but at one point I found myself dancing next to her and every so often her hand would barely brush by my leg. She was fairly attractive and it would have been fun to grind with her, so I tried to figure out whether she was trying to start something or was just careless about waving her hands around. The analogy to poker hit me immediately. Here I was with AJ on a flop of Ac 6d 2c after betting $3 into a $4 pot from early position and having been raised to $6 from a late position opponent. There were several different hands I could put her on: two clubs for a flush draw, an ace with a weak kicker, or potentially an ace with a stronger kicker or even two pair or a set. Making a read was of course the first challenge. The second challenge was trusting that read enough to act on it, even if that meant risking my whole stack by reraising all in (in the event that I read her for clubs or a weak ace). Last night on the dance floor, I made the read that this girl wanted to get freaky (weak ace), but I was only about 60% confident in that read, and I was not willing to risk the embarassment of getting denied (going all in and losing) for the chance to grind with a cute but by no means gorgeous girl (win a pot that wasn't all that big). Yup, I folded it right then and there. Later I found out that the girl was happily married, prompting me to adjust the confidence level of my initial read from 60% to around 0.38%. I guess the moral of the story is that it takes the nuts to move all in on someone if you can't read her hand.

Mr. ATM

Until a few weeks ago, the highest stakes limit holdem game I ever played was $3/6. Since the beginning of my online poker career I have concentrated on no limit, since I love the ability to make huge value bets at the end with monster hands rather than being restricted to wagers that are only a tiny fraction of the pot. But there are some draws to limit as well. First of all, I have yet to prove myself in that arena, as my latest sessions have yielded only losses. In addition, it is hard to ignore the other poker bloggers who are having a seemingly easy time destroying the middle limit games at Party Poker. So the other day I poured through the $5/10 tables and sat down at one with a relatively high average pot size. I posted a late position blind and was dealt AJ - not a bad start. The player under the gun immediately raised and it was folded to me. Having no information about the raiser, I opted to fold, not wanting to go heads up with a potentially dominated hand, though I suppose that reraising would have been a decent option as well. Anyway, everyone else folded too, and UTG took down a small pot. The next several hands were very similar, and it became clear that this table was full of tight aggressive players who were prepared to fight tooth and nail for every penny. By the time the blinds circled back to me I was out of there. So much for finding easy games at limits higher than $3/6, I thought.

But last night changed all that. It was a little past 3 am, and I was getting sick of looking at the science paper I was supposed to be working on. The PC to my right beckoned and I fired up Party Poker just to check out the action at the $30/60 tables. I had observed these tables before and had been struck by the loose aggression displayed both preflop and on the flop compared to the very tight aggression once the bet size doubled. But this table had a variation on that theme: pick on the weaky. Actually, the term "weaky" doesn't come even remotely close to describing just how bad this guy was. I watched the table for 15 minutes, and not once did he fold preflop. In fact, I saw him fold maybe 3 times during that entire period. On several occasions, with a final board of something like A 3 7 4 J he would CALL river bets holding something like Q 9. Egads!!!!! The other players were clearly preying on him - someone would make a preflop raise, he would call, and everyone else would get out of the way and watch the ensuing carnage. In no more than 5 minutes I saw this guy (who I shall refer to as Mr. ATM for obvious reasons) drop a little over a grand. For a second I considered making a $1500 deposit right then and there so I could have a shot at him, but prudence got the best of me as I would feel totally uncomfortable putting that kind of money at risk. I wanted him to bust out just to see whether he would buy back in again, but when he went all in a minute later he had the best hand despite facing two opponents at the showdown. He even started to make a comeback!! One hand he hit middle set with a flop of T 8 3 and then thrashed a guy with AT when the river brought another T. Unwilling to wait for his streak of good fortune to come to an end, I added Mr. ATM to my buddy list and crawled into bed.

Sitting at that table was a lot like watching a school of 500 pound tuna devouring every lure in sight, only to be reeled in by guys with pool cue-esque fishing rods fitted with telephone cable fishing line. I was eager to cast into the tumult, but I was equipped with a reel the size of a whiffle ball on a rod from Fisher Price. I look forward to building my humble bankroll into a pool cue so I that I too can winch in some of the tastiest morsels in the sea. I'll be looking for you, Mr ATM.

The Poker Dream

Ah, poker. You love it when you're winning, but you damn it all to hell when you're running bad. Even on a completely unemotional level, I struggle with poker all the time. Currently I am a graduate student in molecular microbiology and expect to get my PhD in September. The usual course for a guy like me would be to do a 3 year post doc, during which time I would publish some more papers and gain experience, and then apply for a long term job in industry or academia. But lately I have been feeling a little burnt out with science, and I'm not sure I want to jump right back into it immediately after graduating.

Enter online poker. Since the start of my poker carreer in early 2004, I've done reasonably well, and have gotten it into my head that I could make a living out of this, especially if I moved to some really inexpensive part of the world, say Argentina for example. This is an extremely tempting possibility. But when you really stop and think about it, you have to wonder: how satisfying can it be to sit in front of a computer all day hitting the fold, call, bet, and raise buttons, trying to coax bundles of cash from you opposition? Hell, even when I'm winning I sometimes get tired of playing online after a mere 3 hours.

And yet I can't stop thinking about poker. When I'm at work, poker. When I'm out with friends, poker. The other night I dreamt that I went all in preflop with AA, had three callers, hit my set on a rainbow flop, then lost to a guy with 69 suited when his runner runner flush came through on the river. If I could just find some dupe to pay me to sit around and discuss poker, I would have my dream job. But as it is, my interest in the game has definitely hampered my productivity as a scientist and I have to wonder if I would not be better off quitting entirely. I don't feel addicted - if I'm busy and can't play or ponder poker for a while there's no problem - but it is such an easy method of procrastination. The lifestyles of the extremely successful poker players like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Phil Hellmuth are very enviable - these guys are at the cutting edge of the poker world and are living their dreams. But for someone just grinding away, without all the fanfare and hype, how good can it be? I suppose that with time my interest (I dare not say "obsession") in poker will wane, as it has with any other fad, and I will have an easier time focusing on more productive endeavors. Until then, deal me in.

ps - for a more in depth discussion of similar issues, see http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/current/Schoonmaker0506.html

Tilt

Yesterday I sat down at 4 $100 NL tables at Pokerroom to start clearing their latest bonus. I had had a great run at Party earlier in the week, bringing in around $800 (including the June bonus) over a few evenings. So I was feeling good, ready to continue the streak. But it was not to be. I had some second best hands that I played foolishly and dropped about $220 in less than an hour. I can't keep my head on straight after losing that much cash, so I logged off and decided that the best way to deal with this psychological distress was to get trashed. And that's exactly what I did - went to a party and hit the keg with a vengeance. I woke up this morning with a grade A hangover and was shocked to find that I was in my roommate's bed. How I wound up in his room I will never know. He was downstairs watching TV - apparently he had just gotten back to the house from his girlfriend's place and hadn't gone upstairs yet (phew!!). I made the painful transition to my room and checked my call history to see all the people I had drunk dialed at 3 AM. It was ugly. So while I probably saved some money by not tilting at the poker tables, I certainly did not save face by going on mad tilt on the social scene. I remember feeling recently that I had come a long way in terms of emotional control while playing poker. Clearly I have a long way to go yet, especially when it comes to not letting my bad sessions affect life away from the felt.

Better than in the movies

If you ever saw the movie Rounders you probably remember the scene where Mike is narrating a hand and flops aces up, makes 9s full on the turn, but loses some $45 Gs to KGB's nut boat when a spade comes on the river. Remember how Teddy reveals his hand at the showdown? "Aces full, Mike" as if he had a complete lock. Fine, fine, he basically did have a lock, but every time I watch that scene a very juvenile and rebellious part of me prays for Mike lift his hole cards and mock Teddy with a lame ass Russian accent "quad 9s, beotch!!!!!" Sure, the likelihood of that is insanely small, but what the fah, it's a movie for god's sake. And just a few days ago this hand went down at a Party poker $100 NL holdem table: I'm in middle position with AA and about 90 bucks. It's folded to me and I raise from $1 to $4. Guy on the button cold calls and the blinds fold. The flop is a dream: A T T. I decide to set a bear trap and check. He checks also. The turn brings a disappointing 4. I bet $2 and he calls. The river is a K, a nice card. Now it's at least possible for him to have a semi-decent hand like a nut str8. So I bet $5 and he goes all in for another $74. Now I'm really excited. I call my buddies over to the table and type into the text box "you ain't gonna like this." That's the closest I can come to feeling like Jules in Pulp Fiction when he gives his Ezekiel 25:17 speech before blowing some hapless dude away. As Jules said, if you heard those words, it meant your ass. Well, I hit the call button, fully expecting the bloated pot to come to me. Clearly the poker gods had something else in store for me that night because the dude showed TT in the hole, leaving me dumbfounded and down a buy in. Now that scene in Rounders is going to be all the more excruciating - I took the bad beat of a life time. Why can't Teddy?

Ante up

First of all, an admission - this is my first blog EVER, so go easy. It was inspired by my bud Carlos (check out his own highly amusing blog at http://hurricanecarlitos.blogspot.com/) and by the many poker bloggers who are raking it in playing $15/30 and $30/60 limit holdem at Party. As the title suggests, this blog will cover more than just poker, which I'm sure will come as a huge disappointment to a great many potential readers. That's right, tales of monster bass, lunker trout, and behemoth bonito will also be posted occasionally. However, St. Louis is not exactly the bastion of quality fisheries I had hoped for when I moved here six years ago, so online poker will likely be the primary topic of this blog. Lets deal.