Moving to Cash and Vegas, Baby!
as i said in my last post, i've moved from sit n gos to cash games full-time. for those who don't know the difference, (first, i can't believe you put up with all the poker jargon here) i'll explain a little.
in a tournament (a sit n go is a tournament with 9 players), everyone starts with the same number of chips, and they play till one person has all the chips. that person is the winner, and the player who got down to the final two and lost is second, and the player busted before that person is third. the top three players get paid in a 5:3:2 ratio. you can't leave until the tournament is over (well, you can, but you'll just pay blinds and fold until you're out). you bet tournament chips, which have no cash value.
a cash game is simpler. bets are made with real dollars and everyone can come and they please. this is important for quality of life. when i was playing sit n gos i was locked in for about 45 minutes until they all finished. if somebody dropped by unexpectedly or called on the phone, i couldn't really be present till poker was done. now i can stop playing with just a few minutes notice.
in short, it's been pretty awesome. i'm making more than i ever did at sit n gos, and i like it more. it's more interesting to me because the stacks are deeper relative to the blinds, so it's not a game of just deciding whether to raise all-in or fold before the flop. many thanks to pasterbator, who has helped me a ton. i knew him from the sit n go forum but not even that well, and he's been there for me on IM to teach me stuff.
and the other news is that i went to vegas last weekend. some friends of mine from college were all going, and i decided to go out a couple of days early to get my live poker fix so i could be social when they showed up. i was kind of bummed to be leaving the online game as i had been on crazy heater in the stretch between thanksgiving and vegas, but it's hard to complain about going to vegas.
i got into town on wednesday night and got to the hotel/casino where i was staying, the MGM grand, around midnight. i played 1/2 ($200 buy-in) when i got in. i won one big hand early where i overcalled in my big blind with KcQc, bet the flop on a board of JhTc3c and wound up stacking a guy with KJ when an A came on the turn. then i basically dribbled chips away waiting to get a big hand to play against the maniac on my right, but it never happened.
i did shout at somebody in public for maybe the first time ever though. here's the situation: i'm sitting on the left end of the table with two other guys. while the cards are being dealt, one says to the other, "i saw one of your cards, it was a three or a four. do you want me to call a misdeal?" this is not allowed. it's either a misdeal or it's not. you can't ask the guy if he wants one to be called. i told him this, maybe three times as loud as i needed to. if he were a novice player who didn't know things like that i would've been a lot calmer about the whole thing, but he had obviously spent his share of time in a casino. we threw in our cards and it was a misdeal.
he said to me a few hands later, "look, you're right. i shouldn't have said that. but i couldn't get a word in with you yelling like that." i thanked him for saying something and agreed i could've handled it better. i was still a little shook up from the whole thing and it was pretty late, so i went to bed.
the next day i played 2/5 at the MGM and then the bellagio. i wasn't doing too great and had to make a couple of trips to the ATM, and on the second trip my card was denied. this sucked, as i had called my bank to raise my withdrawal limits to avoid this. so it was about 4 pm, and i was sitting with $300 at a 2/5 game. i really wanted to be sitting with at least the max buy-in ($500), and i was worried that if i lost my remaining money i'd have nothing to do for the rest of the day/night.
i figured what the hell, sat back down with my $300, and immediately went on a sweet run. i busted another short stack and won another big pot to start growing my stack. i played two hands with one villain where i made a pair on the river and wound up making a mistake. at first i thought this guy was a really fishy player, and he seemed drunk around noon when i got there. i don't know if he got more sober, or if he was actually playing ok postflop the whole time, or what.
hand 1: villain straddles for 10. there are two limpers and i raise in LMP with T9o, and the villain and one limper call. i bet out on a flop of 6d 3c 2d, and only villain calls. we both check on a turn of the 3d, which completes the flush. the river is an off-suit 9, giving me top pair. villain bets 300 into a ~450 pot and i fold pretty quickly. he flips Ks 5s for nothing. i hadn't seen anyone in vegas who wasn't an obvious maniac make a bluff like that (i.e., a pretty good one, since i'm going to have a hard time calling with too many hands).
hand 2: i raise KJ in LMP and villain (same guy) calls in small blind and the big blind calls too. we all check on a T 7 3 board, all different suits. the turn is a 4 of the last suit, and villain bets out. the BB folds, and i raise because i figured that villain would make a play on that pot with anything there. villain calls. the river is a very lucky J, and the villain checks. i decided there was a decent chance that villain would check/call with 2 pair or check/raise with a set, and he might be able to fold a T, so i didn't see a lot of value in betting. i check behind, villain flashes a K and tells me i hit a 3-outer (meaning he had KT probably), and mucks disgustedly.
i made a fold i was pretty pleased with later, folding my overpair KK on a safe board to a turn check-raise. when the villain check-raised, my thought process was something like "man, we both still have a lot of chips behind, and villain is a nit so he pretty much always has KK beaten, but i have to go broke because i have KK. or do i....?" i folded, and i don't know for sure that i was beaten, but i was pretty confident.
i ran my 300 up to 1900, so i decided to take a crack at playing 5/10. it, um, did not go well. on one early key hand i raised A7o 2 off the button after a straddle and got called by the button. i bet the flop of Td 5h 3h and got called. the turn was the Qs. villain had enough left for a little less than a pot-sized all-in. i had read that people in vegas were too willing to make big folds after putting a lot of chips in the pot, and i thought there was a decent chance i could push him off most of his probable hands, Tx and a heart flush draw. unfortunately he had 33 and happily called my push.
having dumped a lot of money playing 5/10, i moved back to 2/5 after dinner. it was pretty unexceptional, although i did see a bunch of famous poker people, including phil ivey, doyle brunson, sammy farha, and some others playing in the big game in the bellagio.
i did make one fold i was pretty proud of. one guy who was totally ABC but also a decent player reraised me preflop from the big blind after i raised from the button. the flop comes JT3, and he bets the flop. i fold QQ, and he shows AA. that's a fold i'd never make online, because live players (and this live player in particular) have at least AQ+, 99+ to make that raise, and usually it's more like AK, TT+.
so, overall, playing live poker was kinda fun, but i don't like it as much as live (maybe i'm saying that cause i dropped $500+). i like being able to come and go as i please with no waiting lists, and i'm not patient enough to play one table instead of six (and one online table plays ~3 times as fast as one live table). the players were bad, but not in a way that i'm used to. fishy online players will call down their whole stack with top pair and no kicker, while it seems like fishy live players just won't value raise with a full house or they'll make some folds they shouldn't. if i played more live i'd get more comfortable running crazy 3-barrel bluffs at nits, and that'd be fun, but i'd still rather sit and home and print money playing online. so man, i hope the internet gambling ban does not have any real teeth.
then my friends showed up and we did vegas things. like booze.
as i said in my last post, i've moved from sit n gos to cash games full-time. for those who don't know the difference, (first, i can't believe you put up with all the poker jargon here) i'll explain a little.
in a tournament (a sit n go is a tournament with 9 players), everyone starts with the same number of chips, and they play till one person has all the chips. that person is the winner, and the player who got down to the final two and lost is second, and the player busted before that person is third. the top three players get paid in a 5:3:2 ratio. you can't leave until the tournament is over (well, you can, but you'll just pay blinds and fold until you're out). you bet tournament chips, which have no cash value.
a cash game is simpler. bets are made with real dollars and everyone can come and they please. this is important for quality of life. when i was playing sit n gos i was locked in for about 45 minutes until they all finished. if somebody dropped by unexpectedly or called on the phone, i couldn't really be present till poker was done. now i can stop playing with just a few minutes notice.
in short, it's been pretty awesome. i'm making more than i ever did at sit n gos, and i like it more. it's more interesting to me because the stacks are deeper relative to the blinds, so it's not a game of just deciding whether to raise all-in or fold before the flop. many thanks to pasterbator, who has helped me a ton. i knew him from the sit n go forum but not even that well, and he's been there for me on IM to teach me stuff.
and the other news is that i went to vegas last weekend. some friends of mine from college were all going, and i decided to go out a couple of days early to get my live poker fix so i could be social when they showed up. i was kind of bummed to be leaving the online game as i had been on crazy heater in the stretch between thanksgiving and vegas, but it's hard to complain about going to vegas.
i got into town on wednesday night and got to the hotel/casino where i was staying, the MGM grand, around midnight. i played 1/2 ($200 buy-in) when i got in. i won one big hand early where i overcalled in my big blind with KcQc, bet the flop on a board of JhTc3c and wound up stacking a guy with KJ when an A came on the turn. then i basically dribbled chips away waiting to get a big hand to play against the maniac on my right, but it never happened.
i did shout at somebody in public for maybe the first time ever though. here's the situation: i'm sitting on the left end of the table with two other guys. while the cards are being dealt, one says to the other, "i saw one of your cards, it was a three or a four. do you want me to call a misdeal?" this is not allowed. it's either a misdeal or it's not. you can't ask the guy if he wants one to be called. i told him this, maybe three times as loud as i needed to. if he were a novice player who didn't know things like that i would've been a lot calmer about the whole thing, but he had obviously spent his share of time in a casino. we threw in our cards and it was a misdeal.
he said to me a few hands later, "look, you're right. i shouldn't have said that. but i couldn't get a word in with you yelling like that." i thanked him for saying something and agreed i could've handled it better. i was still a little shook up from the whole thing and it was pretty late, so i went to bed.
the next day i played 2/5 at the MGM and then the bellagio. i wasn't doing too great and had to make a couple of trips to the ATM, and on the second trip my card was denied. this sucked, as i had called my bank to raise my withdrawal limits to avoid this. so it was about 4 pm, and i was sitting with $300 at a 2/5 game. i really wanted to be sitting with at least the max buy-in ($500), and i was worried that if i lost my remaining money i'd have nothing to do for the rest of the day/night.
i figured what the hell, sat back down with my $300, and immediately went on a sweet run. i busted another short stack and won another big pot to start growing my stack. i played two hands with one villain where i made a pair on the river and wound up making a mistake. at first i thought this guy was a really fishy player, and he seemed drunk around noon when i got there. i don't know if he got more sober, or if he was actually playing ok postflop the whole time, or what.
hand 1: villain straddles for 10. there are two limpers and i raise in LMP with T9o, and the villain and one limper call. i bet out on a flop of 6d 3c 2d, and only villain calls. we both check on a turn of the 3d, which completes the flush. the river is an off-suit 9, giving me top pair. villain bets 300 into a ~450 pot and i fold pretty quickly. he flips Ks 5s for nothing. i hadn't seen anyone in vegas who wasn't an obvious maniac make a bluff like that (i.e., a pretty good one, since i'm going to have a hard time calling with too many hands).
hand 2: i raise KJ in LMP and villain (same guy) calls in small blind and the big blind calls too. we all check on a T 7 3 board, all different suits. the turn is a 4 of the last suit, and villain bets out. the BB folds, and i raise because i figured that villain would make a play on that pot with anything there. villain calls. the river is a very lucky J, and the villain checks. i decided there was a decent chance that villain would check/call with 2 pair or check/raise with a set, and he might be able to fold a T, so i didn't see a lot of value in betting. i check behind, villain flashes a K and tells me i hit a 3-outer (meaning he had KT probably), and mucks disgustedly.
i made a fold i was pretty pleased with later, folding my overpair KK on a safe board to a turn check-raise. when the villain check-raised, my thought process was something like "man, we both still have a lot of chips behind, and villain is a nit so he pretty much always has KK beaten, but i have to go broke because i have KK. or do i....?" i folded, and i don't know for sure that i was beaten, but i was pretty confident.
i ran my 300 up to 1900, so i decided to take a crack at playing 5/10. it, um, did not go well. on one early key hand i raised A7o 2 off the button after a straddle and got called by the button. i bet the flop of Td 5h 3h and got called. the turn was the Qs. villain had enough left for a little less than a pot-sized all-in. i had read that people in vegas were too willing to make big folds after putting a lot of chips in the pot, and i thought there was a decent chance i could push him off most of his probable hands, Tx and a heart flush draw. unfortunately he had 33 and happily called my push.
having dumped a lot of money playing 5/10, i moved back to 2/5 after dinner. it was pretty unexceptional, although i did see a bunch of famous poker people, including phil ivey, doyle brunson, sammy farha, and some others playing in the big game in the bellagio.
i did make one fold i was pretty proud of. one guy who was totally ABC but also a decent player reraised me preflop from the big blind after i raised from the button. the flop comes JT3, and he bets the flop. i fold QQ, and he shows AA. that's a fold i'd never make online, because live players (and this live player in particular) have at least AQ+, 99+ to make that raise, and usually it's more like AK, TT+.
so, overall, playing live poker was kinda fun, but i don't like it as much as live (maybe i'm saying that cause i dropped $500+). i like being able to come and go as i please with no waiting lists, and i'm not patient enough to play one table instead of six (and one online table plays ~3 times as fast as one live table). the players were bad, but not in a way that i'm used to. fishy online players will call down their whole stack with top pair and no kicker, while it seems like fishy live players just won't value raise with a full house or they'll make some folds they shouldn't. if i played more live i'd get more comfortable running crazy 3-barrel bluffs at nits, and that'd be fun, but i'd still rather sit and home and print money playing online. so man, i hope the internet gambling ban does not have any real teeth.
then my friends showed up and we did vegas things. like booze.
posted by pokerschwab at 9:19 AM
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