Poker Thread

[cabiness42]

In the Full Tilt Ponzi Scheme thread I asked if people were interested in separate thread about playing poker, and a couple people said yes, so here it is . . .

 

I got started on poker from watching it on TV around 2003-04. Began playing a bit more seriously after moving back to Indiana in 2006.

 

I play about 1-2 times a month at the Horseshoe Southern Indiana and 3-4 times a month in home games. Have also played on trips to Vegas and Tunica (MS).

 

At the 'Shoe I play $80-100 NL tournaments or $1/2 NL or PLO cash games.

 

At home games we usually do $25-40 NL tournaments and $0.25/0.50 mixed cash games.

 

My biggest tournament score was winning a $100 tournament that paid me $840. My biggest cash game session was running $100 up to $740 in a NL/PLO home game.

 

My wife plays also and she once finished second in a 180-player women's-only $230 tournament that paid her $5500.

 

I used to play online some before the shutdown, but for pretty low stakes. I must have been bad at finding the fish online since I was a losing player online despite being a winning player live.

[LittleHurt05]

I used to enjoy playing poker, but then it became the cool & popular thing to do, now so many of the players just annoy me so I stay away from it.

[Y2HH]

I used to enjoy playing poker, but then it became the cool & popular thing to do, now so many of the players just annoy me so I stay away from it.

 

A lot of the newer players turned it into pure gambling, which is ok if you feel like grinding against them, they'll eventually f*** up on the wrong hand and you can demolish them, but who has time for that.

 

At my peak, I'd say in the year 05-06 or so, I played higher limit tables in Vegas to get rid of the gamblers and sat at a 20/40 table. I slow played it for a few hours, mostly folding but ended up winning two notable hands, one for 2500$ and the other for like 1800$. Needless to say, they were nice pots.

 

I soon after lost interest in the "pro circuit", aka casinos, etc...and started just playing home games. And no, usually when I played in Vegas or other places, I'd play 2/4 or 4/8 tables, and after a few hours I'd be up a few hundred. I, of course, lost a few times in my life, too...but nothing significant.

[EvilMonkey]

I'll play tourneys in vegas (anywhere from $40 to $100). I money in at least one every time out there, probably play 6 or 7 different times. Best haul was a $1000 win there. I took out an Elvis impersonator to make it to the money table! Also had a freshman congressman from one of the NW states playing in my game. He didn't play very well. Will hit the charity games that pop up here in Joliet every month or so, will money in a sit-n-go a few times out, so far never finished higher than 25th in the 200 seat early bird game. Those get tiring as you have a mix of wannabes and the people there just for the charity that really don't know what they are doing. Now just do home games about every 6 weeks, $20 a head, 2 games a night. All the players are friends, so friendly banter all around, but we still fight it out on the table.

[cabiness42]

Had an interesting finish to a NL tournament last night. Will try to recreate the details as much as possible.

 

34 entries, 4 players paid. 1st = $1050, 2nd = $600, 3rd = $400, 4th = $290.

 

Four players remain with the blinds at 3000/6000 with an ante of 700. I am UTG with 95,000. BTN has 155,000. SB has 55,000. BB has 45,000.

 

I have AJo and raise to 15,000. BTN thinks for a while and re-raises all in. Blinds fold. I now have to call 80,000 to win a pot of 200,000 (2.5 to 1 odds). Based on how long he took to re-raise and what I've played with him, I can confidently narrow his hand range to JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, AQ, AJ. So I am crushed by 21% of his range and even money with the rest. From a purely mathematical standpoint, I should call.

 

The issue here is the money. I can fold and still be second in chips and be almost a lock to finish no worse than 3rd and a really good chance to take second, but I'm gonna have to get really lucky to win. If I call and win I have a massive chip lead and am probably going to win.

 

I'll see if anybody else has any thoughts before I tell you what I did and how it ended up.

[Y2HH]

Had an interesting finish to a NL tournament last night. Will try to recreate the details as much as possible.

 

34 entries, 4 players paid. 1st = $1050, 2nd = $600, 3rd = $400, 4th = $290.

 

Four players remain with the blinds at 3000/6000 with an ante of 700. I am UTG with 95,000. BTN has 155,000. SB has 55,000. BB has 45,000.

 

I have AJo and raise to 15,000. BTN thinks for a while and re-raises all in. Blinds fold. I now have to call 80,000 to win a pot of 200,000 (2.5 to 1 odds). Based on how long he took to re-raise and what I've played with him, I can confidently narrow his hand range to JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, AQ, AJ. So I am crushed by 21% of his range and even money with the rest. From a purely mathematical standpoint, I should call.

 

The issue here is the money. I can fold and still be second in chips and be almost a lock to finish no worse than 3rd and a really good chance to take second, but I'm gonna have to get really lucky to win. If I call and win I have a massive chip lead and am probably going to win.

 

I'll see if anybody else has any thoughts before I tell you what I did and how it ended up.

 

The proper move is to follow the math -- always.

 

HOWEVER, in tournament games, sometimes it's a safer play to guarantee yourself a better position payout finish. IE, if you "might" come in first by taking a risk, but can guarantee yourself a higher payout position by folding, sometimes it's better to just sit back and fold for the payout.

 

If that was me, in that position, I'd have to know how confident I felt, all I can do by reading this is take your word for it that you know his probable hand based on how he tends to play. In that case, based on what you said, you might have just felt more confident folding versus taking a big risk with 4 players left and possibly going on a run, at worst all you lost was 15k.

 

If you ask me, and I don't have experience playing this person -- his pause and decision to "all in" reeks of trying to buy the pot with a so-so hand. If I had to guess, he had a pocket pair, but not a very high one...maybe snowmen at best. That said, I don't know him...so I guess I'd have to say I had to be there.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Y2HH

[SouthsideDon48]

Sorry for being late to the party...

 

I play poker all the time. I've been playing poker ever since I watched Chris Moneymaker win the WSOP Main Event in 2003. After watching Moneymaker win, I played poker with two groups of friends, so I was playing twice as much as all my friends were. To this day, I'm the only one out of all my friends that plays poker seriously by playing whenever I can in bar leagues, casinos, Chicago Charitable Games, home games, etc.

 

I'm also a "tournament specialist". I never have fun playing cash games, so I stick to tournaments and sit_n-goes. There's just something I find very boring and monotonous about cash games with how the blinds always stay the same and never increase. That's why I like tournaments because there's extra strategy involved in the form of the tournament structure, the blinds, the time per blind level, and the relevance of chip stacks. I also find more enjoyment out of tournaments because I generally enjoy elimination-style games.

 

I also never play online, I'm old-school. I just don't find it enjoyable because I enjoy the live tells of playing live. However, I once had a dealer ask me if I play online because he said the way I bet is similar to online players, lol.

 

So far, my biggest tournament cash was winning $1,400 when I came in 4th place in the daily $200 Sunday tournament at Horseshoe Hammond. I really enjoy playing at Horseshoe Hammond and I think they run terrific tournaments. I've also played in the 2010 WSOP-Circuit and the 2011 Chicago Poker Classic at Horseshoe Hammond, but I got eliminated halfway through the field in both and didn't cash. I also used to play a lot of tournaments at Majestic Star in Gary, Indiana, but haven't done so as much because I find the tournaments at Horseshoe more enjoyable.

 

I also once played in the same poker tournament as Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi in Vegas in 2007. I got eliminated in 31st place and then they combined the tables and Mizrachi got moved to my vacated seat that was still warm from me sitting on it. Lol. That was the closest I came to playing against Mizrachi, lol. I stayed around till the break just to have a chance to talk to him, and he was a very nice guy. In the same tournament, there was a guy who was featured on WSOP on ESPN who couldn't use his arms, instead he had to use a triangular piece or wood that looked like a doorstop and use his feet to look at his cards. Very inspirational guy! :-)

 

Most of the time I play in free bar league tournaments once or twice a week so I can stay sharp for the real money tournaments. If anyone from Soxtalk would like to meet me and play free poker, feel free to come to one of the free bar leagues I play in, maybe we'll end up on the same table. :-)

 

Both of the following free poker leagues are affiliated with the Free Poker Network:

Sundays: Time: 5pm andd 8pm. Location: Tinley Bowling Lanes (in Tinley Park, IL) Usually averages about 30 players, sometimes more spread out on 4 or more tables.

 

Tuesdays: 7:30pm. Location: Hollstein's Bar on Oak Park Ave in Tinley Park, IL.. Usually averages 30 players as well, spread out on 4 tables, typically.

 

There's another league that plays on Monays at Morgan's Bar in Frankfort at 7 or 7:30pm, but I haven't played there cause of my schedule.

 

I also occasionally play in the Chicago Charitable Games whenever they make a stop in Tinley Park, Oak Lawn, or anywhere else in the south suburbs.

[cabiness42]

Played in a very interesting drunken NYE game.

 

Our format is usually the same: $30-40 NL tournament followed by a cash game. The cash game is dealer's choice among NLHE, NL Crazy Pineapple, PLO, and PLO/8, with $0.25/0.50 blinds. We have a standard group of about 25 players, with about half showing up to any one event.

 

I ran pretty bad in the tournament and busted out early. I made up for it in the cash game big time. I was into the game for just under $200 and had just over $120 in front of me during a PLO/8 hand. Flop was Q-8-7 with two diamonds. I had a set of 8s with a marginal low draw. Flop betting ends up with six people all in, and I have everybody covered, but a couple just barely. One other person has a set of 7s, one person has a flush draw with a decent low draw, one a straight draw with the nut low draw, one on a pure flush draw and one on just the nut low draw. Turn and river are both Ks and I scooped a $632 pot with 8s full.

 

PLO/8 is a very sick game with high variance, but if you can get yourself at a table with people who don't play it well and/or are drunk, and you have enough bullets to cover the swings, it can be a very profitable game.

[Tuna]

I also never play online, I'm old-school. I just don't find it enjoyable because I enjoy the live tells of playing live. However, I once had a dealer ask me if I play online because he said the way I bet is similar to online players, lol.

 

All in before every flop?

 

[hogan873]

I've never played poker at a casino. I've played in a few "home" tournaments but never faired too well. Once I was one of six remaining from a pool of 20. I enjoy playing, especially Hold 'Em.

 

Playing friendly games with a group is preferable to me. We'll usually play dealer's choice, and some of the games we come up with are pretty fun. One fo my favorites in Night Baseball with threes and nines wild. With a group of 6 or 7 guys the bets can get up there.

 

I haven't played in a while. Now after seeing this thread I got the itch.

[GoodAsGould]

I used to play on Pokerstars all the time mostly doing sit and go's. It was easy money and worthwhile as long as you were running multiple tourneys at a time. Now that online poker is gone I've had to gravitate towards cash games which I used to hate. But when I have the extra cash I'll be at the Elgin boat casino on the 1/2 tables, I've actually learned to like cash games too haha.

[Brian]

Any sites where we can do a Soxtalk online tournament? Make private rooms and stuff. Set dates and times that fit people.

[SouthsideDon48]

All in before every flop?

lol, hell no. He said I play similar to online players because of my bet-sizing in relation to the amount that is in the pot. I usually bet in a range of 1/2 the pot to as much as the pot or more.

[GoodAsGould]

lol, hell no. He said I play similar to online players because of my bet-sizing in relation to the amount that is in the pot. I usually bet in a range of 1/2 the pot to as much as the pot or more.

 

Your goal is pretty much to force people to fold, which can work well depending on the type of people your up against.

[SouthsideDon48]

Your goal is pretty much to force people to fold, which can work well depending on the type of people your up against.

You're right. And it actually works better towards the end of a tournament when the blinds are high in poportion to people's chip stacks. I find it helps me collect a lot of uncontested pots. I try not to be obvious whn I do it, though. I pick my shots selectively, dive in and out, kinda like a fighter pilot.

[cabiness42]

Anybody ever played in Tunica? My wife and I are going there for vacation in a couple weeks.

[SouthsideDon48]

Anybody ever played in Tunica? My wife and I are going there for vacation in a couple weeks.

I've never been to Tunica, but it is definitely on my "poker bucket list" of places to go to at some point in my life. I hope to play a WSOP-C event there someday.

 

I have heard, however, that Tunica is in the middle of a bunch of cornfields.

[SouthsideDon48]

Did anyone play in the Chicago Poker Classic at Horseshoe Hammond last week?

 

I played in event #5, which was a 2-day $240 buy-in tournament that started at 12-noon with 530 players. I survived for 12 hours and 15 minutes before I got eliminated in 49th place out of 530 and won the minimum $429 back. Lol. After 12 hours of playing poker, I'm just glad to walk away with something. I was also a shortstack for the last 8 hours I played, I was just trying to survive and I was absolutely card-dead the entire day. I never once had pocket Aces or pocket kings, and I survived by picking my spots all day.

 

I also survived an improbable all-in when I had 6/4 offsuit, got a pair of 6's on a board of 9s, 6h, 5c. I was the big blind and I was so shortstacked when there was about 80 players left, and the small blind pushed all-in on the flop. After thinking for a long time, I decided to call and I was relieved to see that the other guy just had a pair of 5's. Lol, survived an all-in with 6's over 5's. Lol

 

It's also funny how small the poker world can be sometimes. I bumped into 3 players that I played against before in this tournament, and I ended up on the same table with 2 of them at different points. Last year, me and this black girl both got knocked out in the same hand when she and I both had A/J for a pair of Aces when the other guy played 6c/8c for a straight. Neither of us expected him to play that kind of hand due to the pre-flop raises she and I made. Anyway, I ended up on the same table with her again this year when I got moved to m 3rd table, and it was cool seeing her again, it was like seeing an old friend cause we suffered the same fate last year. After that table, I got moved to another table where I bumped into a guy I used to play in a poker league with for 2 years. He and I were so short-stacked that we didn't get a chance to butt heads in any hands until that table was broken up as well.

 

Thhis was my 3rd major tournament (multiple day tournament with 100+ players) and my first time cashing in one. I achieved a lot of personal goals in terms of amount of time I survived (passed my previous high time of survival of 7 hours 15 minutes) and cashing in this tournament in order to get a profile on pokerpages.com. I got eliminated just 45 minutes before they concluded play for the day, so I was kind of bummed out that I missed making it to day 2. So my goals for next time I play in a big tournament like this is to survive till day 2 (which would be more than 12 hours and 15 minutes), cash for more than $429 (which is my major event high so far) and for more than $1,400 (which is the most I won in a daily tournament). It'll be bonus if I can make it to the final table next time. I feel that I walked away with a lot of valuable experiene in terms of pacing myself for a major tournament and avoiding the frustration of not getting much hands and not getting bored with folding 99% of my hands throughout the 12 hours and 15 minutes. I'm most satisfied of avoiding one of my epic meltdowns and not self-destructing like I did at the last 2 major tournaments I played in (WSOP-C 2010 and Chicago Poker Classic 2011) when I grew impatient.

[cabiness42]

I've never been to Tunica, but it is definitely on my "poker bucket list" of places to go to at some point in my life. I hope to play a WSOP-C event there someday.

 

I have heard, however, that Tunica is in the middle of a bunch of cornfields.

 

Massive brain cramp on my part. I meant to ask about Biloxi. Biloxi is where my wife and I are going in a couple weeks.

 

I actually have been to Tunica and yes, it's in the middle of a bunch of cornfields, but if you're looking for a selection of several decent poker rooms near each other, it's the next best thing to Vegas.

[cabiness42]

Did anyone play in the Chicago Poker Classic at Horseshoe Hammond last week?

 

I live on the other end of the state and did not play, but one of the dealers I know from down here was up there to deal for that tournament series.

[witesoxfan]

Had an interesting finish to a NL tournament last night. Will try to recreate the details as much as possible.

 

34 entries, 4 players paid. 1st = $1050, 2nd = $600, 3rd = $400, 4th = $290.

 

Four players remain with the blinds at 3000/6000 with an ante of 700. I am UTG with 95,000. BTN has 155,000. SB has 55,000. BB has 45,000.

 

I have AJo and raise to 15,000. BTN thinks for a while and re-raises all in. Blinds fold. I now have to call 80,000 to win a pot of 200,000 (2.5 to 1 odds). Based on how long he took to re-raise and what I've played with him, I can confidently narrow his hand range to JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, AQ, AJ. So I am crushed by 21% of his range and even money with the rest. From a purely mathematical standpoint, I should call.

 

The issue here is the money. I can fold and still be second in chips and be almost a lock to finish no worse than 3rd and a really good chance to take second, but I'm gonna have to get really lucky to win. If I call and win I have a massive chip lead and am probably going to win.

 

I'll see if anybody else has any thoughts before I tell you what I did and how it ended up.

 

You never did tell us about this. I'm curious myself.

[cabiness42]

I called, he had 99, which held up, and I took my $290 home.

[Y2HH]

You never did tell us about this. I'm curious myself.

 

I was close when I said he probably had 88, then.

[2nd_city_saint787]

Didnt know there was a poker thread here (i was browsing for a legal help thread)....2 days ago on poker stars I was in a 45 person sit and go, made the final table, got down to 330 chips, the blinds pushed me all in, I won that hand and then in no more than 10-15 hands I was the chip leader and ended up winning it....It was quite the feeling!

[cabiness42]

How are you able to play on PokerStars? Do you not live in the US?