Thursday, July 23, 2009

Met another blogger


I was psyched to go to the poker tournament today at the Gold Strike. These are always fun, and jusdealem was going to play, too. I met diverjoules last weekend, so that would be two blogger meetings in one week. Cool.

Although jusdealem and I have "known" each other through our blogs, and although we play in the same casinos, we've never actually met f-2-f. We had a blast together. It's always nice to put a face with a name. As expected, she was as nice as could be and a terrific poker player. As I said last week, there are lots of poker players, but bloggers are an elite slice of that world.

We started the tournament with 4000 in chips, blinds of 25/50 and 30 minute levels. No room for any missteps. I had won no big pots, but chipped up as high as 6500. Then I went card dead and my stack dropped back to 5200 in Level 5. The blinds were 150/300 with 25 ante. Under the gun, I held: Q Q, and raised to 1100. It folded to the small blind who called.

The flop was K-Q-J rainbow. The SB checked, I bet 1600 and the SB check-raised me all in. What would you do? You have middle set, but the board is highly coordinated. I decided that if he played A-10, then more power to him. Besides, I had outs, as they say. He turned over A-A! About my favorite thing in poker is snapping off aces when they didn't raise (or re-raise) preflop. But the turn was another ace, and I was drawing to one out (or a 10 for a chop).

That's the problem with playing tight, and waiting for the double-up. Sometimes, the double-up doesn't come or things like this happen. The alternative is to play lots or pots, and splash around and build up a big enough stack to withstand bad luck. I guess which manner you choose depends on your style, and, perhaps, your personality (the two are no doubt related).

I adjourned to the cash game to lick my wounds. In about an hour, here came jusdealem. She had made a flush, but another player hit a boat to knock her out. We were playing $4/8 limit HE at different tables, but after about 20 minutes, they moved me to her table -- she had already doubled up!!

I watched in awe for the next three hours -- I don't believe she turned over a hand on the river that wasn't a winner! It got to be ridiculous as her chip stack grew. Finally, two guys on one side of her said she couldn't spread her chips out any further -- she would have to go vertical! You can check out the photo below and her stack grew about $100 beyond what you see.

One quick, funny story. A new lady came to the table. I forget why she wasn't dealt any cards, but perhaps she got to the table too late or maybe she was between the button and the blinds. When the betting came to her (it was $4), she called. She had no cards, but threw her four white chips out there! Obviously, you don't want to bluff a calling station like that. Just sayin'.


Jusdealem (above) is guarding her hole cards with both hands. Is that a tell?

9 comments:

  1. "She had no cards, but threw her four white chips out there! Obviously, you don't want to bluff a calling station like that."

    That's...scary!

    /j.

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  2. Where is the pic of your stack? :-) Bad beat on the QQQ. Sometimes you get the chicken and sometimes just the feathers.. arrgh. Have a fun weekend.

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  3. @diverjoules: If you look at the photo, on the left of her the seat is empty. That's where I was sitting before I got up to take the photo. I had around $140 in chips, so you can use that to guesstimate what she had.

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  4. Tough luck on the Queens. I definately would have made the call too. Looks like Justdealem was cleaning up.

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  5. I was definetly on a rush at that table. LOL Too bad my luck was there and not in the tournament, but I can't complain obv. ;)

    This pic still has me laughing! I've got a bet out there and such a sour look on my face...classic tell: weak look means strong hand. Haha. Really gotta watch that!

    Good times, mojo! Great to meet you, look forward to seeing you again soon. :)

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  6. Ouch ouch ouch on the QQ hand. I was refreshing Twitter for updates!

    It's cool that you finally got to meet Jusdealem. Isn't she awesome?

    I really wish I were heading to Tunica . . . I hear that the omaha action will be heating up the the tournament series going on. (Oddly though, I didn't find much of it the last time I was there. I guess it's only during certain times of the year?)

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  7. @bwop, the strike had an Omaha game last night (I didn't pay attention, but prob O8 limit with a kill). I was hangin' with jusdealem, so didn't play in it, and yeah, she's a sweetie.

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  8. I hope I get a stack like jusdealem's during my next LHE session. I'm licking my wounds after a losing one ... sometimes you just can't win despite the game being good, but that's no reason not to go back the next day.

    -PL

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  9. Arghh limit poker. But is sure is fun making chip structures with all your $1 chips. Not that I know what that is like directly.

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