Sunday, February 26, 2012

Act like you've been there before

Above: The Gold Strike Casino has lots of great poker tournaments.

I played the the Saturday night tournament at the Gold Strike along with 38 other runners. The buy-in was $110 for 12K chips. Sitting next to me was a young lady who confided to me: "This is my first tournament." She needn't have bothered telling me as early on I could see that she was a newbie. She eventually donked off her chips when she kept check-calling with 4-4 on a K-Q-10-x-x board. Don't bother asking me why I play donkaments. There is plenty of dead money making tournaments +EV.

There were two other young ladies (early to mid-twenties) at my starting table and they both knew how to play. One was really unlucky. First hand a guy held K-10 and she got him all in on the turn on a K-Q-x-x board. She had A-A, but a 10 on the river killed her. I forget her busto hand, but something similar.

When we got to the final table, I had only 24K chips when the average stack was ~46K. A guy suggested a 10-way chop. "We all get $312, triple the buy-in," he pointed out. The big stack said he'd do it if he could get $350 and everybody split the rest. I was all for this, obviously. Finally, however, the other big stack voted no. Too bad for moi.

The very next hand, the blinds were 2000/1000/300 and there were fiver limpers to me in the big blind. I peeked at my hole cards and saw: A 5. What would you do? I moved all in. If I picked up the pot, that would be a great result. If players had limping hands, they are unlikely to be able to call. One of the donkeys guys did call and turned over 3 3. I would never do that, either raise to begin with or fold -- just sayin'.

You don't like my shove? The odds are 50% to 49% and there's lots of dead money in the pot. But math aside, if I win that pot, my stack is good enough to win the whole thing (I believe it paid around $1200). Here's a screen shot of the Card Player odds calculator:


The dealer dealt the flop and the first card I saw was an ace, but then I looked again and there was a 3! Ouch. The villain jumped up and started flapping his arms like a crazy man. "Yes!! I just had a feeling!" I guess he was excited.

If I ever disrespect another player by doing something like that, just take me out and shoot me. I guarantee I've never done it and never will. Act like you've been there before.

Photo taken with my P&S.

9 comments:

  1. I don't think you'd want me at your table. I'd want to know if poker was like UNO. Might embarrass you. But then your face would turn red and nobody could read it and you'd probably win big bucks. And it would be all my doing and you could split the pot with me and everyone would be happy.

    Does that sound good you schnook reading a book in the nook?

    That was very funny! But I don't think you're a schnook. I think you're a pretty cool guy. You know, for being almost as old as I am. Well, sort of almost as old...

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  2. No multi-thousand dollar cash? You have rejoined the world of the little people?

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  3. I dislike your shove kind of.

    I think it is a good point that 5 people limped and are not likely to have "great" hands. However I think shoving that hand you are far more likely to get called by a hand that totally dominates you like a limped AJ that is just like "aww he does not have many chips I should call"..

    I would much rather shove with some suited connector or something.. or wait for better position and shove for blinds.

    In these amateur games limpers get stubborn and are likely to call..

    I actually like the shove as it turned out however. You could not hope for a better hand than 33 to call you.. maybe A2... lol. Too bad you did not win though... and in general I do not hate the shove.. just do not like it.

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  4. @Waffles: Thanks for the comment.

    @Lightning: LOL.

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  5. I like the shove too. You need chips to win and you do have an Ace. I know you are not there to min cash, so trying to make a run for the win is the way I would go too.

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  6. Also even if you do call. All the money is going in on that flop anyway. Isn't it?

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  7. I took your advice, MOJO. I went out on the golf course and acted like I'd been there before. That didn't stop people from laughing at me, though.

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  8. I guess that's why they call it gambling. But you sure have it down to a science and I imagine with you conservative outlook it must pay off in the long run.

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