So, I decided over the weekend that I am going to take a break from live poker again. No real earth shattering reasons - just realised that I have been taking poor care of myself and this poor care is at least partially related to my poker game.
My local room is full of bad players who are there to gamble. This means that, on average, the best strategy is simply to extract value for your made hands as you will get it. But if you run bad like I have for a while now it can make the whole experience a bit soul destroying. Everyone plays different and everyone deals with playing different. When I have to sit for three hours surrounded by various forms of idiocy masquerading as male bravado while practicing my folding (right hand twist out of back of hand, left hand traditional, right hand traditional, repeat...) my coping mechanisms generally involve alcohol.
This coping mechanism tends to get a very serious workout when, after all that practicing at folding, I pick up a very playable pair of kings on the button and get called preflop, flop (K82) and all-in on the turn (a 5) by 64 off only to see the river 3 give my opponent a straight because "sorry dude, I just felt like outplaying you and I knew my hand would be good". I always try to compliment such play and avoid showing my hand if I can ("Nice hand sir. Me? Not much, certainly not enough to beat a straight. Well played"). But I'm human. Rather than vent all that outwardly I turn to the table beside me and consume what happens to be sitting there. Then the hot little French backpacker/cocktail waitress asks me if I want another. Boy, do I.
So I'm taking a break. Will probably last as long as I am really busy at work (most of September at this stage) but may only last for a day. I'm also going to play some on-line. I can scream at the players there.
23 August 2009
10 August 2009
Rivalries and Bad Play
So, as I mentioned in my last post, I spent the weekend in a different poker room. Ran atrociously bad (including another example of top set losing to four of a kind - but this was actually a running four of a kind instead of the set over set variety) so spent a fair bit of time at the equivalent of the 1-2NL tables drinking and trying not to spew beer over the table while laughing at various plays. This was made enjoyable by sitting with one of the few guys I consider a friend (he's from my local game and plays professionally - he is low key and happy to talk about poker so on the odd occasion we encounter each other outside the room it isn't too uncomfortable for either of us loner types) for several hours at the same tables.
Some of the play was literally laughable. Which is a bad thing as I drank too much and in this condition it is sometimes difficult to not laugh at laughable play. But the truly hard part to keep quiet about was the commentary after the laughable play - something that I think comes from the fact that this particular city has a decent card room but none of the low-level players have ever travelled. These players have learned the game from other testosterone-fueled idiots or on-line or by watching TV. Which means that in addition to being REALLY bad players, they have no sense of etiquette, take way too much time to make simple decisions, and generally are just plain rude.
Some random examples (keep in mind the blinds are $2 - $3 and the buy in is between $50 and $200 - yes this is seriously screwed up structure but I digress):
I'm on button with suited J10. I have $230 stack. 6 limpers to me so I make it $25 to go (Not a fan of J10, but want to see what happens). BB, Under the gun, mid position and cut off call, (yes folks that is four limps that call a bet of 8.5bbs. No, folks, I have no idea what anyone has either) and now there is $130 ish in the pot. Flop comes J54 two spades (which I don't have). Checked to mid position (has me covered) who bets $25 into this $130 pot. Cut off folds, I think for a minute and decide this bet is likely a flush draw or a middle pair bet (have seen lots of these middle pair bets) so I raise to $125 planning to put it all in on turn if I get called and brick comes. Folded to Mid who hems and then calls. We're heads up to see the turn of an offsuit 10. Mid checks again and push all in with my now top two. Mid calls and I roll my hand announcing that his set is good. He says he doesn't have a set and when a spade falls on river I figure he drew out, but no, he shows pocket kings and proceeds to yell at me for my J10. I quietly inform him that if he had executed his limp re-raise plan pre-flop he would have won the pot uncontested. Or if he had made a proper bet on the flop he might have won it there. He informed me he lost the last two times he had kings so he was trying to keep it small. But how could I raise with J10 when he had kings? "Sorry Sir, I just got lucky". And I heard about my luck for the next two hours.
Then there was the guy who called when I raised a straddle to $50 from the SB with 99 after 5 callers. His call left him exactly $7 behind. So I bet $8 blind and he calls after seeing a flop of 10 5 3 rainbow. I roll my hand and he waits for the turn and river to come running clubs before turning over Q7 of clubs for a running flush...
Last (ok there were dozens more, but this post is huge already) there was the guy who, having gotten himself in a hole on the river (He raised pre, was called by maniac, made a stiff bet flop that had two spades, maniac calls, third spade on turn goes check - check, River blank goes small bet - big raise by maniac) proceeded to spend precisely 13 minutes looking at his cards, talking, walking away from the table and repeating the process until someone at the table called time and a supervisor made it over to muck his cards. He spent the next hour threatening the guy who called time. "Look man, I play for money - what are you doing calling time, someone ought to give you a time, blah blah blah".
And so it goes.
Some of the play was literally laughable. Which is a bad thing as I drank too much and in this condition it is sometimes difficult to not laugh at laughable play. But the truly hard part to keep quiet about was the commentary after the laughable play - something that I think comes from the fact that this particular city has a decent card room but none of the low-level players have ever travelled. These players have learned the game from other testosterone-fueled idiots or on-line or by watching TV. Which means that in addition to being REALLY bad players, they have no sense of etiquette, take way too much time to make simple decisions, and generally are just plain rude.
Some random examples (keep in mind the blinds are $2 - $3 and the buy in is between $50 and $200 - yes this is seriously screwed up structure but I digress):
I'm on button with suited J10. I have $230 stack. 6 limpers to me so I make it $25 to go (Not a fan of J10, but want to see what happens). BB, Under the gun, mid position and cut off call, (yes folks that is four limps that call a bet of 8.5bbs. No, folks, I have no idea what anyone has either) and now there is $130 ish in the pot. Flop comes J54 two spades (which I don't have). Checked to mid position (has me covered) who bets $25 into this $130 pot. Cut off folds, I think for a minute and decide this bet is likely a flush draw or a middle pair bet (have seen lots of these middle pair bets) so I raise to $125 planning to put it all in on turn if I get called and brick comes. Folded to Mid who hems and then calls. We're heads up to see the turn of an offsuit 10. Mid checks again and push all in with my now top two. Mid calls and I roll my hand announcing that his set is good. He says he doesn't have a set and when a spade falls on river I figure he drew out, but no, he shows pocket kings and proceeds to yell at me for my J10. I quietly inform him that if he had executed his limp re-raise plan pre-flop he would have won the pot uncontested. Or if he had made a proper bet on the flop he might have won it there. He informed me he lost the last two times he had kings so he was trying to keep it small. But how could I raise with J10 when he had kings? "Sorry Sir, I just got lucky". And I heard about my luck for the next two hours.
Then there was the guy who called when I raised a straddle to $50 from the SB with 99 after 5 callers. His call left him exactly $7 behind. So I bet $8 blind and he calls after seeing a flop of 10 5 3 rainbow. I roll my hand and he waits for the turn and river to come running clubs before turning over Q7 of clubs for a running flush...
Last (ok there were dozens more, but this post is huge already) there was the guy who, having gotten himself in a hole on the river (He raised pre, was called by maniac, made a stiff bet flop that had two spades, maniac calls, third spade on turn goes check - check, River blank goes small bet - big raise by maniac) proceeded to spend precisely 13 minutes looking at his cards, talking, walking away from the table and repeating the process until someone at the table called time and a supervisor made it over to muck his cards. He spent the next hour threatening the guy who called time. "Look man, I play for money - what are you doing calling time, someone ought to give you a time, blah blah blah".
And so it goes.
Solitude has but one disadvantage -
it is apt to give one too high an opinion of one's self. In the world we are sure to be often reminded of every known or supposed defect we may have. -Lord Byron
Ok, it is a long way from one of the standard bearers for English Romanticism to the 21 year old computer jockey sitting 1-2 NL in his sunglasses and hooded sweatshirt. But if poker was around, Byron would have been playing (likely with someone else's money). Additionally, he knew the joys of solitude and making one's own way.
This quote cuts several ways for me. Like many regular players, I'm a loner. I do not remember when I became such a person, but at some point I just got into the habit of spending more time with me than with others to the point where now it feels like real work to "socialise". Small talk is for small minds and all that. For my poker this can be a problem because it is good to have people to discuss hands with, not to mention some support to cushion the inevitable crushing turns of fate. I am also prone to believe (despite much incontrovertible evidence to the contrary) that I am the smartest guy in the room. Which also results in my poker earn suffering.
I suppose this is much on my mind because I just returned from a long weekend in another city where I went to play poker. The main draw was a tournament with a decent payout (I don't play tournaments as a rule, but this was an exception). My tourney story can be summed up by saying I finished 55th out 523 entrants (bubble was at 42) having spent the entire morning of the second day looking for appropriate moments to get my stack in pre-flop. But I spent some time with some people I know from my regular game who were also in the same town for the same tournament. This, in turn, reminded me how out of practice I am at spending time with people away from the table. It also provided some interesting insights into my image at the table from those whom I play with.
Nothing earth shattering, but Byron was right.
Ok, it is a long way from one of the standard bearers for English Romanticism to the 21 year old computer jockey sitting 1-2 NL in his sunglasses and hooded sweatshirt. But if poker was around, Byron would have been playing (likely with someone else's money). Additionally, he knew the joys of solitude and making one's own way.
This quote cuts several ways for me. Like many regular players, I'm a loner. I do not remember when I became such a person, but at some point I just got into the habit of spending more time with me than with others to the point where now it feels like real work to "socialise". Small talk is for small minds and all that. For my poker this can be a problem because it is good to have people to discuss hands with, not to mention some support to cushion the inevitable crushing turns of fate. I am also prone to believe (despite much incontrovertible evidence to the contrary) that I am the smartest guy in the room. Which also results in my poker earn suffering.
I suppose this is much on my mind because I just returned from a long weekend in another city where I went to play poker. The main draw was a tournament with a decent payout (I don't play tournaments as a rule, but this was an exception). My tourney story can be summed up by saying I finished 55th out 523 entrants (bubble was at 42) having spent the entire morning of the second day looking for appropriate moments to get my stack in pre-flop. But I spent some time with some people I know from my regular game who were also in the same town for the same tournament. This, in turn, reminded me how out of practice I am at spending time with people away from the table. It also provided some interesting insights into my image at the table from those whom I play with.
Nothing earth shattering, but Byron was right.
04 August 2009
"We must believe in luck...
otherwise how can we explain the success of people we dislike?" - This quote is attributed to Jean Cocteau who, among other things, apparently wrote lots of poetry and spent lots of time running around with beautiful, talented people.
I wonder sometimes, while I'm sitting at the table trying to choose between another glass of red and spending time sober with the latest group of illiterates seated around me, what it would be like to be in the company of, say, Picasso or Edith Piaf. Apparently not enough to stave off an opium addiction, but I wander.
I will likely never be a great poker player. This failure to achieve greatness will primarily result from my preference for disliking people and blaming their luck for my lack of success. The reason so few are great at anything (and certainly why I will struggle to approach greatness in this game) is it is much more difficult (and more honest and profitable) to examine my weaknesses and fix them than it is to blame the good luck of others for my misfortune.
One of the reasons we love this game, I think, is the long term fairness of it. Yes, the random aspect convinces people who suck that they don't. But this also keeps them at the table long past the point they would have left if we were playing chess for $1,000 a game winner take all. But ultimately it is fair. Make good decisions and you do good. Make earth-shatteringly stupid choices and watch people you instinctively hate walk away with your rent money.
Which brings me to this past weekend...
I'm sitting late in the evening having dropped a buy-in and ground it back. This table is about to break and I have too often made the incorrect wine choice. In short, I should get up (after all, walking away is easy once you're up). But along comes one of my favourite people to dislike - the well off banker type who is giving poker a try while his date works the black jack tables. I hate bankers. Primarily this is pure bonus envy, but I try and justify it by telling myself how they are leeches. So this guy plays for a few hands, an orbit at most. Doesn't get out of line - obviously has some clue how the game is played but just as obviously has not played live very much at all. Then the following hand comes up.
It starts with his group (being two other obviously drunk banker types and three women who likely lust after bonuses in a different, but no less vigorous, manner to me) showing at the rail and banker saying "just one more hand". Banker is on the button and he's on my left which makes me the cut-off. I raise preflop with KQ suited and get four callers. Flop comes K86 rainbow and it is checked to me. I lead and only the banker calls. He gets some encouragement from one of the women. Turn is a six, pairing the board. I make a small bet and banker announces he is all-in in as dramatic a fashion as he can - like he has been practicing this line in front of the mirror for just this occasion. So I go to muck my cards as I generally don't call all-in bets from idiot-newbie-bankers who are impressing their dates.
In fact, if my hands were just slippery enough I would have mucked them. But then I start to think. He doesn't have a six. Does he? It is his last hand. He's trying to impress the woman with something other than his bonus. What could he have? a King or a draw. Well, if it's a random king, I'm probably good. If it's a draw, I'm definitely good. He could just have offered me two buy-ins (did I mention that bankers buy-in big?). Those two buy-ins would square me for the weekend and, most importantly, show the women who the true man is. Wow, he's really that stupid that he would make that move with a draw? When I fold, he's going to show it and then get up and then laugh at me with the woman all night long. I have to be ahead, no way he has a six.
Ok, I call.
Of course, it isn't a good sign when the dealer looks surprised with your call. It's worse when the banker has a six. And when he leaves with your buy-ins promising to buy Dom for the woman with my money it really should be time to stand up. I hate it when others get lucky.
I wonder sometimes, while I'm sitting at the table trying to choose between another glass of red and spending time sober with the latest group of illiterates seated around me, what it would be like to be in the company of, say, Picasso or Edith Piaf. Apparently not enough to stave off an opium addiction, but I wander.
I will likely never be a great poker player. This failure to achieve greatness will primarily result from my preference for disliking people and blaming their luck for my lack of success. The reason so few are great at anything (and certainly why I will struggle to approach greatness in this game) is it is much more difficult (and more honest and profitable) to examine my weaknesses and fix them than it is to blame the good luck of others for my misfortune.
One of the reasons we love this game, I think, is the long term fairness of it. Yes, the random aspect convinces people who suck that they don't. But this also keeps them at the table long past the point they would have left if we were playing chess for $1,000 a game winner take all. But ultimately it is fair. Make good decisions and you do good. Make earth-shatteringly stupid choices and watch people you instinctively hate walk away with your rent money.
Which brings me to this past weekend...
I'm sitting late in the evening having dropped a buy-in and ground it back. This table is about to break and I have too often made the incorrect wine choice. In short, I should get up (after all, walking away is easy once you're up). But along comes one of my favourite people to dislike - the well off banker type who is giving poker a try while his date works the black jack tables. I hate bankers. Primarily this is pure bonus envy, but I try and justify it by telling myself how they are leeches. So this guy plays for a few hands, an orbit at most. Doesn't get out of line - obviously has some clue how the game is played but just as obviously has not played live very much at all. Then the following hand comes up.
It starts with his group (being two other obviously drunk banker types and three women who likely lust after bonuses in a different, but no less vigorous, manner to me) showing at the rail and banker saying "just one more hand". Banker is on the button and he's on my left which makes me the cut-off. I raise preflop with KQ suited and get four callers. Flop comes K86 rainbow and it is checked to me. I lead and only the banker calls. He gets some encouragement from one of the women. Turn is a six, pairing the board. I make a small bet and banker announces he is all-in in as dramatic a fashion as he can - like he has been practicing this line in front of the mirror for just this occasion. So I go to muck my cards as I generally don't call all-in bets from idiot-newbie-bankers who are impressing their dates.
In fact, if my hands were just slippery enough I would have mucked them. But then I start to think. He doesn't have a six. Does he? It is his last hand. He's trying to impress the woman with something other than his bonus. What could he have? a King or a draw. Well, if it's a random king, I'm probably good. If it's a draw, I'm definitely good. He could just have offered me two buy-ins (did I mention that bankers buy-in big?). Those two buy-ins would square me for the weekend and, most importantly, show the women who the true man is. Wow, he's really that stupid that he would make that move with a draw? When I fold, he's going to show it and then get up and then laugh at me with the woman all night long. I have to be ahead, no way he has a six.
Ok, I call.
Of course, it isn't a good sign when the dealer looks surprised with your call. It's worse when the banker has a six. And when he leaves with your buy-ins promising to buy Dom for the woman with my money it really should be time to stand up. I hate it when others get lucky.
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