DAY 7 Played 6 hrs online cash game .10/.25 NL. It was by the far the longest session I’ve played in a long time. There are two things I noticed about playing these micro limit cash games. First, the games are extremely tight. You’d figure with the limits this low, the play would be looser, but it’s a total opposite. That doesn’t mean the game is tough to beat….you just have to be willing to take small profits until you catch that one big hand, which brings me to the second thing I noticed…The second thing I notice is players bluff too much. Generally, you don’t need to bluff that much in cash games to consistently beat it. In my opinion beating the No Limit Cash games is about getting maximum value for your hands based the range of hands you put your opponent on.
My Session started very badly. I was down a ton at first. I started playing too many hands and making unnecessary plays trying to get my money back. Finally, I went back to the fundamentals and was able to cut my losses.
One thing I found very annoying at these levels are players who buy in for the bare minimum of 5 bucks and waiting for the hand to double up, once they do..they leave the table..it gets very frustrating cause this throw you off. It becomes showdown poker…post flop play becomes obsolete against these players….Some moron will go all in you think it’s only 5 bucks, and I’ll call with a marginal hand. Gotta start thinking in terms of stack to Blind ratio when I make calls instead of the monetary value. It’s a leak in my game I fixed by playing games where there is a 50 Big Blind minimum…where you can play post flop poker.
So I ended the night down $29 which is a lot in a .10/.25 game, but it could have been worst
HAND OF THE DAY -- Jan 7th
Blinds are .10/.25
Folded around to the Hijack position ($25) who raises to $1.00..next player ($35) reraises to $3. I’m in the small blind ($44) with pocket 7’s.
Normally I would fold this hand, but this situation is different. The reraise is indicative of a very strong hand. I’m sitting with a Mid pocket pair with two players in the pot with a significant amount of money in front of them. If I’m able to flop a set, I have the potential to win a big pot, and my hand will be very disguised cause if a seven shows up on the flop, they’ll never think I’m calling a raise and a re-raise with a seven in my hand. All these factors told me the risk vs. reward leans to my favor…so I call the 3 dollar raise. To my surprise the initial raise folds, so it’s me against the re-raiser to the flop.
The flop comes 3, 7, 4.…BINGO I flop top set on a very dry board. So the question is the best way to play hand to get maximum value. I could lead out, hoping I get raised. Generally speaking when I flop a set, I like to lead, but only if there are multiple players in the pot cause I’m one of them will give me action. In this case it’s just me against one guy…if I has AK or AQ….he might fold, then I wouldn’t get that value for my hand. What about checking? Since the re-raiser show strength he’s probably gonna bet into most flops and since a 7-High Board looks harmless, he’ll probably bet. After looking at all factors, I decided checking is the best option.
The re-raise bets $4.50 into a $7.25 pot…Now should I call or raise here. This is one is an easy one…Raise!! Now, you may ask why don’t you just call to milk more money out of him? Because a raise here will look like I have a pair of 8’s or 9’s and if he has a big pair, he’ll probably go all in and I’ll be able to get his entire stack!! So I raise the minimum….the re-raisers goes all in, I call..He has Two Kings and I’m able to take his entire stack when the board didn’t help him.
The point is when you flop a big hand, you have to figure out the best possible way to get maximum value for your hands….
DAY 8 and 9 Drove up to Mesquite to play in the annual Eureka Mesquite Poker Open, hosted by Linda Johnson (holder of 1 World Series of Poker Braclet), and Jan Fisher (Noted author and ambassador)
The night before the tournament I decided to play 1-3 NO Limit Cash game. I bought in for $200 and was able to win a couple of big pots to grow my stack to a $600 profit..eventually cashing out with a $440 profit in 3 hours…Not to shabby. I was able to get most of my money from two hands. When I flopp two pair in the big blind against someone who was overplaying top pair, and my biggest pot when this donkey gave me all his money when I flopped top set with pocket Kings. The game was juicy because we had 3 morons in our tables raising every pot to $25 and playing dark (not looking at their hands) to the river. All you had to do was wait for a hand and pounce on these idiots. Like I’ve said in an earlier blog it usually takes one bad player to make a game….in this game there were 3 of them…and they helped fatten up my wallet!!!
HAND OF THE NIGHT -- Jan 8th
I just won a big hand with two pair, so I was up nearly $200 bucks when these hand came up…Donkey (who’s stuck around $1,000 at this point) raises his customer $25, I’m next to act and I have pocket Kings. I decided to try and isolate him, so I re-raise to $75...folded around to the donkey who instant calls….
The Flop comes K, 9, J with two diamonds….BINGO!!! TOP SET!!!
Donkey Checks. I decided to go all in! You may ask again why don’t you milk this moron for more money. Since this donkey called my initial raise, I put him on a pair. My hope is it would be a pair of 9’s or Jacks, therefore he would double me up! In addition with a flush draw and high-end straight out there, he was going to cal with a range of hands cause his donkey had rebuying a couple times, if he hit any of that board he was going to call to try to get his money back.
He thinks for a second and calls, and says, “Do you have a set?” I nodded and show my set of Kings…he has Ace-King for Top pair, top kicker…OUCH!! And course I win a monster pot!!!!
This is a perfect example determining how to get maximum value from my hand against my opponent’s potential range of hands…CHA CHING!!!!
As for the tournament itself…well, let just say it wasn’t my night. I busted out in the 3rd level when some goes all in with a straight draw against my Pocket Kings and hits their draw…Oh well…it was a very profitable poker weekend in Mesquite..can’t complain at all….
OVERALL STATS Live Tournaments $-175
Live Cash games: $440
Online Cash games: $-23.65
Online Sit and Gos: $10.30
TOTAL: $264.80 (YEAH, ON THE POSITIVE SIDE!!)
