Thursday, April 21, 2005
Cash Game Shark
$40 Rebuy, Harrah’s. 0.75 hours, -$80. What you can do here is turn up as an alternate if you can’t be arsed playing the first hour. It might cost you $10 or so in EV, not a bad trade-off for an hour of your time. I did that, doubled up to 5K without showing a hand and then ran into Aces. You can’t begrudge these hands really, it’s the only way these players can win, and they have to win sometimes or they wouldn’t come back.
$1-2 No Limit, Aladdin. 1.5 hours, +$135. Ahhhh, in the voice of Action Dave, Ahhhh. That’s better. Decent game, doubled up ($100 max buyin) with AK v KQ on a K high flop and nicked a couple of moderate pots too. Suddenly poker feels better - only after this I realise I had run up 9 losing sessions in a row (including tournaments).
$1-2 No Limit, Flamingo, 0.75 hours, -$25. Again a decent game, and you could buy in for $200 here, but there was one drunk who slowed the game down so much and caused so much trouble it was hardly worth the value of his bad play. Sometimes over here they’re a bit too quick to call people for string betting, but when this guy was told “say the amount of the raise before you put it in”, he complained “but I might change my mind !”. Well exactly. I thought I had trapped him with AQ on an AQx flop, and when the third player raised I was thinking ker-ching. I went all in, laughing boy went all in too (somehow he had the whole table covered) and showed his AQ. Third player went “oh” and folded for his last $80 (claiming AK). When I informed this guy he had just cost me $40 * he went “tough shit”. So I could sit there fuming at him and about to go on tilt, or cash out. I wisely chose the latter. I don’t like playing in a fractious game anyway. Notwithstanding that $40 I did lose $35 earlier on through playing a marginal hand before having a look how people were playing - so that was something learned.
* A little truculently I admit.
Won $90 on blackjack. Can’t miss there :-).
WARNING : BAD BEAT STORY FOLLOWS. $1-2 No Limit, MGM, 1.5 hours, -$134. Looked into Bally’s as Hector suggested but there was no game so moved on to the MGM and found a great NL cash game. Won $300 with KK against two hopeful top-pair lovers and then got it all in on the flop with middle set against top and bottom pair. You know the rest. I didn’t trust myself to play well after that so I picked up the rubble of my once towering stack and left.
The cash games here are variable but man, when they’re good, they’re very very good. I’ve basically been playing as Brunson advises in Super System, with the odd adjustment for shorter-stack situations, and in a good game I’ve had a very big edge. I think I’ll be happy to come over for the Series, between satellites, NL cash and $400-500 tournaments at the Palms there’ll be plenty of games to suit !
Later that day Won ANOTHER $100 playing blackjack. Wait a minute, here's a good idea. I could get out of it for the whole trip in the pit ! Right, where's my credit card ...
$1-2 No Limit, Aladdin. 1.5 hours, +$135. Ahhhh, in the voice of Action Dave, Ahhhh. That’s better. Decent game, doubled up ($100 max buyin) with AK v KQ on a K high flop and nicked a couple of moderate pots too. Suddenly poker feels better - only after this I realise I had run up 9 losing sessions in a row (including tournaments).
$1-2 No Limit, Flamingo, 0.75 hours, -$25. Again a decent game, and you could buy in for $200 here, but there was one drunk who slowed the game down so much and caused so much trouble it was hardly worth the value of his bad play. Sometimes over here they’re a bit too quick to call people for string betting, but when this guy was told “say the amount of the raise before you put it in”, he complained “but I might change my mind !”. Well exactly. I thought I had trapped him with AQ on an AQx flop, and when the third player raised I was thinking ker-ching. I went all in, laughing boy went all in too (somehow he had the whole table covered) and showed his AQ. Third player went “oh” and folded for his last $80 (claiming AK). When I informed this guy he had just cost me $40 * he went “tough shit”. So I could sit there fuming at him and about to go on tilt, or cash out. I wisely chose the latter. I don’t like playing in a fractious game anyway. Notwithstanding that $40 I did lose $35 earlier on through playing a marginal hand before having a look how people were playing - so that was something learned.
* A little truculently I admit.
Won $90 on blackjack. Can’t miss there :-).
WARNING : BAD BEAT STORY FOLLOWS. $1-2 No Limit, MGM, 1.5 hours, -$134. Looked into Bally’s as Hector suggested but there was no game so moved on to the MGM and found a great NL cash game. Won $300 with KK against two hopeful top-pair lovers and then got it all in on the flop with middle set against top and bottom pair. You know the rest. I didn’t trust myself to play well after that so I picked up the rubble of my once towering stack and left.
The cash games here are variable but man, when they’re good, they’re very very good. I’ve basically been playing as Brunson advises in Super System, with the odd adjustment for shorter-stack situations, and in a good game I’ve had a very big edge. I think I’ll be happy to come over for the Series, between satellites, NL cash and $400-500 tournaments at the Palms there’ll be plenty of games to suit !
Later that day Won ANOTHER $100 playing blackjack. Wait a minute, here's a good idea. I could get out of it for the whole trip in the pit ! Right, where's my credit card ...
# posted by Andy_Ward @ 1:43 AM 
