Saturday, March 10, 2007

Another Crazy Day In The World Of Animal Poker

Despite one of worst hangovers to date i managed a great day and am still playing now but felt i would blog as i go for a change.

First of all a 980$ pot on 2,4$ cash (500$ profit on the day for 75 mins play).

6 handed i raise utg to 12$ with JJ and get 3 callers including to loose agressive bb. Flop is rainbow 852 and i bet 30 into the 50$ pot. Other 2 fold and big blind min raises to 60$. I decide im ahead but choose to only call as i put him on only a little bit of the board and certainly not a set and want him to bet some more. The turn is a 9 and he bets about 2/3 pot to which i call again (often i would push here but feel this was still the right play against this player). The river is a queen which im happy to ignore as its unlikely to help his hand. He pushes all in though for almost 300$, i had a tough decision and also i didnt mention i was on a speed table where you only get 10 seconds to act ! Instinct told me i was ahead so went with it and he showed 77 , phew like i said it was a tough call but i was glad i made it for sure :)

Next a £12 sub for the 40k which i managed to bubble 5th in when there was 2 entries and cash to 3rd and 4th. :( top pair in a sb limped pot when the limper had a better kicker and the blinds almost made it unfoldable given the situation.

Next the 12k, never got going early but managed a double up with aces and never had all my chips at risk until the last 33 players when i hit a set with 44 vs 99 and AA to go from 30th to about 9th. Unfortunately it was shortlived as i couldnt care less about the bubble so when the big chip leader reraised me allin i called with AK and failed to improve against QQ. Pot was to go 1st/31 on 40k at 800 blinds but i bubbled again. Earlier in the game i managed somehow to not bust AK vs 1010 vs JJ when i reraised preflop strongly and missed the flop. Both players went all in and left with 7xbb i almost called and would have been justified to but would have lost.

Oh dear maybe in running blogging was not a good idea. Ive just close to bubbled in mansion (pays to 54) finishing 64th on a pot that would have put me 8th/60 on a huge 34k stack relative to the 1200 blinds :((. I played good solid poker in this today but also got paid well with aces 3 times but i guess this not meant to be. As it was near the bubble at 600,1200 i decided i wasnt going to fold to a rerraise so pushed 17k allin with AQoff which im a bit annoyed about being called by JJ. The flop hit my ace too but the jack hit the turn just to seal the deal. I know he was ahead but it was almost all his stack too, oh well only AK,AQ,QQ 1010 were the holdings i would have done this with in the position i was but thats irrelevant.
I was actually chipleader early for ages before losing a 13k pot (the average was only 7k and blinds 100,200) with flush draw and middle pair against top pair weak kicker (i think i was favourite but with 13k left i was always committing to the hand). 13k still left me in 6th just to put it into context how big a pot that was. I then lost AKstd vs JJ for a 10k pot leaving me on only 9k in 46th or something. I got a nice double shortly after with an 80% preflopper and then stole well to make it back up towards 20k before the exit above. Crazy that in the end i bubble in both on coinflips for massive pots but thats a good sign in the long run anyway.

Its great fun at the moment playing poker and i would like to think my game is at a very high standard these last few days as well. The best thing about this is when i bust im much more gutted rather than angry. My rediscovered tournament play really helps and i now feel ive got a very good balance of cash and tournaments to play as often as i like.

Still in the smaller buy in leaderboard events but not stacked in either although approaching the bubble in the 8k LOL. What a night, again i cant help thinking how different it could have been. The ups and downs ive had the last few days are just crazy. WSOP $480 game didnt reach 18 players so it was cancelled and ive got the cash instead. Not the worst thing for me given my hangover and the shock of the mansion and 12k exits a short while ago.

Update:

4k$ allin 10s vs A5std loses on pot to get ok stack back to 60th/120 odd. :(
8k£ 47/57 (pays to 40) LOL.

Ah10x vs JJ allin, board 10h9h7hJhAx, 21/56 but i will still bubble :))
AQstd push steals limper and blinds 23/52
Comfort food if i bust so dont mind, damn the takeaway shut 2 minutes ago :((
Damn no cards or spots and a 7xbb push on the button with Q10std was no good against a debatable A9std call in the sb and i finished 31st for a £1 profit. Again the pokergods tease me with a A,Q,10 flop but an ace on the turn seals the deal and im off for food.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check Calling with JJ?? YIKES...I play AA or KK like this sometimes but doing it with a mid pair is not the correct play. Getting $500 in here is a losing play in the long one im afraid. By him having 77 he clearly was representing a set and i think he turns over a better hand than you 90% of the time. I cant see how this is a winning play. This is a classic tournement player play. Alot of touney players do not have a fold button and it appears this might be your problem...

Robert "Animal" Price said...

I understand your point 100% but i was totally playing the player here and hardly ever play the hand this way normally. Its important to not always play every hand by the book (or some rule everyone has told you), if you pick the right spots in the long run you make bigger wins. In this case i would have only took 75$ off this guy if i 3rd bet the flop or $225 if i moved in on the turn. As it ended up i made $500+ off the guy using the information that i believed was available on this player. From my notes and poker instinct i was right to play it the way i did. If you dont think its justified please refer to my AK call in the main event of the WSOP for all my chips on a 10,10,9 (or 10,9,9) flop before the money on day 3 which i still to this day do not understand how i made the call myself. Pure instinct (not tilt or bad play) in these situations takes you a further level up the playing ladder when you are able to use it. But of course we are wrong sometimes and thats fun of poker but its small edges that make big differences in the long run however you may choose to play. GL and thx for the comment.