I hate limit poker!
Remember my last post when I explained my passion for fixed-limit games? Yeah, that was a lie. All of it. Limit poker is stupid, inane, idiotic, asinine, and, dare I say it? Yes, I think I do. Ridiculous.
It's hands like this that just drive me crazy.
[Sep 14 17:32:42]: crankbait is the dealer.
[Sep 14 17:32:42]: hawaii11 posted small blind.
[Sep 14 17:32:43]: slimman1 posted big blind.
[Sep 14 17:32:43]: Game [48132] started with 6 players.
[Sep 14 17:32:43]: Dealing Hole Cards.
[Sep 14 17:32:43]: Seat 5 : EvanWithAnS has As Kd
[Sep 14 17:32:46]: EvanWithAnS called $1 and raised $1
[Sep 14 17:32:47]: POOPLAYER called $2
[Sep 14 17:32:48]: sierraphan folded.
[Sep 14 17:32:49]: crankbait folded.
[Sep 14 17:33:03]: hawaii11 folded.
[Sep 14 17:33:04]: slimman1 folded.
[Sep 14 17:33:04]: Dealing flop.
[Sep 14 17:33:04]: Board cards [5s Ah Kh]
[Sep 14 17:33:08]: EvanWithAnS checked.
[Sep 14 17:33:10]: POOPLAYER bet $1
[Sep 14 17:33:12]: EvanWithAnS called $1 and raised $1
[Sep 14 17:33:16]: POOPLAYER called $1
[Sep 14 17:33:17]: Dealing turn.
[Sep 14 17:33:17]: Board cards [5s Ah Kh 7s]
[Sep 14 17:33:19]: EvanWithAnS bet $2
[Sep 14 17:33:23]: POOPLAYER called $2 and raised $2
[Sep 14 17:33:25]: EvanWithAnS called $2 and raised $2
[Sep 14 17:33:27]: POOPLAYER called $2
[Sep 14 17:33:28]: Dealing river.
[Sep 14 17:33:28]: Board cards [5s Ah Kh 7s Td]
[Sep 14 17:33:29]: EvanWithAnS bet $2
[Sep 14 17:33:31]: POOPLAYER called $2 and raised $2
[Sep 14 17:33:33]: EvanWithAnS called $2
[Sep 14 17:33:33]: Showdown!
[Sep 14 17:33:33]: Seat 5 : EvanWithAnS has As Kd
[Sep 14 17:33:35]: Seat 6 : POOPLAYER has 7h 7c
[Sep 14 17:33:35]: POOPLAYER has 3 of a Kind: 7s
[Sep 14 17:33:36]: POOPLAYER wins $28.50 with 3 of a Kind: 7s
All right, I don't mean to brag, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I really think I played this hand flawlessly. My opponent, on the other hand? Well, let's just say he doesn't deserve his $28.50, and leave it at that.
Just kidding. Let's go into detail describing the five (yes, that's right, FIVE) different ways in which this guy played his hand horribly.
1. Pocket sevens are a garbage hand to play against a raise. Conventional wisdom says that against a raise, you need a much better hand to play than you otherwise would. Pocket tens or better is a common recommendation; I sometimes go as low as nines if the circumstances look right. Sevens are just too often dominated. He should throw them away.
2. If he's going to play his weak pair, he should reraise, not call. Cold-calling raises is almost always a terrible play. Either your hand is too weak to beat the raiser and you should throw it away, or your hand is very strong and you should be reraising. There's very little middle ground. In this case, 77 should go into the former category, but if you're going to play it, you should be the aggressor. Obviously he's not putting me on a big pair; he's playing the hand, after all. So he thinks I have a couple of big cards, in which case he should get the money in while his pair is ahead.
3. When I check the flop, checking it back is the obvious play. Honestly! What kind of raising hand doesn't have him beat? Anything with an ace or a king has hit this flop, and a medium pair is still ahead of his sevens. For him to think his hand is good here, he has to think I'm incredibly aggressive and will raise under the gun with QJ, sixes, or fives. I'm not, and there's no way he has a read on me that would say otherwise. It's much more likely that I'm on either a checkraise or a slowplay than it is that I've missed.
4. When I checkraise him, he should give the hand up. When he gets checkraised, he has to assume I have at least some strength. I've either hit an ace or a king, or I've done even better than that. In other words, it should be clear to him that he needs to hit a seven. That's about a 22:1 shot, and the $8.50 pot is offering him far worse odds than that on his dollar. It's a bad proposition for him.
5. When he actually does hit his miracle card, he should be capping the betting. Right... so he hits his seven, and raises me. I reraise with the top two pair, and he calls? Basically the only two hands he's afraid of are AA and KK. There are only three possible combinations of each in the deck. I am playing this hand in a way that could represent AK (9 combinations), AQ (12), AJ, (12), or maybe even 55 (3). Obviously he's the favorite, but he prefers to miss a bet on the turn where he could easily be raising me. Fine by me.
Okay... so after suffering that and a couple of other lesser bad beats, I was down almost $50 playing limit today. So I decided to try making the money back playing $10 SNGs. I sat down to play a couple, and an hour later I had cashed in both, placing first and second, and was up 41 cents on the day.
For your reading pleasure, I've included two of the most entertaining hands I've ever seen, both from the SNG that I eventually won by trapping a complete bluff after flopping a set of threes.
First...
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : dustumho is the dealer.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : zencohiba posted small blind.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : $PIMPIN$ posted big blind.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : Game [28] started with 7 players.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has Ts 8h
[Sep 14 18:09:38] : bbbarney folded.
[Sep 14 18:09:38] : nay'swilted folded.
[Sep 14 18:09:40] : Eagle8 called 100
[Sep 14 18:09:42] : EvanWithAnS called 100
[Sep 14 18:09:42] : dustumho folded.
[Sep 14 18:09:43] : zencohiba called 50
[Sep 14 18:09:46] : $PIMPIN$ checked.
[Sep 14 18:09:46] : Dealing flop.
[Sep 14 18:09:46] : Board cards [8d 7s 2s]
[Sep 14 18:09:53] : zencohiba bet 100
[Sep 14 18:09:58] : $PIMPIN$ folded.
[Sep 14 18:10:01] : Eagle8 called 100 and raised 400
[Sep 14 18:10:03] : EvanWithAnS folded.
[Sep 14 18:10:08] : zencohiba called 400 and raised 1,120 and is All-in
[Sep 14 18:10:11] : Eagle8 called 1,120
[Sep 14 18:10:11] : Showdown!
[Sep 14 18:10:13] : Seat 1 : zencohiba has 7h 7d
[Sep 14 18:10:13] : Seat 6 : Eagle8 has 2h 2c
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Board cards [8d 7s 2s 2d 3d]
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Seat 1 : zencohiba has 7h 7d
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : zencohiba has Full House : 7s full of 2s
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Seat 6 : Eagle8 has 2h 2c
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Eagle8 has Four of a kind: 2s
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Eagle8 wins 3,640 with Four of a kind: 2s
Okay, I wasn't even involved in this one, but it was exciting. "Set over set" hands can be devastating, because bottom set is left with only one out in the deck to come back and win the hand. For the first time in my life, I saw a one-outer hit today. Quad deuces beating sevens full. Not only was it exciting, but it gave chips to a guy I really liked to see getting chips. (He's not exactly the world's best poker player.)
All right, this next one I was actually involved in. In a big way, too. At this point I was dominating the table, picking up almost every pot. So pocket nines looked great to me; no one really thought they needed a real hand to stand up to me. As it turns out, I got all the money in while getting excellent pot odds to do so. I'm satisfied.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : $PIMPIN$ is the dealer.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : bbbarney posted small blind.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : Eagle8 posted big blind.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : Game [36] started with 5 players.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has 9d 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:07] : EvanWithAnS called 100 and raised 200
[Sep 14 18:14:09] : dustumho folded.
[Sep 14 18:14:14] : $PIMPIN$ called 300
[Sep 14 18:14:17] : Stakes: 50/100 Current level: 3 Next level in: 1 min.
[Sep 14 18:14:17] : bbbarney called 250 and raised 1,530 and is All-in
[Sep 14 18:14:17] : Eagle8 folded.
[Sep 14 18:14:20] : EvanWithAnS called 1,530 and raised 4,100 and is All-in
[Sep 14 18:14:23] : $PIMPIN$ called 1,940 and is All-in
[Sep 14 18:14:23] : Showdown!
[Sep 14 18:14:23] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has 9d 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:26] : Seat 2 : $PIMPIN$ has As Jc
[Sep 14 18:14:26] : Seat 3 : bbbarney has 8d 8c
[Sep 14 18:14:34] : Board cards [Ah 9c Jh 8h 4h]
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has 9d 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : EvanWithAnS has 3 of a Kind: 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 2 : $PIMPIN$ has As Jc
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : $PIMPIN$ has Two Pair: Aces and Jacks
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : EvanWithAnS wins 820 with 3 of a Kind: 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has 9d 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : EvanWithAnS has 3 of a Kind: 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 2 : $PIMPIN$ has As Jc
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : $PIMPIN$ has Two Pair: Aces and Jacks
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 3 : bbbarney has 8d 8c
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : bbbarney has 3 of a Kind: 8s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : EvanWithAnS wins 5,590 with 3 of a Kind: 9s
Wow. I'm not guilty -- after all, I had the best hand all along -- but that was quite a roller coaster of a hand. Set over set -- AGAIN -- and my other opponent flopped two pair. So two opponents go broke on one hand, I pull into the chip lead, and I never look back. $45 for that win and $27 for a second-place finish at the other table.
I guess I should play no-limit more often. It drives me slightly less insane these days.
It's hands like this that just drive me crazy.
[Sep 14 17:32:42]: crankbait is the dealer.
[Sep 14 17:32:42]: hawaii11 posted small blind.
[Sep 14 17:32:43]: slimman1 posted big blind.
[Sep 14 17:32:43]: Game [48132] started with 6 players.
[Sep 14 17:32:43]: Dealing Hole Cards.
[Sep 14 17:32:43]: Seat 5 : EvanWithAnS has As Kd
[Sep 14 17:32:46]: EvanWithAnS called $1 and raised $1
[Sep 14 17:32:47]: POOPLAYER called $2
[Sep 14 17:32:48]: sierraphan folded.
[Sep 14 17:32:49]: crankbait folded.
[Sep 14 17:33:03]: hawaii11 folded.
[Sep 14 17:33:04]: slimman1 folded.
[Sep 14 17:33:04]: Dealing flop.
[Sep 14 17:33:04]: Board cards [5s Ah Kh]
[Sep 14 17:33:08]: EvanWithAnS checked.
[Sep 14 17:33:10]: POOPLAYER bet $1
[Sep 14 17:33:12]: EvanWithAnS called $1 and raised $1
[Sep 14 17:33:16]: POOPLAYER called $1
[Sep 14 17:33:17]: Dealing turn.
[Sep 14 17:33:17]: Board cards [5s Ah Kh 7s]
[Sep 14 17:33:19]: EvanWithAnS bet $2
[Sep 14 17:33:23]: POOPLAYER called $2 and raised $2
[Sep 14 17:33:25]: EvanWithAnS called $2 and raised $2
[Sep 14 17:33:27]: POOPLAYER called $2
[Sep 14 17:33:28]: Dealing river.
[Sep 14 17:33:28]: Board cards [5s Ah Kh 7s Td]
[Sep 14 17:33:29]: EvanWithAnS bet $2
[Sep 14 17:33:31]: POOPLAYER called $2 and raised $2
[Sep 14 17:33:33]: EvanWithAnS called $2
[Sep 14 17:33:33]: Showdown!
[Sep 14 17:33:33]: Seat 5 : EvanWithAnS has As Kd
[Sep 14 17:33:35]: Seat 6 : POOPLAYER has 7h 7c
[Sep 14 17:33:35]: POOPLAYER has 3 of a Kind: 7s
[Sep 14 17:33:36]: POOPLAYER wins $28.50 with 3 of a Kind: 7s
All right, I don't mean to brag, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I really think I played this hand flawlessly. My opponent, on the other hand? Well, let's just say he doesn't deserve his $28.50, and leave it at that.
Just kidding. Let's go into detail describing the five (yes, that's right, FIVE) different ways in which this guy played his hand horribly.
1. Pocket sevens are a garbage hand to play against a raise. Conventional wisdom says that against a raise, you need a much better hand to play than you otherwise would. Pocket tens or better is a common recommendation; I sometimes go as low as nines if the circumstances look right. Sevens are just too often dominated. He should throw them away.
2. If he's going to play his weak pair, he should reraise, not call. Cold-calling raises is almost always a terrible play. Either your hand is too weak to beat the raiser and you should throw it away, or your hand is very strong and you should be reraising. There's very little middle ground. In this case, 77 should go into the former category, but if you're going to play it, you should be the aggressor. Obviously he's not putting me on a big pair; he's playing the hand, after all. So he thinks I have a couple of big cards, in which case he should get the money in while his pair is ahead.
3. When I check the flop, checking it back is the obvious play. Honestly! What kind of raising hand doesn't have him beat? Anything with an ace or a king has hit this flop, and a medium pair is still ahead of his sevens. For him to think his hand is good here, he has to think I'm incredibly aggressive and will raise under the gun with QJ, sixes, or fives. I'm not, and there's no way he has a read on me that would say otherwise. It's much more likely that I'm on either a checkraise or a slowplay than it is that I've missed.
4. When I checkraise him, he should give the hand up. When he gets checkraised, he has to assume I have at least some strength. I've either hit an ace or a king, or I've done even better than that. In other words, it should be clear to him that he needs to hit a seven. That's about a 22:1 shot, and the $8.50 pot is offering him far worse odds than that on his dollar. It's a bad proposition for him.
5. When he actually does hit his miracle card, he should be capping the betting. Right... so he hits his seven, and raises me. I reraise with the top two pair, and he calls? Basically the only two hands he's afraid of are AA and KK. There are only three possible combinations of each in the deck. I am playing this hand in a way that could represent AK (9 combinations), AQ (12), AJ, (12), or maybe even 55 (3). Obviously he's the favorite, but he prefers to miss a bet on the turn where he could easily be raising me. Fine by me.
Okay... so after suffering that and a couple of other lesser bad beats, I was down almost $50 playing limit today. So I decided to try making the money back playing $10 SNGs. I sat down to play a couple, and an hour later I had cashed in both, placing first and second, and was up 41 cents on the day.
For your reading pleasure, I've included two of the most entertaining hands I've ever seen, both from the SNG that I eventually won by trapping a complete bluff after flopping a set of threes.
First...
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : dustumho is the dealer.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : zencohiba posted small blind.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : $PIMPIN$ posted big blind.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : Game [28] started with 7 players.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Sep 14 18:09:35] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has Ts 8h
[Sep 14 18:09:38] : bbbarney folded.
[Sep 14 18:09:38] : nay'swilted folded.
[Sep 14 18:09:40] : Eagle8 called 100
[Sep 14 18:09:42] : EvanWithAnS called 100
[Sep 14 18:09:42] : dustumho folded.
[Sep 14 18:09:43] : zencohiba called 50
[Sep 14 18:09:46] : $PIMPIN$ checked.
[Sep 14 18:09:46] : Dealing flop.
[Sep 14 18:09:46] : Board cards [8d 7s 2s]
[Sep 14 18:09:53] : zencohiba bet 100
[Sep 14 18:09:58] : $PIMPIN$ folded.
[Sep 14 18:10:01] : Eagle8 called 100 and raised 400
[Sep 14 18:10:03] : EvanWithAnS folded.
[Sep 14 18:10:08] : zencohiba called 400 and raised 1,120 and is All-in
[Sep 14 18:10:11] : Eagle8 called 1,120
[Sep 14 18:10:11] : Showdown!
[Sep 14 18:10:13] : Seat 1 : zencohiba has 7h 7d
[Sep 14 18:10:13] : Seat 6 : Eagle8 has 2h 2c
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Board cards [8d 7s 2s 2d 3d]
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Seat 1 : zencohiba has 7h 7d
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : zencohiba has Full House : 7s full of 2s
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Seat 6 : Eagle8 has 2h 2c
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Eagle8 has Four of a kind: 2s
[Sep 14 18:10:19] : Eagle8 wins 3,640 with Four of a kind: 2s
Okay, I wasn't even involved in this one, but it was exciting. "Set over set" hands can be devastating, because bottom set is left with only one out in the deck to come back and win the hand. For the first time in my life, I saw a one-outer hit today. Quad deuces beating sevens full. Not only was it exciting, but it gave chips to a guy I really liked to see getting chips. (He's not exactly the world's best poker player.)
All right, this next one I was actually involved in. In a big way, too. At this point I was dominating the table, picking up almost every pot. So pocket nines looked great to me; no one really thought they needed a real hand to stand up to me. As it turns out, I got all the money in while getting excellent pot odds to do so. I'm satisfied.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : $PIMPIN$ is the dealer.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : bbbarney posted small blind.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : Eagle8 posted big blind.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : Game [36] started with 5 players.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Sep 14 18:14:04] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has 9d 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:07] : EvanWithAnS called 100 and raised 200
[Sep 14 18:14:09] : dustumho folded.
[Sep 14 18:14:14] : $PIMPIN$ called 300
[Sep 14 18:14:17] : Stakes: 50/100 Current level: 3 Next level in: 1 min.
[Sep 14 18:14:17] : bbbarney called 250 and raised 1,530 and is All-in
[Sep 14 18:14:17] : Eagle8 folded.
[Sep 14 18:14:20] : EvanWithAnS called 1,530 and raised 4,100 and is All-in
[Sep 14 18:14:23] : $PIMPIN$ called 1,940 and is All-in
[Sep 14 18:14:23] : Showdown!
[Sep 14 18:14:23] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has 9d 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:26] : Seat 2 : $PIMPIN$ has As Jc
[Sep 14 18:14:26] : Seat 3 : bbbarney has 8d 8c
[Sep 14 18:14:34] : Board cards [Ah 9c Jh 8h 4h]
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has 9d 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : EvanWithAnS has 3 of a Kind: 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 2 : $PIMPIN$ has As Jc
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : $PIMPIN$ has Two Pair: Aces and Jacks
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : EvanWithAnS wins 820 with 3 of a Kind: 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 7 : EvanWithAnS has 9d 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : EvanWithAnS has 3 of a Kind: 9s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 2 : $PIMPIN$ has As Jc
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : $PIMPIN$ has Two Pair: Aces and Jacks
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : Seat 3 : bbbarney has 8d 8c
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : bbbarney has 3 of a Kind: 8s
[Sep 14 18:14:35] : EvanWithAnS wins 5,590 with 3 of a Kind: 9s
Wow. I'm not guilty -- after all, I had the best hand all along -- but that was quite a roller coaster of a hand. Set over set -- AGAIN -- and my other opponent flopped two pair. So two opponents go broke on one hand, I pull into the chip lead, and I never look back. $45 for that win and $27 for a second-place finish at the other table.
I guess I should play no-limit more often. It drives me slightly less insane these days.
posted by eclinchy at 6:51 PM
3 Comments:
MY GOD. Why is blog spamming so popular anyway?
Allow me to flaunt my limit poker expertise for just a second when I say... 99% of the time someone cold-calls a raise preflop, they're being a moron.
I say 99% instead of 100% because there are a select few hands worthy of cold-calling with. Sklansky says AQs, AJs, and KQs. However, most people don't know this, so they just cold-call with any two cards.
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