How not to spend a day off ....
As some of you might know, I'm an avid poker player - and in case you didn't know, "avid" isn't a synonym for "good."
I don't have to cover tonight's series finale, so I took the opportunity to head to the Borgata to play in Event #10 of the Borgata Open and do some legwork for a Weekend section story for the paper on the continued popularity of poker.
Well, I have plenty of time for the legwork. In fact, I have so much legwork time that I should leave here with calves like Lou Ferrigno. This was one of those days where I couldn't get anything going - no cards. The best hands I saw were a handful of Ace-Junk - that's Junk, not Jack. A-2, A-3, A-4 ... and I didn't really have it in very good position, either. The most I accomplished was to use the fact that I mucked hand after hand preflop to bluff my way to a couple of modest wins to keep my head over water.
So, as we got about 100 minutes into the tournament, I picked up A-3 suited in good position. A guy who had won some pots and was getting a little loose in splashing around limped for $100 in from early position. I raised it to $350, and he called.
Flop came A-K-8, which I liked since 1) I did have an Ace, and 2) my raise certainly could represent A-K. After my opponent checked, I bet $600. My opponent check-raises for another $900.
Now I'm thinking, "OK, he's representing his Ace, and I've come across as a pretty tight player. I know he doesn't have A-K. Frankly, I don't think he has anything better than A-10. So he's raising me to find out where I stand." My response to this was to re-raise him another $1300, which leaves me with $1600 remaining (we started with $5000 in chips).
He thinks it over briefly, then calls. At this point I know there's big trouble. He has A-8, and I'm sure about it. If he has A-K or a set of Eights, he is just pushing the rest of his chips into the pot after my re-raise. By calling he announced his hand to me, because it shows that he has this slightly sick feeling that I might have top two pairs to his first and third pairs. The turn comes and he checks. I know he'll call if I try to throw in the rest of my chips, so I'm putting up the white flag. We checked it down and he turns over the A-8.
I hung around for a little while with my short stack, but I couldn't get a hand for the life of me. Finally, with $1100 remaining I got K-10 on the button with a limper to my right. I put all of my chips in, and then one of my all-time favorite things happens. The guy on the big blind, who has about $3800 remaining - certainly not a panic amount - decides to call me and announces, "You definitely have me," as he turns over A-2.
Huh? First of all, if you think I have you, why would you put in $1000 more chips with A-2? If you think I have you, then it means you think I have either A-x, or a wired pair, both of which would leave you with three outs.
It's not so much that the guy called me, but his thinking that baffled me. If he said, "I'm hoping you have K-Q or K-J," and flipped over those cards, I get it. But I doubt that a player is going to announce "hey, I'm a big dummy and just called 11-times the big blind with a hand I think is a severe underdog" with an ulterior motive in mind. I think he's just saying, "I'm a dummy."
OK, I think I cleared out all the frustration with that rant. Time to talk to do some interviews.
I don't have to cover tonight's series finale, so I took the opportunity to head to the Borgata to play in Event #10 of the Borgata Open and do some legwork for a Weekend section story for the paper on the continued popularity of poker.
Well, I have plenty of time for the legwork. In fact, I have so much legwork time that I should leave here with calves like Lou Ferrigno. This was one of those days where I couldn't get anything going - no cards. The best hands I saw were a handful of Ace-Junk - that's Junk, not Jack. A-2, A-3, A-4 ... and I didn't really have it in very good position, either. The most I accomplished was to use the fact that I mucked hand after hand preflop to bluff my way to a couple of modest wins to keep my head over water.
So, as we got about 100 minutes into the tournament, I picked up A-3 suited in good position. A guy who had won some pots and was getting a little loose in splashing around limped for $100 in from early position. I raised it to $350, and he called.
Flop came A-K-8, which I liked since 1) I did have an Ace, and 2) my raise certainly could represent A-K. After my opponent checked, I bet $600. My opponent check-raises for another $900.
Now I'm thinking, "OK, he's representing his Ace, and I've come across as a pretty tight player. I know he doesn't have A-K. Frankly, I don't think he has anything better than A-10. So he's raising me to find out where I stand." My response to this was to re-raise him another $1300, which leaves me with $1600 remaining (we started with $5000 in chips).
He thinks it over briefly, then calls. At this point I know there's big trouble. He has A-8, and I'm sure about it. If he has A-K or a set of Eights, he is just pushing the rest of his chips into the pot after my re-raise. By calling he announced his hand to me, because it shows that he has this slightly sick feeling that I might have top two pairs to his first and third pairs. The turn comes and he checks. I know he'll call if I try to throw in the rest of my chips, so I'm putting up the white flag. We checked it down and he turns over the A-8.
I hung around for a little while with my short stack, but I couldn't get a hand for the life of me. Finally, with $1100 remaining I got K-10 on the button with a limper to my right. I put all of my chips in, and then one of my all-time favorite things happens. The guy on the big blind, who has about $3800 remaining - certainly not a panic amount - decides to call me and announces, "You definitely have me," as he turns over A-2.
Huh? First of all, if you think I have you, why would you put in $1000 more chips with A-2? If you think I have you, then it means you think I have either A-x, or a wired pair, both of which would leave you with three outs.
It's not so much that the guy called me, but his thinking that baffled me. If he said, "I'm hoping you have K-Q or K-J," and flipped over those cards, I get it. But I doubt that a player is going to announce "hey, I'm a big dummy and just called 11-times the big blind with a hand I think is a severe underdog" with an ulterior motive in mind. I think he's just saying, "I'm a dummy."
OK, I think I cleared out all the frustration with that rant. Time to talk to do some interviews.
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