Finally made it to Cadas. They had 3 cash games going. I started at the 1/2 then moved to the 1/3. The second table was good, cashed for $220.
Liked the room, very comfortable, the food was great, tasted even better when I found out I was comped.
Gonna try the $100 tournament on Saturday.

lol do you ever have anything nice to say about rooms that aren't rounders/cada's?

he forgot to switch to his gimmick.

doc's 2/5 game tonight was pretty actiony. i accidentally brought my broken earbuds and only realized on the walk in. decided if i wasnt 1st on the list id go back and get em, cause i haven't played sans acoustic entertainment in probably a year, and i was really getting into the storyline of that episode (richard lewis visiting the stern show, 09).

anyway i get the ****tiest seat, seat 10 one spot to the right of two of the young lagpros, and i ended up playing the tightest game ive played in years while listening to one of them yammer on stream-of-consciousness about everything that's happening and how well he's playing. he was playing really well, but crazy spewy, bluffing and showing bluffing and taunting practically every hand, and i overheard these two older gentlemen giving eachother knowing words regarding a specific tendency of his, and i think it held true the whole night.

an interesting hand i played against one of the older appeared-to-be-thinking players and one of the lagpros was this:

99 utg+1 with a utg straddle. i limp, button (aforementioned relatively older gentleman) and straddle (lagpro) complete. 7 to the flop, in all.

985r

checks to the button, who bets 55, straddle calls, i call, the other 4 men fold

turn 4 giving a fd, checks to the button, who bets 110, straddle calls. both of them have ~1300 in front of them, i contemplate, incorrectly count 500 and change left in my stack, doublecheck my hand to pretend i'm making sure they're clubs and go all in for what turned out to be ~650.

relatively older gentleman who appeared to be a thinking player tanked. he apologized profusely to the table, so i imagine his tank thinking was special. he folded 55 after a couple minutes and lagpro instamucked a straightdraw.

confusingly ambiguous brag/beat-story savers (NSFW):

i didn't c/r the flop because i did the c/r flop jam turn line earlier and showed a really good hand. i really thought i could rep a combodraw or pair+fd trying to take down a sizable pot, but nobody seemed to pick up on that while they were discussing it afterwards, at length.

"The Poker Mindset" worked wonders for my mental game. I haven't read "The Mental Game of Poker" yet so I can't comment on that.

Just read Anne Duke's book "Decided to play great poker" and I think it helped my game. I just haven't had much time to put it into practice.

By request.

Playing 2/5 at Motor City the other night. Table started a little nitty, but was starting to loosen up by this point. Still hadn't seen any big, multiway pots.

I raise to $25 in MP after a weak UTG limper with KJ. Button calls (300-ish behind), BB calls (600 behind), and UTG calls (400 behind). I cover all.

Pot ($100): Flop comes J96. UTG donks $25 (the table had been very donk happy to this point), I raise to $125, button cold calls!!!!, BB cold calls!!!!, UTG calls. At this point, rightly or wrongly I am pretty much done with the hand unless something extreme happens.

Turn ($600): Turn is 9, checks all the way around.

River ($600): Q, check to button, who shoves for $160, all fold to me, and I decide I have to look him up, due to the pot odds, and the fact that he has to shove the turn with any hand that is ahead of me. I call, and he says "You win."

It's pretty funny to ignore the only solution

Millsandrew, I run good? Ridiculous over calling itp.

Since I haven't played with you yet, I think the book I just got Easy Game by Andrew Seidman. It is a nice primer since it starts with the basics and works its way to more advanced topics.

I also recommend getting the deucescracked free trial and looking up videos with Kristy Arnett and Baluga Whale. Helped take my game to the next level. Would also recommend the Deuce Plays podcast archive from Bart Hanson. His advice is over simplified sometimes, but I think he's proven as a live pro that you can think at that level and win.

Oh very nice! I am Jeally! Altho i hate to read books since i was spoiled from pokerxfactor and such other sites.

On another note i got $100 from my friend last night. I totally forgot what it feels like to run absolutely horrible. I am however extremely happy i am getting it in ahead. I missed about 4 or 5 first places which would of been huge i think.

I do figure it will take me alittle bit to adjust and find some games that are totally beatable. ( i totally crushed non-turbos small stakes sitngos, or atleast in my mind)

I did see Carbon had a $2 180 man. but my friend said they don't run that often. (sad faces)

@screaminasian I like your style.

Did you think you might have leveled yourself on the flop though? I personally raise that flop because there are so many cards that are bad for me/kill my action. And you keep your opponent's guessing by check raising again. Does he have it this time? Does he want us to think he has it? It sets up a better shove ott too.

You're still a way better poster than me. Grats on the score.

I played at Motor City for the first time in forever. Has it become commonplace for the players to do the value betting for you? On two occassions (and I only played a short session) I'd flop two pair or better, bet 3/4ths pot on the flop, 3/4th pot on the turn and my opponent would be lead for twice the pot on the river when he missed his draw. First time I wanted to lay down AQ on a AQ375 board because it was so strong. I might be heading downtown more often now.


Also, I'm not sure if any of you know him but Chris Wolak, a young guy that would play at Snookers all the time and used to play at Sunnybrook back when it was busy passed away. He got hit by a bus in Detroit while going to the Lions' game on Christmas eve. Really sad stuff.

Lastly, Cada's 1 p.m. had 3 full tables and a few alternates yesterday. I was glad that it was more than the 15 runners that they had last time I played the daily tourney although was annoyed when my 99 lost to AK, but not the beat itself, the fact that the dude grab his coat once the turn bricked and said "good game, everyone" and then did a touchdown dance once his king spiked on the river. The pot would have put me over 80k @ 500/1k with about 12 left. GG me.

FYP

That too. Obviously I'm far too involved in mind games to have fun. Thanks for keeping it real.

So I've been thinking a lot about this hand lately and I don't want to be results oriented so I wanted to see if I played this well or if I suck at poker and got lucky - therefore wanted to poll you guys since you all seem to be be solid tournament players.

Early in the tournament I'm in the SB with AJ off and the cut-off (a good, thinking player that has talked about playing the big PLO games in Lansing) raises 3x (600; 100/200 blinds), I flat and BB flats (BB is one of Cada's horses who plays really solid).

Flop is J33 two diamonds. I check, BB checks, CO raises bet 800. I raise to 1750, BB cold calls and CO raises to 3600. At this point, I pretty much am convinced that BB has a flush draw and that CO's range is pretty polarized to an overpair or nothing and 4bet to ~7700. My thought process is that since BB cold called he could have a suited 3 in his range but more likely a draw and that with the J in my hand and given that I flatted the SB, I could easily have JJ or even a 3 in my range. I'd never 4-bet this against an older/calling station and would/should fold to the 3-bet against anyone that isn't adept at playing position / squeezing in this spot. I have roughly 9k behind after the 4-bet and thought that if he shoved I'd snap fold but couldn't just cold call his 3-bet because there's very few turn cards that'd get me any more comfortable with my hand.

CO ends up folding KK, I show and he berates me for even calling AJ pre but I knew I was probably turning my hand into a bluff rather than value betting an under pair. Showing is probably a leak but I thought I'd get that necessary information to go forward.

Is this awful or was my logical decent?

I finished reading Baluga whales book. Man, it was a good read. Than after messing around with poker stove for a few hours and practicing basic alegebra in my head, I started to wonder why isn't everyone crushing poker. Well of course I know EVERYONE on 2p2 is a winning player, except the ones who admit they are having trouble. a couple of weeks ago I had a reg ask me questions about something silly, I gave him a silly answer, and in turn he thought I couldn't understand 4th grade math, I'm sure it boosted his ego.

Anyways, here are some basic english definitions that should give all poker players perspective.

knowledge- familiarity or conversance, as with a particular subject or branch of learning:

wisdom- the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.

ego- the part of the psychic apparatus that experiences and reacts to the outside world and thus mediates between the primitive drives of the id and the demands of the social and physical environment.

arrogance-offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.

What's the point of this post? I dunno. Figure it out guys.

not sure why you are turning your value check raise into a bluff. Also why would the CO be making a play on you when the bb cold calls.

The lucky part of the hand was that the co played the hand worse than you and 3bet kk's and folded to worse.

There's got to be better lines to take with AJ on this dry board.

maybe post in a strategy forum

Okay. I have a number of thoughts.
1) Charity tournaments are -EV over the long run because of the high rake. Play them to have fun and not sweat things too much.
2) Calling a raise pre-flop with AJ off-suit out of position will more often than not cause you to have to make tough decisions or marginal plays post flop. I prefer to have easy decisions, even if they turn out to be wrong.
3) Why is he berating you? Does he want you to play better?
4) The answer to that, of course, is he's angry that he made a bad fold.

It's his fault for over thinking the hand. If he put you on a 3, its because he didn't raise enough pre-flop and you've shown a past history of calling out of position with any two cards. You could have JJ, but if the range of hands I'm realistically worried about is that specific, then see thought number two. I have an easy decision with Kings and I'm going all in. If you have pocket jacks, oh well...nice hand.

Short answer is, yes, you got lucky. Also, pay close attention to how he reacts to being in a hand with you for the near future. It's unlikely he'll make tough folds to you for a while.

i'm not gonna dissect the hand because i don't know how deep you two are, but this is a bad sign.

Q. When do you move a game because the pool dried up

A. When your waitress tells you that the game looks boring and we're just passing money in a circle.

Its not worth playing the wed game anymore. Im starting to understand though why the game is run limit rather then potlimit. More action and more people jumping in with weak holdings.

I also reaffirmed why places like pampas are great for 1-2 players. Saw a real spewey player rack up three racks of reds last night. 2-3 time one seen this player do that.

I think you defined Arrogance (at least) twice.

Im not gonna lie... I dont have a god damn idea what the point of that post is.

I think the CO is much more likely to make that play because the BB is a TAG player and he's likely to squeeze him out after he gets through me.

Also, so do you think I fold to the 3-bet, flat the flop and re-evaluate the turn or just fold pre.

Probably right, but I feel like this play is very dependent on some of the younger regs at Cada's.

This was my fault, too. I think that I was so keen on allowing the dynamics of the hand to force his fold and that 4-betting a solid player is a really strong line in the spot, I definitely think I leveled myself.

Also, fwiw, this is the first time I called a raise from the SB in the tournament.

I agree too about charity tournaments, they are just for fun and let me experiment with stuff like this.

I have ~85bb and he has me covered. You're right though, I figured my check raise would help me narrow his range but at the time I still had it at (99-AA, AQ, AK and random diamond hands).



I REALLY appreciate everyone's responses. I, for some reason, over-thought the **** out of the random spot and I just can't resist the urge to 4-bet the guys that talk about how they're successful online and know/play with so-and-so. Thanks again

In the early 1930s, Dalí promoted the idea of the Surrealist object, of which this is a classic example. The Surrealists valued the mysterious and provocative effect of such unexpected conjunctions. Dalí, in particular, believed that his objects could reveal the secret desires of the unconscious. Lobsters and telephones had strong sexual connotations for him, and he drew a close analogy between food and sex. He made Lobster Telephone for Edward James, the British collector who was the most active patron of Surrealist artists in the 1930s.

I don't like the call oop against two solid players with AJo. I fold preflop and try to play flops against the other players at the table. I don't mind this play as much against a fish in the BB or if both were weak.

I like checking the flop since I think CO is continuation betting this flop close to 100% of the time. I don't mind the line with the check raise because of the flush draw out there. I disagree with you that you can represent a three here. What do you think the other players think of your game if they think you have a three here?

Once BB calls the check raise, and CO raises to 3600, I'm done with the hand. He is not making this play with a weaker jack (he might call). If he thinks of you as a random player, he doesn't believe you are folding or that you have a 3, and he is value betting. What hands does he value bet here? A3 suited, JJ, QQ, KK or AA. For that type of player, all of these hands are in his range. It's hard to put him on any air because he has the BB calling behind you.

For that matter, I also give BB credit for possibly having JJ, but probably not A3. BB's nuts to air ratio is much more weighted to air imo.

So now your decision to bluff with AJ. We have to ask, what hands that have us beat can we make fold? QQ, KK, AA? Wow, you had to give him a lot of credit as a thinking player to make him fold this range. Luckily, you were right about him being able to make the big fold. I see why you posted this here as this is very player dependent.

Just my 2 cents, but I think this is a very risky play so early in the tournament. There are still a lot of hands to play, and there has to be better spots against weaker players. I think you were able to outplay your opponent here for one reason: you knew your opponent, and he appeared to know nothing about you. Terrible fold by him if you ask me, but if he thought you were just a random player, I can see how he leveled himself into that fold. Great testimonial for stfu at the table and stop bragging about your PLO mastery.

Finally, what the heck are you guys doing showing your cards? Terrible show by him. I guess if you were trying to tilt him, showing AJ was probably a good way to do it, but now you're less likely to get the big fold from him in the future. Just keep them guessing imo.