My Journey in Live Mid-High Stakes
11-15-2014
, 03:17 AM
11-18-2014
, 12:44 PM
Montreal TR
Montreal is one of my favorite cities and I got to go there for cash games at the WPT at Playground recently, yipee!
The Playground is a poker-only room located on reserve land about 20 minutes from Montreal. It is known for its waitresses, free food & drinks, and of course the horrendous rake that comes with those - which is why this place has absolutely the best cash games I've played in a long time!
You know you are in canada when this is the dealer's button
This is the most balling part of the trip. Playground knows how to treat its players right! They have two private rooms in which they run 10/20 NLHE games or higher.
When you go to the registration desk and tell them you want to play 10/20+, they immediately call a guy who comes out and introduces himself as the game's host. He explains that he runs the game and in order to ensure the game is constantly good, he gives priority seating to "action players" (in those terms). We immediately joke about if A4o counts as aces here.
Later on I find out that they keep track of every player's buyins and cashouts in the private rooms, which explains how they know exactly how much is every player winning/losing, and therefore who to seat to keep the game good.
Their private rooms are very exclusive. In addition to having their own hosts, they also have their own dedicated waitress (she has a different outfit from the other waitresses), and security who stands outside manning the door at all times. You arent allowed in the room unless you are playing or accompanying a player.
The room has its own snack bar, cashier, and bathroom. They also use a different set of chips (for tracking purposes as noted above). The atmosophere is a little serious, and professional. Most players there looks like grinders no older than early 30s.
The best part about playground is that it serves free food, which is actually quite decent even in my books. Depending on the stakes you are playing, you get different menus you can order from. They are both full menus with probably about at least 50 things in it. From 2/5 and up, you can order all the shrimp cocktails, filet mignon, lobster bites, and grilled salmon you can eat. It is common etiquette to tip the waitresses about $4-5 for each item you order as they dont get paid otherwise, but Ive seen people not tip at all
.
Oh and the rake for 10/20 is 5% up to $40/hand
-----
Poker aside, here are few more reasons why I love montreal:
Urghhh heaven! One of each please!
Settled for just one of these (but only because Ive already been eating nonstop all day). It is a french cake soaked in rum.
Crepe and hot chocolate
Food from a wine bar
Poutine. Looks like hell, tastes like heaven
HELP wth i dont understand
montreal has THE most confusing parking signs Ive seen anywhere!
Poker-wise nothing much exciting happened for me. There was no 5/T over the weekend (a new table never started, weirrrrd) and only 5/5 and then it goes up 10/20. BUT I DIDNT LOSE and actually won a decent hourly, which is a VERY awesome result in my books given that im in the midst of a downswing!
Montreal is one of my favorite cities and I got to go there for cash games at the WPT at Playground recently, yipee!
The Playground is a poker-only room located on reserve land about 20 minutes from Montreal. It is known for its waitresses, free food & drinks, and of course the horrendous rake that comes with those - which is why this place has absolutely the best cash games I've played in a long time!
You know you are in canada when this is the dealer's button
This is the most balling part of the trip. Playground knows how to treat its players right! They have two private rooms in which they run 10/20 NLHE games or higher.
When you go to the registration desk and tell them you want to play 10/20+, they immediately call a guy who comes out and introduces himself as the game's host. He explains that he runs the game and in order to ensure the game is constantly good, he gives priority seating to "action players" (in those terms). We immediately joke about if A4o counts as aces here.
Later on I find out that they keep track of every player's buyins and cashouts in the private rooms, which explains how they know exactly how much is every player winning/losing, and therefore who to seat to keep the game good.
Their private rooms are very exclusive. In addition to having their own hosts, they also have their own dedicated waitress (she has a different outfit from the other waitresses), and security who stands outside manning the door at all times. You arent allowed in the room unless you are playing or accompanying a player.
The room has its own snack bar, cashier, and bathroom. They also use a different set of chips (for tracking purposes as noted above). The atmosophere is a little serious, and professional. Most players there looks like grinders no older than early 30s.
The best part about playground is that it serves free food, which is actually quite decent even in my books. Depending on the stakes you are playing, you get different menus you can order from. They are both full menus with probably about at least 50 things in it. From 2/5 and up, you can order all the shrimp cocktails, filet mignon, lobster bites, and grilled salmon you can eat. It is common etiquette to tip the waitresses about $4-5 for each item you order as they dont get paid otherwise, but Ive seen people not tip at all
. Oh and the rake for 10/20 is 5% up to $40/hand
-----
Poker aside, here are few more reasons why I love montreal:
Urghhh heaven! One of each please!
Settled for just one of these (but only because Ive already been eating nonstop all day). It is a french cake soaked in rum.
Crepe and hot chocolate
Food from a wine bar
Poutine. Looks like hell, tastes like heaven
HELP wth i dont understand
montreal has THE most confusing parking signs Ive seen anywhere!Poker-wise nothing much exciting happened for me. There was no 5/T over the weekend (a new table never started, weirrrrd) and only 5/5 and then it goes up 10/20. BUT I DIDNT LOSE and actually won a decent hourly, which is a VERY awesome result in my books given that im in the midst of a downswing!
11-18-2014
, 01:24 PM
Yikes at the 5% rake up to 40 dollars 
11-20-2014
, 06:07 PM
11-24-2014
, 06:00 PM
Played 17 hours this weekend in two incredible 5/T games.... and down 1700. Just could not get in spots to win big pots even against half a table of spew monkeys. Or, Id go on a mini heater then a string of mini coolers.
I played well for the entire two sessions except towards the end where I made two questionable calls that cost a total of 30bbs so overall im happy about my play, not happy about how I ran.
One thing I was happy about was that I did not become scared money despite of recent run-bad and was aggressive in the right spots.
Already complained in another thread about how my 4bet got called by Q8s who flopped the world, and I opened KK and got called 8-way (even though it was on a table that loved to squeeze), and here's another example:
Hand 1
Eff 550 at 5/T. Lagtard young kid who opens a lot from any position (had been caught opening 34o UTG) opens in EP to 30. I am in MP with 99 and had a bunch of nits/abc's behind me so I iso him to 90. 99 is pretty much the bottom of my range here and usually it's a calling hand, but against this kid it was for sure a value raise. I'd get it in on most flops. And he calls (since Ive iso'd him once or twice before).
Flop: Q57ddd. He open shoves ~350 into 195. I checked that I had the 9d and I call.
He had lolQ5s and I brick 11 outs twice.
As the table had like 4 really aggressive bad players, i had a bunch of pretty interesting hands.
Hand 2
I open AQo utg to 30. Folds around to the blinds and a loose passive player callsed in the sb, the aggrotard fish 3bets to 125 in the bb. I dont want to play the pot 3 ways even though I have position and a pretty big hand, I might just call if I were sooted but AQo doesnt play that well multiway. So I 4bet him to 400 and both snap folds
. He says after, well what did they say about just calling to see a flop, at least i found out where i am. Lol!
Hand 3
Against the same lagtard player as above. He opens late for 50 (his usu opening size) and I 3bet him to 150 with AKo IP. He obv calls and we see the flop. We are about $4500 eff.
Flop ($315): K83cc. He checks, usually I cbet here but he literally will start bombing every street big when he sees weakness. From sitting beside him ive seen him doing it (he holds his cards up to himself before mucking and Im in the only seat to see it - not that i had to try to look) with bluff hands that have pretty much no equity. So i check back.
Turn ($315): Ac. flush got there and I dont have a redraw with the K. He now bets 275. I think calling is better than raising here so I call with top two.
River ($865): Jo. 4 card straight, gross. He bets 750. I close my eyes and lolclick call, and he just mucks. Apparently he doesnt think about my 3bet ranges cuz Im all over that board and THE worst hand I have is KJ there.
Hand 4
This is the most interesting hand of the weekend. I wasnt sure if I was spewing at first (you know how you think you played a hand well then you think/talk about it afterwards and realize it's full of spew?) and sent the hand to my coach right away. My plan was to rack up immediately if it was spew, and keep on playing if it wasn't, because the game was so good.
Anyways. this is a hand with all 3 of th biggest lagtards at the table. These players will bet when checked to, raise small to see where they are at, but at the same time dont get it in as a bluff too light. So they will bluff maybe up to $600 but will check back river if they completely bricked because itll cost too much to bluff. They also call quite light pre and otf.
Lagtard 1 from the above hands opens to 50. I call otb with 56s (probably a 3bet here), the other two LTs call in the blinds. Eff about 2.3k.
Flop ($200): Q52r. i have a backdoor flush draw. Blinds both check and LT#1 bets 125. I call. LT#2 folds and LT#3 c/rs to 350. LT#1 quickly folds. I call 225 more into a pot of 800.
The call is fine here because 1) LT#3 reps very little - the board is rainbow, i block middle set, 2) Ive seen him playing like that too often, 3) I have enough backdoor outs, and 4) i block some of his straight draw outs
Turn ($1025): 3c backdoor. We both check.
Now I picked up a gutshot and he checks to me. During the hand i thought about betting but I didnt want to get checkraised off my equity so I checked back. However after thinking about it, betting was probably better because 1) he's likely weak, because if he already c/r'd the flop and I just called, why would he not continue his line with a big hand now that a flush draw came in, and 2) give that he's weak, I could protect my hand by folding out his random over cards or middle pairs like 66/77/88 that he might be turning into a bluff otf.
River ($1025): 4c. I hit my straight but the backdoor flush also completed. He leads out 350. I raised to 800 and he tanked for a long time and folded.
I'm raise-folding here for value because he almost never has a flush. It's pretty hard to get there and he probably would have continued betting ott with picking up a flush draw. Also his sizing is really weak for a flush so i think he has an ace or two pairs here a lot and I can get some value with my bigger straight. I didnt want to bet too much because my hand isnt that strong and i wanted him to station off really wide.
The bad calls
These are the two bad calls at the end of the session. I guess they arent even close so there isnt much to be said about them.
The LTs had settled down quite a bit by then which makes these even worse calls given the table dynamics.
First I called a turn bet with QQ on J798dd board (no Qd) against one of the LTs for about half pot, and folded the river when 3d hit and he bet again pretty big. It's just kind of a bad spot to call and hope to hit one of your 3 ten's because 1) the board is so much better for their range and 2) i have pretty ****ty equity and almost no blockers to their combo draws)
Second hand we checked down 3 ways on AQxx6 in a 3bet pre pot (by me with JJ) and the lagtard in 3 hands above bombed the river for 2/3pot for 20bbs and I called. He had A6. Think it's pretty hard for him to just bomb out river, if he were try to bluff he probably wouldnt have waited until the river to do it. Also he was lower on chips and knew that I might disguise my range against him.
I played well for the entire two sessions except towards the end where I made two questionable calls that cost a total of 30bbs so overall im happy about my play, not happy about how I ran.
One thing I was happy about was that I did not become scared money despite of recent run-bad and was aggressive in the right spots.
Already complained in another thread about how my 4bet got called by Q8s who flopped the world, and I opened KK and got called 8-way (even though it was on a table that loved to squeeze), and here's another example:
Hand 1
Eff 550 at 5/T. Lagtard young kid who opens a lot from any position (had been caught opening 34o UTG) opens in EP to 30. I am in MP with 99 and had a bunch of nits/abc's behind me so I iso him to 90. 99 is pretty much the bottom of my range here and usually it's a calling hand, but against this kid it was for sure a value raise. I'd get it in on most flops. And he calls (since Ive iso'd him once or twice before).
Flop: Q57ddd. He open shoves ~350 into 195. I checked that I had the 9d and I call.
He had lolQ5s and I brick 11 outs twice.
As the table had like 4 really aggressive bad players, i had a bunch of pretty interesting hands.
Hand 2
I open AQo utg to 30. Folds around to the blinds and a loose passive player callsed in the sb, the aggrotard fish 3bets to 125 in the bb. I dont want to play the pot 3 ways even though I have position and a pretty big hand, I might just call if I were sooted but AQo doesnt play that well multiway. So I 4bet him to 400 and both snap folds
. He says after, well what did they say about just calling to see a flop, at least i found out where i am. Lol!Hand 3
Against the same lagtard player as above. He opens late for 50 (his usu opening size) and I 3bet him to 150 with AKo IP. He obv calls and we see the flop. We are about $4500 eff.
Flop ($315): K83cc. He checks, usually I cbet here but he literally will start bombing every street big when he sees weakness. From sitting beside him ive seen him doing it (he holds his cards up to himself before mucking and Im in the only seat to see it - not that i had to try to look) with bluff hands that have pretty much no equity. So i check back.
Turn ($315): Ac. flush got there and I dont have a redraw with the K. He now bets 275. I think calling is better than raising here so I call with top two.
River ($865): Jo. 4 card straight, gross. He bets 750. I close my eyes and lolclick call, and he just mucks. Apparently he doesnt think about my 3bet ranges cuz Im all over that board and THE worst hand I have is KJ there.
Hand 4
This is the most interesting hand of the weekend. I wasnt sure if I was spewing at first (you know how you think you played a hand well then you think/talk about it afterwards and realize it's full of spew?) and sent the hand to my coach right away. My plan was to rack up immediately if it was spew, and keep on playing if it wasn't, because the game was so good.
Anyways. this is a hand with all 3 of th biggest lagtards at the table. These players will bet when checked to, raise small to see where they are at, but at the same time dont get it in as a bluff too light. So they will bluff maybe up to $600 but will check back river if they completely bricked because itll cost too much to bluff. They also call quite light pre and otf.
Lagtard 1 from the above hands opens to 50. I call otb with 56s (probably a 3bet here), the other two LTs call in the blinds. Eff about 2.3k.
Flop ($200): Q52r. i have a backdoor flush draw. Blinds both check and LT#1 bets 125. I call. LT#2 folds and LT#3 c/rs to 350. LT#1 quickly folds. I call 225 more into a pot of 800.
The call is fine here because 1) LT#3 reps very little - the board is rainbow, i block middle set, 2) Ive seen him playing like that too often, 3) I have enough backdoor outs, and 4) i block some of his straight draw outs
Turn ($1025): 3c backdoor. We both check.
Now I picked up a gutshot and he checks to me. During the hand i thought about betting but I didnt want to get checkraised off my equity so I checked back. However after thinking about it, betting was probably better because 1) he's likely weak, because if he already c/r'd the flop and I just called, why would he not continue his line with a big hand now that a flush draw came in, and 2) give that he's weak, I could protect my hand by folding out his random over cards or middle pairs like 66/77/88 that he might be turning into a bluff otf.
River ($1025): 4c. I hit my straight but the backdoor flush also completed. He leads out 350. I raised to 800 and he tanked for a long time and folded.
I'm raise-folding here for value because he almost never has a flush. It's pretty hard to get there and he probably would have continued betting ott with picking up a flush draw. Also his sizing is really weak for a flush so i think he has an ace or two pairs here a lot and I can get some value with my bigger straight. I didnt want to bet too much because my hand isnt that strong and i wanted him to station off really wide.
The bad calls
These are the two bad calls at the end of the session. I guess they arent even close so there isnt much to be said about them.
The LTs had settled down quite a bit by then which makes these even worse calls given the table dynamics.
First I called a turn bet with QQ on J798dd board (no Qd) against one of the LTs for about half pot, and folded the river when 3d hit and he bet again pretty big. It's just kind of a bad spot to call and hope to hit one of your 3 ten's because 1) the board is so much better for their range and 2) i have pretty ****ty equity and almost no blockers to their combo draws)
Second hand we checked down 3 ways on AQxx6 in a 3bet pre pot (by me with JJ) and the lagtard in 3 hands above bombed the river for 2/3pot for 20bbs and I called. He had A6. Think it's pretty hard for him to just bomb out river, if he were try to bluff he probably wouldnt have waited until the river to do it. Also he was lower on chips and knew that I might disguise my range against him.
11-25-2014
, 05:08 PM
11-25-2014
, 07:34 PM
11-25-2014
, 10:35 PM
