My Two Cents
One of my goals this year was to become a more visible blogger. By that, I meant that I wanted to become a bigger part of this community. I became a blogger in the first place because I recognized this group to be, for the most part, a great group of people to know, in some cases for their poker knowledge, other cases for their humor or enjoyable writing, and in a couple of cases, both.
My visibility has always been low because A) I'm not as accomplished of a poker player as others, B) schedule or bankroll issues have prevented me from being a regular in the blogger games or C) my opportunity to contribute to blogging, either by posting or commenting, was severely reduced when my former employer blocked any Blogger.com sites.
After being a blogger for almost two years now, I was looking as this year being the year that I broke out of relative anonymity, even if that anonymity is mostly self-perceived. I'm continuing to establish friendships with a few bloggers, getting to know a couple more, and really noticing an improvement in my game as a result of being a blogger. But nevertheless, I still feel like an outsider looking in sometimes, which is both good & bad.
Anyways, what better way to improve visibility than to comment on blogger drama that doesn't involve you, right? Eh, it's 2am and I'm bored, so why not?
If you're reading this blog, you've probably already read about the drama going on between Hoy, Smokkee, and now Blinders. If you don't know, just click on the links and get caught up. This all coming after CK & Perticelli's posts about their relationships with Donkette.
Aside from a couple of comments on only a couple of those blogs, I've never really had any kind of relationship with any of these bloggers (I'm not even linked up on most of them). So I guess it's not really my place to comment on either situation. Oh well.
Hoy, Smokkee & Blinders drama: What Hoy did was childish. Whether or not he wrote the posts on the ICrushBloggers blog, the fact that it was used to put down other bloggers is just retarded. He's shown in the past that he's perfectly capable of doing it in very snide ways on his own blog. Honestly, I have no personal beef with Hoy, but to discredit Smokkee and his efforts with BoDog the way he did, I can't really think of a better word than childish. It was a dumb idea that caused more ill will than it did a good chuckle. However, I don't consider it any form of cheating or acting unethically like Blinders does. It's not like he's multi-accounting or using someone else's screenname. Even Smokkee changed his name on FT to KillinKegz for a while, and I may be wrong, but I don't think he ever "officially" announced this on his blog. I've read Blinders blog for a while, and it certainly seems like he has a distaste for all things Hoy; this was just another in a long line of anti-Hoy posts.
Donkette & CK\Perticelli drama: It sucks anytime you are betrayed by someone you trust. As Alan mentioned on his blog, I hit him up for some money last December. I did it with the full intent that I would pay it back within a month, as I had withdrawn money for Christmas but was planning to redeposit in January. It was a pretty desperate move, but Alan was kind enough to offer more than I even expected, and because I'm such a badass poker player, I doubled it within a couple days & immediately returned it to him. I don't mean to toot my own horn; I guess my point is that for every Donkette, there's (hopefully) 10 or more good, decent bloggers, and it sucks that this community has to be tarnished by one bad apple.
So that's that. Sorry if you were expecting some more inflammatory opinions. I have commenting on drama that I'm not a part of, so be glad you got what you did. In summary, this community has produced so many good things (the BBTs, the Vegas gatherings, the weekly tournaments, etc.), not to mention countless friendships. So if you're reading this, and you're someone who's sabotaged what a good thing this community has become, stop being a fucking douchenozzle.
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My post yesterday was pretty lame. Despite a couple of disclaimers I threw in there, I guess it did come off as sounding kind of like complaining. Thanks, Cayne, for bringing back to reality. I guess the point that I was trying to relay is the feeling, kind of like a poker hangover, after a big score. I'm not trying to gloat that I have that problem or seek consolation for it. Just chalk it up to a dumb post written by a guy who stayed up to 5:30am last night\morning watching Smoking Aces. Yay unemployment!
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More hand histories! Curious to know how some of you cash gamers would have played this. I'll give you my thoughts, you tell me yours.
Full Tilt Poker Game #6806049541: Table Cabana - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:18:34 ET - 2008/06/13
Seat 1: JHORNiGOLD ($113.90)
Seat 2: BulletProof604 ($221.60)
Seat 3: AK SOL JA ($73)
Seat 4: mclarich ($94)
Seat 5: U__IdontLikeU ($123)
Seat 6: RobertoLuongo01 ($23.50)
Seat 7: cessna7277 ($56), is sitting out
Seat 8: ChubbyFinger ($19)
Seat 9: BloodandSoil ($30.95)
RobertoLuongo01 posts the small blind of $0.50
ChubbyFinger posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Qd Qc]
BloodandSoil calls $1
JHORNiGOLD calls $1
BulletProof604 folds
AK SOL JA folds
mclarich raises to $5
U__IdontLikeU folds
RobertoLuongo01 folds
ChubbyFinger folds
BloodandSoil folds
JHORNiGOLD calls $4
Pretty straight forward raise with a bunch of limpers, nothing special so far.
*** FLOP *** [7h Tc 3d]
JHORNiGOLD checks
mclarich bets $5
JHORNiGOLD has 15 seconds left to act
JHORNiGOLD raises to $16
mclarich calls $11
I lead out on the flop thinking I'm good, only fearing a flopped set like 77 or 33 (TT is also a possibility, I've seen plenty of people limp pairs as high as JJ in EP). Because of this, I bet less than 1\2 the pot for two reasons: One, if I am behind, I want to keep the pot kind of small. Two, it makes it seem like AK and a weak c-bet. The villain, who I know nothing about, check-raises me. I don't know if this means set or just a steal, but I'm not willing to dump the hand just yet.
*** TURN *** [7h Tc 3d] [As]
JHORNiGOLD checks
mclarich bets $38
JHORNiGOLD folds
Uncalled bet of $38 returned to mclarich
mclarich mucks
mclarich wins the pot ($42.30)
When he checks the A on the turn, unless he specifically thinks I have AA and just turned trips, I read his check as weakness and take the pot.
What I'm questioning is my flop play. I felt that I was better off taking another card against a player I have no reads or history on rather than going to battle with an overpair on the flop. But at the same time, I can't get into a habit of folding overpairs every time I'm check-raised on the flop. Was playing through the turn the way you would play it or not?
I've said more than enough, I'm going to bed.
posted by Matt @ 1:39 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Riase more PF, expecially with multiple limpers. You don't want them both to call. Go to at least $6, maybe $6.5
Your c-bet is only 2/5 pot, which is way too small. Make your c-bets around 3/4 pot.
I'm not sure yet on the turn play, but ask yourself these questions: What hands would he limp/call PF, then check-raise the flop with? I suppose we can put him on a set, two pair like T7, a one pair hand like JT/AT/87, 98 (The only draw), or air.
What of those hands does an Ace help? Only AT and possibly air. With QQ, you are either way ahead or way behind. Betting the turn folds out all hands you are ahead of, and he calls (or raises) with any hand that beats you.
I'm thinking that checking behind on the turn is best, as you keep the pot small (cause you only have one pair), and you can let him bluff with his crap hands on the river.
I agree with the fool.
My reasoning is that you are showing that your Continuation bets don't have power and that people can ride over you.
As for everything else...
Do you really want to be as infamous as Waffles?
Really?
I disagree with pokerfool on only one thing. Your preflop raise was fine. A normal pot sized raise would be $5.50, you made it $5. No need to make it any bigger. As a matter of fact, I'm a big believer in making the same raise with any hands that I choose to raise so I don't think betting more is a good idea.
Having said that, everything else pokerfool said is something you really need to start putting in your head, Matt.
On the flop, you most likely have the best hand so you need to be trying to build the pot. That's pot control too. Pot control does not equal keeping it small. Pot control is controlling the pot size, ie making it bigger when you have the best of it, keeping it small when you don't. Stop trying to get cute with less than half pot bet. That's terrible. Also, you mentioned that he could have a set. Of course, he could. He could also have a piece. In other words, don't fear a set so much. If he hits a set, you're gonna lose a decent chunk but you can't make money fearing sets.
On the turn, I actually like pokerfool's suggestion of checking. Your bet really does nothing. What I mean by that is that your bet is actually now turning into a bluff. you're bluffing with QQ, which is a great hand. No point in doing that. You have position so check behind. You'd be surprised as to how often he would fire out a river bet. You will of course, call that river bet even with the A showing because you saved your "bet" by checking the turn.
I could go on and on about this concept so I'll stop for now.
I am Poker Champ.
Your flop lead is weak - villiant repops you see where you are at(most of the time). I like the turn lead - if he calls or raises you are done with the hand. However I would Re-reraise the flop a fir bit here (maybe 75% of the time - being somewhat villian dependent).
Thanks for the complement! I aim to please!
I sorta liked the call on the flop. This guy obviously seemed to think you had AK and missed the board. He probably has some sort of weak top or second pair. You actually kind of confirm his suspicions by just calling there. The Ace on the turn makes the hand he put you on so he folds. Interesting hand. I do think I agree with Fuel why not end the hand on the flop with a re-raise. He has to respect it and fold if he has a weak hand and if he has you beat he probably spews too early and jams you in here. Fuck I hate agreeing with Fuel.
I like raising one limper to 5X BB, two limpers to 6X BB, etc.
I agree with the suggestions of making a larger continuation bet, and at least considering getting it in on the flop.
The turn can be a check or a bet, depending on your read. You'll have much better reads once you use Holdem Manager or PokerTracker more often.
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