Small Pot Poker?? Big Draws?? Royal Holdem??? High Stakes Poker 2x10

I woke up at my usual time of around 3ish, I normally wake up due to phone calls, which was the case today as well, stop calling me people!!! I sleep till at least 3pm!!!
I went straight on my lap top to play a bit of $2/$4 while checking my emails and all the poker sites and to make sure I downloaded the new high stakes poker, which is meant to be quite good as Gus has just joined the game, have not watched it yet but will give a review later.

Sat down on 2 tables and sat with $250 on each, one was a 6 seater and the other a 9 seater. They are very different games, in the 9 handed game you want to play a lot more flops and premium hands while in the 6 handed game I like to raise more and play more position poker. I feel in the 9 handed is a more nutty game and less room to bluff. In the six handed game I picked up AA on the button, where UTG made it $13 to go, I don’t like to play this hand clever in anyway as I feel if you find it difficult to fold a hand you have to play it strong, in comps I might slow play a big hand but it cash especially in no limit you stack is always up for grabs I make it $54 to go (someone else called the $13), original raiser folds and the caller calls, I put him on a suited connector or a Pocket pair looking to crack my big hand. Flop is K high with 2hearts he checks to me and I bet around $80, he calls the turn is another h, I have the Ah in my hand which is nice but not a great turn card, checks again, I decided to bet here thinking he may have AK, and feel he will call another bet, which he does. Normally I might check here as scared of flush draw and also to keep the pot SMALL!, I love small pot poker and keeping everything under control, yes I do therefore allow people to catch up but I like to minimise the risk, like in early levels of a comp I will call a single raise with AK and not re raise in a cash game, there is just no need to increase pots. River is a blank and he checks and I fire out a small bet which is actually half his stack, he calls and I take a $400 pot away.

On the 9 handed table I call a raise with 7d8d, flop comes 5d k h 6d, ohhhhhhhhhhhh YEH!!! Nice flop for me!!! The raiser bets out and I make a raise, I feel he is continuation betting and I can take the pot here and also put pressure on him if he has AK, I mean after all I might have a massive draw but I only had 8 high! He then pushes back at me and I move in (guess I didn’t keep the pot small this time!!) He flips over KKK and I’ve got 15 outs twice so im a slight favourite in the hand but basically a coin flip. If only we could run it twice on the Internet!!!! Was a $500 pot and my whole stack.. I miss on the turn and he fills up on the river, DOH! In this blog I want to analysis hands where I lost money and where I could have made more money. Ok what could I have done differently? The fact is I got the money in as a slightly favourite, however if some (in a live game) one was all in and flipped over AK would I call with 77s for all my chips. The answer would be no, which is basically what I did here. It’s funny how people see draws as a massive thing but you are still BEHIND!!. Also when he pushes backs at me, I have to give him credited for more than AK therefore as a pre flop raisers I have to give him top set or maybe middle set, therefore a couple of my out draw cards are dead. So why do people constantly do this (including me!) In a deep stack tournament I might lay the hand down as I know it’s a coin flip, but in cash games I would be more inclined to call as you can always re load. So what do you think?? I could have check called missed my draw on the turn then re valuate the situation and fold to a pot size pot therefore only losing $40 odd bucks but what if I hit my straight flush on the turn which will send out warned signs to the player that every draw has hit, it would be difficult to get paid off then, especially if he only had AK, im sure he would still call a bet with KKK, as people just don’t fold a set! I think I will play the hand differently just depending on my mood really, stoped playing after an hour and ended my $150 up from the two tables. Want to go Big slick tonight for the £30 second chance but got a family diner to go to, so will probably end up playing some more wonderful online poker!


Didnt get to play much poker last night due to a family diner, therefore could not go big slick and joined Tom and Dave in the £30 semi freeze out as they call it, basically a double chance comp where you can take 1/2 or all your chips at the start for £30/£60. Another reason was after the diner by the time i got home the interent for some reason crashed!?!?!? Its really scary how much i need the interent, get so bored at home with out it. So i just ended up watching Big Brother until Davey Lu called saying him and Flash were outside my house. So i invited them in a round each of Holdem, Omaha Hi-Lo and Royal Holdem, basically choose a game each, i took Hi-Lo, Dave took Royal Holdem (only cards in the deck are 10 to A, then just play holdem) you can actually flop the nuts and be drawing dead!!!! and Flash took on Holdem as its the only game he can play and he is really boring!!! Dave was 1st out after trying to outplay everyone and then it was me and flash, i had him dominated in Omaha Hi-Lo, i played so well he is thinking of staking me in the $215 comp on stars, top prize over $7k. Tom caught a few lucky cards however to chop pots. But tom played a solid game and took it down!!! oh btw Dave came 4th in the Big slick comp after taking Tom out on the Final Table bubble with 65 against Flashes A5 soooooted ouch!!

Ok thats about all the poker i played!! So not much at all!
Donkey of the night goes to : Dave Lu
PS

High Stakes Poker 10 is great, i felt the game dried out a bit but there is a pot not to be missed!!! I will talk about it another day dont want to spoil it for anyone, but dont miss it!!!