Work, Play, & Practice

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything; not for lack of want, I just haven’t played much lately.  Poor planning and bad decisions at work have forced us to put in a lot of overtime over the past couple of weeks.  I’ve always said that work has cut into my poker time; lately I have had absolutely no time for poker.  After working 14+ hours in a day, I just haven’t felt awake enough to play well.

Saturday was, I believe (hope) our last day of overtime; and I decided to go to Snoqualmie and play a little no-limit poker after work.  I ended up playing for a grueling 8 hour session!  I don’t normally play that long, but it was an interesting session.

It started pretty well; within the first couple of hours I was up $400 and feeling pretty good.  One of my first hands put one person on tilt; I had pocket 9s and flopped a set.  Like an inexperienced no-limit player, I slow-played my hand and smooth-called the flop bet (there were 3 of us in the pot).  The turn brought a 3rd club, making somebody a possible flush and suddenly my very powerful trip 9s became vulnerable – possibly inferior to a flush.  I watch as the person in early position checks, middle position bets $45.  The pot had about $200 in it at this time, and against a really good player I would think that such a small bet would practically be begging me to call; however, against this player it had a completely different meaning.  This was someone I had played with before, and a bet like this meant he had something like top pair, but his hand was vulnerable – he might have a flush draw at this point, with something like top pair, but not something powerful enough that he wanted to invest a lot of money.

I was certain I had him beat, and I didn’t want to let him draw to another club without paying dearly.  I moved all-in for about another $250.  Early position player gives me the “hairy eyeball” look, and complains loudly.  He’s pretty upset, and doesn’t want to call, but really wants to see the river.  (This makes it pretty obvious he has a club draw, so I’m feeling pretty good about putting him to such a difficult decision.)  In truth, he was only getting about 2.5-1 on his money, not quite enough to draw to another club, so my all-in was mathematically a great bet.  He folds.

Middle position flashes a King, and folds.  There was a King on the board – and, as it turns out my analysis was correct – he had top pair, and he also had a flush draw, or at least that’s what he said.  He made the correct, mathematical decision to fold, and I took down a pretty large pot.

After that hand I got up to get some coffee and come back; early position guy makes the comment “You bluffed us off a pot and then left us!”  He was joking, but the truth is, my play was clearly good – I had the best hand at the time, and needed to protect it against a draw that both of my opponents were on.  It looked like I had the flush, but in truth, neither of them had anything better than a pair and a flush draw, so I was ahead.

After that, the early position guy kept talking about it, and I kept pushing him, putting him to difficult decisions.  I loved that I made him really uncomfortable; it let me get away with a few true bluffs later in the night, against him.

Towards midnight, I started to get tired, and I probably should have gone home but decided to stay.  I was up about $400, which would have been a great night.  Instead, I lost all of my profit when I had strong draws myself, which didn’t materialize into winning hands.  I was kind of surprised when I looked down and I had less than my original $300 buy-in in front of me.

I then had a pretty bad hand, that cost me my entire stack.  I was dealt pocket Queens:  Queen of Spades, Queen of hearts.  I raised to $45 preflop, and had two callers.  The flop came small cards – all Spades.  So now I have a pair on the board, with a Queen-high flush draw.  I make a healthy, pot-sized bet on the flop and get one caller.  He has been very quiet, and I haven’t really seen him make any big mistakes so far, so it does concern me.  At this time I’m almost all-in, so when the turn brings another Spade, I go all-in hoping my opponent does not have the King or Ace of Spades.  I remember he took a long time to think about calling, and I felt pretty good about that – until he turned over the Ace of Spades.

Wow.  I went from $400 ahead to $300 behind in about an hour.  That sucked; I might have been a little more cautious with pocket Queens, but I’m not sure I played that poorly.  The table had plenty of loose players, so I decide to buy-in again for another $300 and keep playing.  It’s now about 1:00am.

After grinding cautiously, but aggressively for another hour I’m back to $600, and even for the night.  I’m feeling pretty good, but now we’re down to a 5-handed table, and the players are weak.  I decide that the short-handed experience is both interesting and good for me to learn from.  I push pretty hard with some great hands, and build my stack up to $800.

We then combine tables; we’re the last 9 poker players, and the last table of the night.  I realized that other than the 4 remaining short-handed players, who aren’t very good, the remaining players seem to be a lot better than average.  These, I believe, are the grinders, who probably make a living doing this.  Suddenly the 4 remaining players from my table tighten up, and the table hardly ever sees a flop.  For about two hours I play against these people – but never really made any more money.  When I did have a great hand, most of the table was smart enough to fold, and I wouldn’t get paid off.  There just wasn’t as much dead money in the pot, and it was a lot more difficult to make plays and bluff.  At 5:00am I decide to rack up and go home.  I cash out for $839 (up $239 for the night).

What a crazy night!  I drove home thinking about the night, and reminded myself that I really don’t have the bankroll for $2/$5 no-limit.  Here’s the thing – the maximum buy-in for $2/$5 no-limit at the Snoqualmie Casino is $300.  I figure I’m willing to bring $600, for 3 buy-ins to an $8/$16 game, so if I limit myself to 2 buy-ins at no-limit it’s okay to try.

In truth, I’m kidding myself.  It’s a lot easier to bust out in no-limit than in limit poker.  Having $600 to play $8/$16 is a LOT different from having $600 to play $2/$5 no-limit.  It’s entirey possible to lose $600 in 20 minutes of play at no-limit poker.  I’ve seen it happen.

Still, I need the practice.  I’ve been reading these no-limit tournament books, and trying to put what I learn into practice, but without solid experience in no-limit, it’s difficult to put the lessons into context.  So I have a ways to go before I can play no-limit on a regular basis, but until then giving it a try every now and then is basically paying for experience.