Kansas Royalty

Was kicking around the idea of a post concerning an encounter at our local hardware store. Wasn't going to post it until I saw this and this. It also fits in with the subject matter I kick around here.

The wife, son, and daughter and I needed some primer for a home improvement project. We get the stuff and wander about the store. My son loves to play in the patio furniture display. He would spend the day there if we let him. After repeatedly asking him to leave, in my outside the house voice., he finally steps into the aisle. I see a very tall black man coming around the corner as my son steps out. Danny Manning almost flattens my 4 year old. Danny stops short and my son is like a deer in headlights. I tell him, in my most pleasant tone, to please move. I tell him, what feels like, a billion times. The boy finally moves and I apologize to Danny and his wife. No biggie. Accept it happens again while we are leaving the store. Sucks, because there is a small part of me that needs the greatest living Kansas sports figure to know that I am a good parent. He should know I can control my kid. Kind of like sucking in your gut when a hottie walks by. To my son, it was just the largest man he had ever seen almost running him over, again. To me it is like a brush with royalty. Someday he will understand.

I chuckle to myself thinking about what would have happened had the collision occurred. My son could tell his friends; "This one is from falling and hitting a stone wall. I got six stitches. And, this one is from the time Danny Manning kneed me in the face". "Yeah it was horrible, my Dad yelled at me, made me apologize, then took me to the hospital." "Oh and I had to work off the debt to my Dad when he insisted that we buy his liquid plumber and garden hose". "Thanks, my nose does look almost normal now. Amazing what they can do with a big toe". "Dad says stop complaining and that's why God gave us two sets"

Too bad Wilt is gone. Complete the family. Maybe I can find Paul Pierce.

Speaking of the Truth. Further proof that it is the year of the Jayhawk.

5 basketball players got drafted. Ties record. Kaun will be the second highest paid, but he was the last drafted. He is playing in Russia and the NBA team that ends up with his rights can have him in two years. Sweet deal for the team. Get the developed player for no pay.

RCJH

MT

Home Game and Rules Question

Not much to talk about. Ground out a $28 win. Got 4 pocket pairs in 5 hours. 44 55 x 2 and 77. Got AKs once and AQs once. Other than that just playing so so hands in position like QJs that won me a big one when flop tripped me up. Or AcTC on a flop with the nut flush draw and a gutterball. The guy min raised by flop bet and then small bet to the river where a Q gave me the nuts. I bet out 2/3 pot and he put me in with K rag. Top pair only. I don't mind raising there to see where you are, but you have to drive me out of the pot after the turn. He let me get there.

I lost half my $20 buy in and was seated between the two loosest players in the game. Folds to button who limps, I complete my small blind with 55 and the bb raises 4xbb. Button calls and I push all in. They both fold. Had barely enough fold equity there. Plus my table image as nearly a rock helped a lot. Before that I bluffed the only other good player at the table with 6h5h. I raised utg and he called from the button. Heads up and he checks in the dark. Ace on flop and I go all in. He insta folds and shows 66, good for second pair. I show him my bluff and tell him it's good for the game. I am starting to use my table image to get pots now. Opened up a whole new aspect to my game. Fun, very fun.

Oh the guy I bluffed, who had the 66, had an Astin like run of cards. In the first 3 orbits, 7 handed, he showed 8 pocket pairs. He later went on to get KK x4 times. Flop a set with 22 and get 99 three more times. Unreal.

Rules Question:

3 handed see a smallish pre-flop raised flop

Loose guy bets out about $6 which is about the pot. Loose guy # 2 raises to $15 while directly after, but clearly after the re-raise is announced, player 3 says "I will call you Terry" referring to the original raiser. The re-raiser had his cards hidden under his hands. Player 3 said he did not know he was in the hand. Player 3 , made obvious by his demeanor, would not have called the re-raise.

What is the rule here? I know it is a friendly home game, put #3 is a solid player and said he would leave his call of the original raiser in the pot. Is this correct, or is his verbal announcement of "call" obligate him for all of the re-raise? Or should he get it all back since he could not see #2's cards and thought he was not in the hand. Therefore not paying any attention to him to see his action. #2's verbal raise was very quiet.

Re-raiser won the hand after the raiser called and gave #3 back his money.

RCJH

MT

Small Victory

I have not been chronicling it here, but I have been on a dry spell. It is a combination of bad cards and poor play. Mostly poor play. Now don't get me wrong. I have seen set over set with me on the losing end twice in the last two weeks. I have not seen that in months. I flop a full house with QQ only to lose to turned bigger full house. The cards and my bad play conspired to drag me deeper into the abyss. The bad stuff happened and my game went to pot.

Tournament poker is my preference. I play cash games live mostly, but tend to stick to MTT and Sit n' gos on line. My game had deteriorated to the point I was just calling and catching. Not betting and taking. I'm a top damn it. Last night I decided I had enough. If I was going to lose, I would lose swinging away.

I have a standing appointment Thursdays to play online with my cousin from Hotlanta. I railed him as he busted out of the 28k and the token race. We decided to play a $3 ko sit n go. Now earlier in the day I was playing one of these and final tabled. I made a read on a player and check raised him with air and got him to fold. Nothing spectacular. I was almost sure he was c betting with missed AK. The key: I made the read. I had not been doing that recently. I had been reading blogs, watching TV, or talking to the wife. I final tabled without getting a pocket pair above TT, seeing AK twice, and AQ once in over two hours. TT was one of only 5 pocket pairs I saw. I did it by focusing on the game and playing the players. I had been playing weak poker and played only my cards. I had the guy who won in all in pf with 77 vs A5s he hit his 3 outer and went on a tear. Love this game.

Now with my cousin playing, it is easy to focus. We rail each other and root each other on. And in this sit n go, I got some cards. I hit my draws. I got out to the lead about half way through and didn't fall below 5th the whole way. Man, I forgot how fun this game is when playing with a huge stack. Raises are not respected, they are feared. I picked up so much free money. I entered the final table 3rd in chips and was in first with 4 left. I had a huge chip advantage thanks to getting QQ and AA consecutively when 5 handed. The QQ hand busted out the shortest stack and the AA left the 2nd place guy with less than one bb. AA vs AK 4 handed = cooler.

Then I started just leaning on the other two and got heads up like 210k to 60k. I wish the story ended better, but I got sucked out on the first all in, lost a kicker battle on the second and couldn't finish it out. Disappointing.

No major suck outs. Only one that was not really a suck out. I had A2o in sb as chip leader. Complete and flop is checked around. Turn gives me the wheel. I bet out and get called.
Flop is a 7 making a higher straight possible. I check, thinking I am ahead (Q was on board, put him on that) and he goes all in. He pushes and I call. He had 22 and was bluffing. I guess it was a suck out, but he never bet it. I hit 4 nut flushes, when priced in, and got paid nicely for them.

No wait, I did suck out on KK. My 99 flopped top set. All the money was in pre-flop. I had 3 to 1 chip advantage over him.

The combination of me concentrating on the game and finally getting some cards made for a good night. I was on the winning side of all in with pp almost every time. QQ > JJ. AA > KK. Was nice to be on the other side.

Hand Question:

In the 28k, 4 level
Villain and cousin both have about doubled up. Plenty of chips


My cousin picked up TT in the BB.

It is folded around to the button who puts in the standard 3.5 x the bb raise. Cousin calls and flop comes K82 rainbow. Cousin checks and the button bets about 2/3 pot. Cousin folds. I told him he should have re-raised there. He told me to let him play his game. He said that guy was conservative. Funny thing is that guy open shoved next hand and limped the following two.

Anyway, is this or is this not a good time to check raise? I got to think TT is ahead of this guys range. And in a $3 ko donkey fest, people tend to check flopped top pair heads up with position. I didn't tell him this, but I thought he should have re-raised pre flop. He had enough chips that the re-raise would not have crippled him.

RCJH

MT

RNG

While playing NL on Full Tilt the other day, I was dealt these hands in sequence.

TT AQ QQ AQ TT


Open raised all 5 and only lost a small pot with the second AQ

Stacked a guy with the last TT.

Pretty sure he thought I was just playing a rush or turned on the aggro switch. He defended his big blind. Flop comes KTx all spades. He bets I re-raise. He just calls. Turn is a non spade low card. He bet smallish. I put him all in . He insta calls with KTos. No K and I win.

Thanks for the pot FT rng.

RCJH

MT

Question

Which situation would you rather get your stack all in with?

Micro nl $4 buy in on Full Tilt .05/.10 blinds

Hero has about $6.

#1

Hero in sb with QQ

Utg +1 raises the pot

Folds around to you and you just call. (this is what I did. Should have re -raised)

Flop comes K93 rainbow.

Villain c bets 3/4 the pot.

What do you do?


#2

Same stakes and stacks.

Mp calls folds to Hero in bb with J2os

Flop comes 89J rainbow.

Villain bets 2x bb

Hero calls

Turn is 2

Hero bets out about the pot.

Villain re-raises you all in.

What do you do?

Which one of these do you go to war with?

Both? None?

RCJH

MT

I remember wihen misery thrilled me much more

I like to think back with great fondness to the fall of 2003. I had been infected and was full of fantasy about being a money maker at poker. I played live first at the KC casinos. Still remember the first two hands I played. Sat down and posted my blind utg+1 in a 3/6 limit game. Smallest game they have. How stupid is that? Look down at Q5os. Raise and re-raise later I flat call. I flop a boat QQ5. I check and call down to the river as the other guy hits his A high flush. I never raise. Never bet out. He was shocked that I had that hand. Next hand is A4os. I call two raises in the BB again. Flop the wheel. Win again. I was hooked like the donkey fish that I was and that I still battle today.

Fast forward couple months and I get some money on Party Poker. I play 3/6 at the casino , why not virtually as well. Ran $100 up to $1200 in a day. Didn't realize that online game is so much bigger. Played like a donkey. I didn't know the absolute turd A6os was utg, suited or not. I loved aces. Played em all the time every one. Chased everything. Flushes, gutter balls, you name it. Couldn't lay down AK. Couldn't lay down any flopped top pair. And I lost that and much more in a week. I was an ATM.

That's okay though. I loved getting my cards and getting an ace. If I flopped a pair of aces, it was like having sex. It was Christmas morning, Halloween and my birthday all wrapped up in one. And I played them fearlessly. Bet and bet and call and call.

Now a starting hand with an ace scares me. Anything less that AK makes my stomach turn. AQ absolutely blows. AT suited makes me weep. Its like a puffer fish. Such a pretty hand. So damn deadly.

I guess my point is this; early on I was optimistic, now I just wait for the rng on Full Tilt to corn hole me. I gotta get the mojo back. I gotta believe my card is coming. Believe, while being patient, aggressive and courageous, that I will be rewarded for my play.

Just another leak to fix.

RCJH

MT

Blog Roll

I have added Poker Grump to my blog roll. It is a good read and updated often. And, it fulfills his long time wish and really, every bloggers wish, to be on my blog roll. Congrats poker grump, you made it. Que Barry Manilow. Call the family. Smoke a cigar. Throw a party. Bang a hooker. Bang a hooker at a party, smoking a cigar, while talking to great grandma. Multi tasking, leaves more time for poker.

RCJH

MT