High On Poker

Hey folks. I’m a bit late to pimp it, but it looks like LJ has started a new weekly tournament(s). She did a good job of offering some variety.

The first tourney runs every Thursday Tuesday (thanks Dawn!) at 9pm, and is a deepstack $11 tournament.  Last night, I played and was moving along decently when I made a play that cost me my entire stack. The table was a mix of familiar bloggers and people I don’t know from the CardRunners forum, where LJ works. There was some friendly chat at the table, which for my money is a great thing. If you want online poker to feel like live poker, chatting is key, since you can actually get a feel from a person beyond their screenname, chosen avatar and questionable info like delays in betting (which could be due to a tough decision or multitabling distractions). That said, it only works if it is a chatty group; otherwise, you are the only one giving off info. But I digress.

I found myself playing a bit looser in the Spewday tournament than I otherwise would. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that I had already “warmed up” by playing (and losing) a $11 Rush 135-person SNG. Incidentally, I have yet to really figure out how to adjust to these Rush structures. I was also simultaneously in a $26 Turbo Frenzy (which I won). So, by the time the blogger tourney kicked off, I was ready for some action.

I got the sense that the table was being more aggressive than a usual blogger tournament, which was either complete BS or due to the fact that CR people are perhaps more aggressive in general than your average blogger. Whatever the case, I called down light on a couple of players and was able to win some pots, but it all came crashing down on one silly hand.

I was in MP/LP with KTc when I limped in, with one limper ahead of me.  It folded around to one of the blinds (giving me position), when the blind raised. I think the blinds were 80/160 or 60/120. The raise was something like 600 total or so. It folded back to me, and HU with an above-average aggressive table, I figured I’d call the raise and see what happens.

The flop was AJ8 with a club. The preflop raiser bet out and I floated, thinking that if he didn’t have an Ace, he’d slow down on the turn. The turn was a 7 of clubs. I almost wished it wasn’t that card. With it, I had pretty much no hand, but a great draw. Any club gave me the second-nut flush. Any Queen gave me the nut Broadway straight. Any 9 gave me the Jack-high straight. Hell, if he didn’t have an Ace, I’d also have an overcard (King). Because of this, when my opponent pushed all-in for slightly more than I had (around 1,600, so still a decent amount of chips), I figured I had to call. I had essentially floated my way into the deep end of the pool and here I was without a paddle (mix metaphor powers ACTIVATE!).

I busted and closed the window. I had a feeling anyone watching would’ve missed my outs, making my play look very donkolicious. That kinda sucked because bloggers are my peers, but what can you do. Besides, I admit that I put myself in that position by calling with the KTc preflop and postflop.

On a related note, I’ve been reading up a lot online re: poker and in the last year, the focus has changed significantly. It seems like aggression is the name of the game and small ball is old news. Is anyone else seeing the same thing? It’s nothing amazing; things change. But it is remarkable that now approximately 6 years+ into seriously thinking about poker, the game continues to develop. It’s like watching waves in the ocean and changing tides. I can’t help but think that there is probably a push-pull going on. People play like nits, so aggression becomes the name of the game. Then people play too aggressive, so playing tight is the way to play. Then players are playing nitty again, so, blah blah blah.

Prior to busting out of the Spewday deepstack tournament, I spewed my way out of the 9:15 Super Turbo $6 Spewday tournament. Kudos to LJ for adding this game. It allows participation in a blogger event without the huge time-suck that most blogger tournaments become. How’d I spew? I pushed all-in in MP with QTc in an awfukkit maneuver fairly early. I was in no rush; I simply made a play, probably unnecessarily, and ran into JJ.

Oh, and the password for both LJ tourneys is spewday.

Live poker in AC on Saturday with bro-in-law Marc and golf on Sunday with Roose and Hole. I’m a lucky guy.

Until next time, make mine poker!