Funny thing about poker. You don’t need much skill when you get good cards. I didn’t play as well as I did the last two weeks and yet I finished in the money. I had three monster hands and sucked out loads of money on each one.
Monster Hand 1: With J-8, the flop is 5-9-10. The turn is a 7, I have the nuts straight. The river is a 6. Two other players also had 8s and assumed it was a 3-way chop. Not so, my Jack high straight trumped their 10-high straight. I was already at 2.5x the average stack.
Monster Hand 2: A-9, the board is A-A-6. I check, then call the moderate bet. The turn is nothing. I check again, he puts in a lot, I put him all in and win easily.
Monster Hand 3: A-A, another A comes on the flop. When I go all in on the river he won’t call, but I already have most of his chips.
Between these three hands, I was sitting pretty. I spent most of the last two hours folding and patiently waiting for other players to be eliminated. That was a good strategy. I cruised to the top three. In our game, the top three finish in the money (50%-30%-20%). I was slightly short-stacked. I went all in prelop with A-J. I was called with K-J. A king came up so I was knocked out in third place. It was a bad beat to go out with, but I can’t complain about the cards. And now to watch the TiVo’d Celtics game.
Tonight: $32
Total: -$14
Your points are well taken.
I must admit, I’m feeling the heat of putting my finances on record. I really want to get that total on the positive side, it’s affecting my play.
This was an unusual game for us. Our blinds take a big jump from 100-200 to 250-500. Since we start with 2500, there are plenty of small stacks that get knocked out. Usually by the end of that round, we are down to two or three players. This is my favorite time to bluff. Players get psychologically nervous at the “big money” jump and can’t bring themselves to defend blinds. I usually make a lot of money and cement my position in this round. I was expecting to come out of that with a guaranteed third place and a large stack. But this time, we still had many people playing. Even at 500-1000 we still had six players which has never happened.
Also, it was a bad beat that knocked me out. If that king doesn’t come up, I am probably the winner. I did play to get at least third, but it wasn’t as if I threw in the towel at that point to make sure I had only third.
In other words, I still think playing conservative was the right move in this case.
sorry muttrox. you know i have high respect for you of games combining strategy and math. however, you lost some of my respect by be willing to play conservative for 2 hours to win $30. the problem is your distribution of 50/30/20 creates a dynnamic where people will grind for hours to finish in the money. in my game it’s 80/20. thus, it’s more aggressive game (doesn’t drag out) and we get 2 games in sometimes.