Poker Interrupted
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
An interesting thing happened to me yesterday. I played a 6-person, $10 SNG and placed 2nd for $18, or a $7 profit, after the buy-in and $1 fee.
What made it interesting was that I was playing a table with a bunch of wild men. I wonder if it was the 6-person turbo structure that enticed these all-in fools. Whatever it was, I was more than happy. I took screen shots of a couple of hand to write up later, and I may just do that, but for now, I'll just give you the rough sketch.
In about the third or fourth hand, I was in the BB with J9o. I call. The SB is in it, as well as a mid-position player. The flop was 9 high with a flush draw. I bet and MP called. The turn was an overcard Q. I bet, and he called. The river was a low card that completed the flush if he had the draw. I bet low, trying to look like a value bet. He raised back at me a relatively small amount. I decided to stick to my flush bluff and pushed. He called. I don't know what he had, but I won the hand. I can only imagine that he had AKo and thought I was making a move. Maybe he had mid-pair on the flop. Whatever the case, I was stupid and he was stupider.
But that's not all. I had AKo a while later in the BB and raised pre-flop. A LP called. The flop was K high with no flush or straight draw. I bet the pot and he called. The turn was a blank, but created a flush draw. I bet the pot and he called. The river completed the runner runner flush draw. At this point, most of our chips were in the pot. We both started with upward of 2000. Now I pushed with my remaining 500 or so. He called, and I won. Again, he had no reason to call me there. I wasn't playing like a maniac. I generally was folding all the while. It was like these players couldn't believe I actually had a hand.
Ironically, in both of the aforementioned hands, I thought I was behind as soon as they made the call.
When it got to heads up, I have to admit, I let distractions ruin me. Also, I just played poorly. My opponent was constantly raising all-in over any of my bets. This alone wouldn't be a problem, but I just couldn't get that concept in my head, so I kept making large semi-bluffs, only to be faced with a raise all-in. In this way, I gave up my lead. My final hand came at a time of utmost distraction. Wifey Kim is an early sleeper, and deservedly so since she usually wakes up earlier than me for work. Last night, after my FINAL (thank god) NJ continuing legal education class (if it wasn't for AC, there would be nothing worthwhile in the Garden State), I came home and hopped in bed with wifey Kim to watch a tape of last weeks Survivor. When the show was over, she was already sleeping. It was only 11pm, so I quietly left the bedroom and signed on to Titan, hoping to get a start on my new Goals. That is when I played the aforementioned 6-person SNG. So, I'm heads up, and suddenly Veneno invites me to a chatroom. Everyone is there, including GCox, TripJax, and SirF. I barely paid attention to them, as I was finishing my heads up. I'm shouting and hollering at the all-in raises, when I hear a voice in the room. Not a voice on the headphones (I was voice chatting with Veneno), but in the actual room. I look up and wifey Kim is there, sleepy-eyed and confused as to what I was yelling about. I felt so guilty, waking up my sleeping beauty because of this poker nonsense. "Are you okay, honey?" I asked. I looked down to see QTo. "Yeah," she slowly turned and started back toward bed. I quickly clicked all-in with QTo. It's time to get this over with one way or another. He showed ATo (a common matchup lately) and I lose. I said goodbye to everyone hurriedly online and joined my girl in bed.
So, wifey Kim and the chat were a bit of a distraction. I'm not blaming either, because even though I was heads-up at the time, my priorities in my head were thinking, wifey Kim, chatting with bloggers, win this thing. I mean, realistically, if wifey Kim didn't come out of the bedroom, I would've focused on the SNG until completion. But when I lost and started for bed, I wasn't thinking of my loss, but rather the fact that everyone was online chatting and I had to go. At least I was going to bed with my #1 priority.
Lessons learned from the 1st day of the Goal hunting: (1) Wifey Kim comes first, (2) 6-Person SNGs may attract maniacs, (3) Don't bluff a loose player who keeps pushing all-in , (4) voice chat is the shit!
Ok, one last thing. Get off of your asses fellow bloggers, and go to RadioShack or Staples or something and get a computer-compatible headset with speakers. Voice chat allows you to play your SNG or ring game without constantly switching to the chat window. So, goddamnit, do it!
The only good fish is an all-in fish.
posted by Jordan @ 11:21 PM,
4 Comments:
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At 1:00 PM,
Dave said...
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I've used voice chat before for playing massively multiplayer online roleplaying games like EQ and WoW. It's great fun not having to type your chat to your buddies. We had a voice server that everyone used and it worked quite well. I guess if you're big into chat while playing it would come in handy for railbirding other guy's sessions.
I agree about limiting your distractions. I play online poker from my basement and can't disturb my wife and kids upstairs that way. I'm sure my wife has heard several loud "DAMMIT's" coming up from the basement at night before.
Luckily, she tolerates it. Gotta love a wife who can tolerate your hobbies. -
At 5:20 PM,
GaryC said...
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Okay, here's the plan for the next time you wake wifey up. Tell her the only reason you were talking so loud is that the other bloggers were complaining that they could hear her snoring in the background and you were trying to save her reputation.
That one ALWAYS works for me.
G -
At 5:37 PM,
Joaquin "The Rooster" Ochoa said...
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Yes...good man...turn off the computer and join the wife for some cuddles...all the other bloggers who tell you diff. have their Super System book to sleep with. We wake up from a bad nightmare about runner-runner in a cold sweat and no one is there to comfort us....you...well you got the Nutz when it comes to that situation...a real body...well my blow-up doll comes close..I put a heating pad on her to make her feel warm
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At 6:22 PM,
Jordan said...
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Hey Joaq, just don't leave your air-filled friend with Mr. Heating Pad too long. I did it once, and she got so hot she blew all over the place.
