My Evening with the Donkeys
Thursday, August 30, 2007
I had a weird night last night. Wifey Kim had taken the day off from work and wasn't feeling so hot. After my own long day at the office, I wanted to do nothing but relax. The night started off normal enough. I had received Heroes Season 1 DVD Disc 1 from Netflix on Wednesday with the hope of getting wifey Kim as much into the Heroes series as I was. It was hard going and I finally had to tell her to sit her ass down and watch some fine TV. Watching the first episode again was just wild. The foreshadowing is everywhere, and I got back into the wonder of it all. Wifey Kim seemed to like it too, which is good, because after re-enjoying the first episode, I resolved to "force" her to watch the whole series, whether she liked it or not.
After the first episode, we switched to one of wifey Kim's shows, during which she promptly dozed off. I turned on the computer and went to ChessHere.com, where (you or) I can play chess for free online. I highly recommend that you go sign up and then challenge HighOnPoker to a match. I suck, horribly, but I'm getting better and I love the game, even when I'm losing. For those of you unfamiliar with the site, you can either play real time chess or a slower version, where you make a move, then I have up to 3 days to sign on and move. If you play against me, I move a lot quicker than 3 days, but you can take all the time you want. I generally have 5+ games going at once.
After I whooped some kid in real time chess, I felt like a little poker. Amazingly, poker came SECOND. I've been a bit lax about my favorite passtime, mostly because online just feels like a videogame, and I've been enjoying chess and the Wii instead. But whatever the case, I felt it was time to play some pokah, so I signed on at Poker.com and looked at their SNG selection.
Poker.com is a smaller site. I got money there via a mutual transfer for FullTilt dough with Haley. In general, I highly recommend helping your fellow blogger(s) out when it comes to these transfers. Sometimes the online poker world feels like a wild jungle, with all of difficulty depositing, etc., so its nice to have allies against all the confusion and annoyance that came out of the UIGEA.
Also, I love Poker.com. First off, you have to assume they have the worst players, since I assume a large number of players are nimrods who want to play "that poker game everyone is talking about on the ESPN" and therefore typed in Poker.com in their Internet Explorer. If the potential for real donkeys isn't enough, Poker.com also has some great show functions, where you can show one card, both cards, or even rabbit hunt. While I leave Auto-Muck on, its nice for those donkeys who want to show you what they had. I've seen more voluntarily shown hands at Poker.com than any other site.
Unfortunately, Poker.com also lacks players. After checking out the SNGs, I decided that it would take too long to wait for one to fill up. So, I decided to check out the PLO tables. I sat down at one of the few $25 max games, but before I could be dealt it, I decided to move to another table. Online, I'm prone to avoid NLHE cash games, mostly because I like variety. However, playing at Poker.com instead of FullTilt was variety enough, and what I wanted for this particular game was profiability. Going along with my theory of nimrods playing at Poker.com merely because of the domain name, the real nimrod player is likely to be playing in a NLHE game, not Omaha. In fact, the Omaha players are probably much better than the average NLHE player at Poker.com, since I assume most Omaha players are either looking for something different because they have played a lot of NLHE (i..e, experienced in poker, generally), or are seeking out Omaha because they specialize in Omaha. In contrast, I'm hoping the NLHE players are just your average action junkie or TV-taught player. In larger rooms like FullTilt, this theory might not hold up as much, since there are probably a lot more specialized, experienced NLHE players, but for Poker.com, I liked the logic, and I wanted to test out my theory.
I wasn't disappointed. I played extremely well, for the most part, and left the 6-max NLHE table after doubling my $50 buy-in (.25/.50 NLHE). I tried to save some hand histories to discuss, but upon review, Poker.com actually is a lot harder to copy-paste hand histories, and only one hand survived. Still, its a great illustration of why Poker.com's show function is great.
I'm in the BB when I'm dealt the 38 Special, 38o. DrN calls in MP and the SB, Kiney, calls, and I check with my crappy cards. The flop is 245, giving me an open ended straight draw. Kiney bets out $1 into the $1.50 pot, and I opt to call, hoping to hit my hand and then get paid off by Kiney's TP or something similar. DrN calls too. The turn is a 7. Kiney bet $1.50 into the $3 pot, and at this point, I decide that its time to make a move. The flop is crap, and I'm hoping that Kiney, who in general has not impressed me with his play, will be scared of a raise. So, I bump it to $4.50. Its not a huge raise ($3, or 3x the initial bet), but my goal is to bluff him out cheap while looking like I am trying to get value for my hand. Kiney calls. The river is a Ten. Kiney checks and I bet out $10.25, which at this point is less thn the $12+ pot. He folds...and shows 37o. For a split second, I'm tempted to show my bluff, but that's what Auto-Muck is for. By him showing, I am getting a TON of information, including the fact that he is betting out on an OESD, will call reraises with marginal holdings, but will ultimately fold to repeat and/or strong bets. He's the perfect guy to milk-bluff, and by that, I mean bet small with crap cards hoping to get called, just so I can bet big next and watch him fold.
Mind you, I don't believe that you should NEVER fold. In some cases, I think it is a good strategy to control your table image. But in this case, what was he trying to do? By folding and showing, he is just giving me a roadmap on how to beat him. The only time I would do this is if I'm laying down a big pocket pair and I want to (a) put the table on alert that I can make big laydowns while staying conscious of the fact that they will TRY to get me to lay down hands more, and (b) induce the other guy to show his superior hand.
So, Poker.com was a freaking pleasure last night, as I was in control of the table the entire time with little effort. In fact, I had tagged three of the players as easy competition, either calling stations or as loose aggressive donkeys. It got to the point where I wanted to turn off the game, but I couldn't because it was just too easy. Eventually, some of the players left and I made my exit. All in all, though, it was great to get back into some online poker after a week or so hiatus, and I have a feeling that I'll be enjoying Poker.com a lot more in the near future.
This weekend looks poker bleak. My older brother is getting married on Sunday night, and in the meanwhile, I'll be hanging with my family who are in from out of town. To make matters worse, Nice Look and EBB Clubs were recently raided (according to rumor) and Salami has closed their doors as a precaution. Ridiculous. At least I still have the Wall Street Game.
Until next time, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 11:01 PM,
7 Comments:
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At 2:22 PM,
said...
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Salami is open and full o action.
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At 4:34 PM,
Jordan said...
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The exodus to Salami has me worried that it will become the next police target. Let's hope not.
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At 7:00 PM,
CarmenSinCity said...
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Okay, now I'm going to have to add Heroes to the list of TV shows I need to watch and order from netflix. Too much T.V. - too little time.
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At 4:15 AM,
Valeyard said...
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Interesting theory about donkeys finding the domain name. I wonder if there are ways of taking advantage of it outside of poker?
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At 8:07 AM,
Wlokos said...
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www.cupofchess.com is the best chess site, IMO. It has a very nice interface and it's got correspondance chess too, minus the three day limit.
I'll play you sometime on there if you ever make an account - mine's Wlokos. -
At 11:35 AM,
MattyEbs said...
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I've been hearing about the club bust too...finding other means of playing...mostly in queens also thinking I may do a foxwoods or ac trip in the future any interest?
Felt like I haven't played with you in a long time...chopped the lawyer's tourny for 500 thursday night...get back to me -
At 11:49 AM,
said...
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"typed in Poker.com in their Internet Explorer"
Yeah, smart people use Firefox, so that sounds right.
