ReJewvinated
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Shalom, good readers. It looks like this will be a good Jewish New Year for HighOnPoker. I guess all the time at temple reading from the talmud has finally paid off.*
The first point of order is the introduction of my brand new website, over four years in the making...HIGHONPOKER.COM! That's right, folks. It looks like the S.O.B. who came up with the HoP name before me finally kicked the bucket. I spit on his grave.
So look for my brand new site, HighOnPoker.com...All the same content, just more .com!
The second point of order is my $1,000 profit from Tuna Club. Big ups to G-d on that one.
It was the weekly $150 Sunday afternoon, long-form tourney. Wifey Kim was hanging with some of her girlfriends, so I decided to stop on by. The game started with a full 2 tables, and there were 22 buy-ins total. It's $160, because of a $10 dealer toke that gets you and extra $1k. If you show up on time by 3pm, you also get a bonus $1k.
I was fairly tight to start off, and finally loosened up when the blinds started to matter and I realized I was at a fairly passive table. By then, I was chipped down, so I decided to start playing more hands for cheap. I really opened up my game, and won a couple of pots with c-bets after raising preflop with less than optimal holdings. Once I got my confidence up, I made a strategic bluff. I held 34s on the button and limped in after the big black guy on my right limped. The SB was a dead stack, and the BB checked.
The flop was Qs8s3x. The BB checked, the guy on my right bet 800 (blinds were 200/400, so the pot was about 1400). I flat called. The BB folded. We saw the turn, an offsuit Jack. He checked. I figured a bet here makes the most sense. I put out 1200 fairly quickly. I was hoping to send out a QJ vibe. By then, I was limping a lot, so a QJ starting hand would make sense.
He took a long time and then finally folded. I showed my bluff and shrugged. He claims he had Q9. I can believe it. I just felt that the time was right for a move, and the story made sense, so I played the role of QJ, and he bought it, hook, line and sinker. He even discussed the hand aloud, finally settling on QJ. I showed the bluff for a variety of reasons, but first and foremost, I wanted to control the flow of information at the table, and showing the bluff helped me do that. It now meant that the table knew I was willing to play tricky and take stabs at pots with crap cards. Perfect.
Once I had some breathing room, I logically tightened up. Then I stumbled upon a hand that really started the ball rolling for me. I held J3o and I was in the BB. A gruff looking white guy two seats to my right (in the 10s, so we were physically far apart) limps in from the button. The black guy on my right in the SB called. I checked with my crap cards.
The flop was a bunch of uncoordinated cards. It checked around. On the turn, I hit my 3. That's right. My lowly 3. I decided to bet out, 500, an obviously small bet, but our stacks were dwindling and I figured that if my 3 was good, all I would need to bet is 500. The button called and the SB folded. We saw the river, another 3. I bet 1,000. My opponent pushed all-in for about 3000 more.
I took my time with my decision. I had maybe an extra 900-1200 more than my opponent, so I would be really short if I called and lost. I had a feeling that I just played into a trap, but that wasn't the end of the story. I ran through the logic.
I was fairly certain he didn't have a better 3, or else he would not have limped preflop. This is player-specific as well as just general common sense. He was not playing a lot of pots, so he wasn't likely playing A3s.
A set. That's what I kept coming back to. I doubt he had top set because the high card on the flop was a Q and if he had QQ, he would've raised preflop. But perhaps he had a lower pocket pair and hit one of the other flop cards. I ran through the hand and it made sense. If he flopped a set, a check on the flop and a call on the harmless turn both made sense. Since he would have boated up on the river, he was free to push all-in over my 1,000 bet.
I leaned forward in my seat to see past the dealer. "The only question is if you flopped a set, isn't it?" I said this with sincerity and confidence. That was truly my only question, but by communicating this, I was also making a threat...I could beat anything but a flopped set. In actuality, I was baiting my opponent to give me information. I can't tell you with specificity what I saw, but I can tell you the general impression. He did not look comfortable. Maybe it was the crossed arms or the way he leaned over and tried to keep tight lipped. It could have been how he initially made eye contact and then couldn't. It was probably all of those things.
"I call."
He reluctantly tabled KK. I laid out my J3o. The table was audibly surprised. On the Qxx33 board, I took the pot and busted the player, practically doubling up in the process. But more importantly, my table was on notice. I was tuned in, and momentum and appearing lucky (by catching my 3s) are great friends to have in a poker battle.
I continued to stay among the high-middle of the pack for a while. I made another bluff and showed, mostly to remind the table (after I had been playing tight for a while) that I could have nothing. Eventually, though, my tight ways (between my 2 successful bluffs and the J3o incident) caught up to me and I was getting blinded out. We were already down to the final table with maybe 8 players left. Finally, my loose image paid off.
The rest of the tournament can be summed up in two hands. I got KK twice, once when we were down to about 8 players, and again when we were down to 5. In both instances, I raised preflop and got players to push all-in over me, the first time with AQ and the second time with 88.
At 6 players, there was talk of a "save" for 4th through 6th. Dre, one of the dealer/players, refused, since he and I were in 1st/2nd place (pretty close in chips, so I'm not sure who had the lead). This stuff drives me nuts. Why would I, with the most chips by a nice margin, agree to take money out of 1st through 3rd, i.e., the spots I'm most likely to finish in, and give them away to the shorties in 4th-6th as a "save". Fuck "saves." I want my money!
So, while all this chatter was going on about saves, I initially kept my mouth shut, mostly because Dre was objecting, rendering my opinoin moot. Then Harris, one of the players with short stacks, said, "It's 5-1." I had to step in. "Hold on a second. I don't agree either." I finally relented with this idea: "I won't do a save, but if we want to do a chip chop or some other final chop, I'm cool with it." Basically, it's one thing to say that 4th-6th get some of my money for free, but it's another thing to say that I'll pay off 4th through 6th to guarantee me cash that is at or near the top spot. Dre still refused and we played some more.
A litte while later, I took out Harrison with my KK vs his 88. Then another player fell. Down to 4, there were requests again, but I made myself clear. "No saves. Final deal or nothing." We kept playing for a little bit longer, as I accumulated chips. I counted my stack, about 32k. There were probably 87k out there, give or take. I made an announcement. "I'll walk for $1000 profit, $1160 total." The top spot was $1520 or so. Second was $800 and change. I wanted that $1k profit, so I put it out there. 2nd place gave his "price" to quit. That left Dre, who had fallen into 3rd, and one other guy in 4th. The guy in 4th and Dre chatted it up, and we had a deal.
What a weekend! HighOnPoker.COM has joined the HoP family and I'm $1000 richer. Shalom, beeches!
Until next time, make mine poker!
*Jordan is actually a bad Jew and barely understands this sentence.
posted by Jordan @ 8:06 PM,
6 Comments:
-
At 4:52 PM,
BWoP said...
-
Nice cash Jordan!
-
At 8:41 PM,
kipper said...
-
Jordan,
Let me know if you need a place to host that domain I'll help an old friend out!!
Kipper -
At 2:59 PM,
Pauly said...
-
Happy new year. Congrats on the domain.
-
At 10:31 PM,
Lucypher said...
-
Congrats! Well done.
-
At 2:04 AM,
Unknown said...
-
Congrats to your new home and your amazing cash.
You were right on the 6 outs. It was early in the morning. I was seeing cards in my sleep.
Lachaim! -
At 10:16 PM,
Jordan said...
-
Hey Kip. Hit me up with an email. I don't have your current address.
