First stop, the points qualifier for Bodog’s Sunday Guarantee. This was a joke. I remember it being stressful the only other time I attempted it roughly a year ago. I tried really hard. This time I hardly paid attention. A $109 token never came so easily.
Next stop, Spirit Mountain Casino. I headed out Saturday evening with $80 to spend on some $1-$2 Limit Hold’em. Somehow my previous winnings managed to disappear into DVDs, video games, and food. I get there and just like the qualifier it’s too easy. I’m up $100 within thirty minutes. Everyone is joking around and having a good time at the table. I’m wondering how many Benjamins will be keeping me company on the hour ride home. Then a few players leave and a few tighter players take their place. I fail to adjust. I raise a few hands pre-flop and miss. I get caught on a couple bluffs. I have to showdown the third best hand. Table image shot. Did I say Benjamin’s? I’m wondering if even Washington or Lincoln will be making that hour ride back with me as I find myself down to my last twenty. There are two hands of note during this down streak: my two failed bluffs.
Bluff #1) I have A-2 suited in late position. The pot is not raised pre- flop. The flop is Q-9-X. It missed me. One of the newer solid players bets out. He’s weak. I raise. Everyone folds. The turn is another X. He checks and I bet. He calls again. The river is a J. He checks and is ready to muck. I know I can’t win in a showdown so I bet again. He starts moving his hand in a mucking motion then freezes. A big uh-oh alarm sounds in my head. He thinks about the hand for a few seconds. Then he calls and shows pocket tens. I muck and say nice call. Now my immediate reaction was “Damn No-Foldem Games! Why did I even bother trying to attack weakness?”
Of course that is the incorrect analysis and it was my fault that he called. First, it was the incorrect analysis because he had previously demonstrated that he could lay a hand down and because he had shown himself to be a somewhat competent player. Nothing to write home about but not one to just give money away either. So I must have done something wrong. Let’s review the hand. I didn’t raise pre-flop. That didn’t mean anything as I had been playing loose-passive pre-flop mostly because I was playing suited connectors hoping to hit big hands in large multi-way pots. I raised his bet on the flop. I had not raised anyone on the flop yet. I typically wait until the bet is larger to start bringing down the hammer. However, I don’t think this is what tipped him off. It wasn’t in his body language. He thought he was a dead duck but couldn’t lay the hand down to only one over card without seeing if he hit a set. I bet the turn. Again, there’s no problem here. He was ready to much his hand when he saw the river card. He didn’t know he was being bluffed.
I bet the river. Aha! When has he seen me bet the river? I’d bet the river with the straight twice and I had bet the river with two full houses. However, I had also checked the river with top pair or two pair on five or six occasions. Either a) someone hit their No Fold’em Draw and raise me. I’m out 8 bucks or b) they all missed their respective hands and now fold. There’s not much of a point. So this player looks at the board. I can’t have a full house. I can’t have a flush. If I had a straight I would have made it on the river and would not have been playing the hand the way I did. That narrows out the monsters. Recent history had shown that if I had a set or two pair or even top pair of queens I would probably wait until the turn to raise when it is more profitable. Also, it would be unlikely I’d bet two pair or one pair on the river when the only way he would normally call is if he hit the straight. So what does that leave him to conclude my hand is? A bluff. Now I don’t think he knew I was bluffing him but I think he knew something was amiss and that it was a possibility. I have no one to blame for myself for playing so conservatively on the river.
Bluff #2) I have A-Q and raise it up pre-flop. The flop is 3 low cards and a solid player bets into me. I raise. You mother-fer. You called me with rags. You’re body language says you don’t have top pair. Let’s see how good you are. I raise and she calls. The turn is a K. I bet and again she calls. The river is my ace. She moves her hand slightly towards her chips and then decides to check. What’s going on here? I check too. She turns over A-3. Two pair. She called me the whole way with bottom pair of threes.
How could she call here? Well for starters my table image says I will only be raising pre-flop with a big pocket pair, ace-king, or ace-queen. So either I have the pair or the flop missed me. I raised her after the flop. She just saw me raise someone with a bluff on the flop and I hadn’t raised anyone else previously on the flop. Once again, my fault. I do give her credit for having more then an inkling that I was bluffing. She never acted like she was going to fold. I knew she was weak but she had enough balls to see things through. In fact, she played it so well that I wonder if she saw cards pre-flop. It’s possible. She was sitting right next to me.
Note I did all this analysis later in the night and at the time was still blaming things on No-Foldem. When it was all said and done, I was down to my last twenty. I hit a full house and felted a short stack. I’m up to $35. It’s about 10 o’clock now and the casino is starting it’s Saturday night tournament. My table breaks up as most players head to that. They move me to a new table. With my short chip stack, I have no room for error so I go into super-tight-grinder mode. I have nothing playable for the first hour or two and I get blinded down to $23. During this time, I’m pretty down. I can’t really afford to lose this money until I get my money from Neteller, Bodog, and Tony G.
So I analyze my play to see where I was playing so poorly. I made the correct reads on the bluffs but they didn’t work out. I lost a few hands where I really had no other option like a tiny pot where I had top pair of aces with jack kicker and someone else had aces with queen kicker. And yet, I could only account for about $50 of my losses. I had more than $160 in front of me at one point and I added an extra $20 to my stack when I first got low. Of that $180, I had $20 in front of me at my low and had lost $160 yet I could only account for about $50 of it. How is that possible? I was playing way too loose of course and was probably spending $20 a round doing so.
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