Archive for December, 2008

While visiting family in Maryland, I came across an article in the Baltimore Sun that I find funny on multiple levels. The article, entitled “New Meters Paying Off”, is about how a switch to centralized parking meters that enable customers to pay with credit cards has generated a big increase in the city’s parking fee revenues.

In the first place, it’s comically sad that this passes for front page news, albeit below the fold.

What really got me laughing, though, was this awesome quote from a Baltimore balla:

John Furst, who was parking at Broadway Market in Fells Point recently, said he quickly realized that he could buy time on a meter on Eastern Avenue- where the city charges 50 cents an hour- and use that receipt a few blocks over in Fells Point where it costs one dollar an hour to park.

“If you are in the know in Baltimore, you can do well,” Furst said.

Way to scam the city out of fifty cents an hour, John, you badass!

Our manager was in the store mornings almost every day, but even then he was usually in his office. Store policy was enforced on employees not through regular supervision but by the threat of surprise inspection by Carl, the manager at another branch owned by same person who owned our store. Carl would do his best to sneak into the store unseen and spring himself upon an unsuspecting employee, asking to count how much was in each register (we weren’t supposed to have more than $50, or $20 overnight- everything else was dropped into a safe) and to see the checklist that every employee was supposed to keep. I called him Rat Man Carl both because of his function in the company and because of his rodent-like appearance.

I was one of the store’s best employees, though it’s hard to overstate just how low the bar was set. If I called five minutes before a scheduled shift to say I wasn’t coming, they were just impressed that I called. I was a friend of the owner and his daughter, and once in a while old ladies would go out of their way to tell the manager how much they appreciated the nice young man who knew how to count their change back to them. There was zero chance of my being fired or reprimanded in any way, and I knew it. Consequently, I couldn’t have cared less about Rat Man Carl and his surprise inspections.  Read the complete post...

It never ceases to amuse me when my mistakes make me money. Here I meant to bet $99 on the river and accidentally bet $9. The result was inducing a huge check-raise bluff from a hand that almost certainly would have folded to my intended bet:

Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BTN: $705
SB: $1,359.35
Hero (BB): $1,230
UTG: $1,336.25
MP: $600
CO: $1,828

Pre-Flop: A 7 dealt to Hero (BB)
4 folds, SB calls $3, Hero raises to $18, SB calls $12

Flop: ($36) 3 9 4 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($36) 8 (2 Players)
SB bets $13, Hero raises to $42, SB calls $29

River: ($120) 3 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $9, SB raises to $234, Hero calls $225

Results: $588 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB showed T Q (a pair of Threes) and LOST (-$294 NET)
Hero showed A 7 (a flush, Ace high) and WON $585 (+$291 NET)

Unfortunately, I decided to flush the profits and then some on an ill-conceived river check-raise bluff of my own:

Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

CO: $998
BTN: $597
Hero (SB): $1,713.20
BB: $352.10
UTG: $1,896.60

Pre-Flop: 8 8 dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG folds, CO raises to $21, BTN folds, Hero calls $18, BB folds  Read the complete post...

This is from my laptop, so sorry for the lack of converted HH. It was from a 5/10 deep game, people’s stack sizes are in parentheses after their names:

UTG ($2000) raises to $40, UTG+1 ($2000) re-raises to $120, CO folds, I ($2000) call the $120 cold, SB folds, BB ($1200) 4-bets cold to $300, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, action is back to me. I have to call $180 into a $700 pot with $900 or so left in the effective stacks. I contemplated folding right here cuz it’s hard to put BB on anything but AA. But I hate making tight folds like this and set odds were close anyway so I called. Flop came Q75 he shoved and I folded. Doubt he shoves AK and QQ just got there.

Absolutely murdered this guy at 10/20 heads up this afternoon. He was decent but overly loose and aggressive and did not adapt well to playing super-deep. As you’ll see, we had a very aggressive pre-flop dynamic going on, but it occurred almost exclusively on my button. The deeper we got, the more I kept pots small when I was out of position, since he was so willing to play big ones when I had the button. I won’t give a lot of commentary on each hand but you can get a general sense of how the game went.

He started off with a 150BB lead but it didnt’ last:

Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $4,000
SB: $7,053.50

Pre-Flop: T 7 dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to $60, Hero raises to $222, SB calls $162

Flop: ($444) 2 K 3 (2 Players)
Hero bets $333, SB calls $333

Turn: ($1,110) 2 (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB checks

River: ($1,110) 4 (2 Players)
Hero bets $895, SB raises to $1,790, Hero raises to $3,445 and is All-In, SB calls $1,655

Results: $8,000 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
Hero showed T 7 (a flush, King high) and WON $7,999.50 (+$3,999.50 NET)
SB mucked 5 6 (a straight, Six high) and LOST (-$4,000 NET)  Read the complete post...

I play FTP’s 200 BB deep stack games almost exclusively. That’s in part because I prefer deeper stacked play but also because the higher stakes regular games are infested with people who buy in for the minimum of 20 BB (the minimum on the deep tables is 50BB). There are some who do it professionally and somehow still manage not to come all that close to a good short stacking strategy but then there are these absolutely atrocious guys who buy in short and play like the loose passive idiots that they are. I constantly make mistakes them against them because I assume that they can’t possibly be as nitty as they are when it comes to showing any aggression.

This isn’t really an example of me making a mistake but it does go to what I’m talking about.

Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $138
MP1: $1,447.75
Hero (MP2): $1,000
CO: $1,523
BTN: $612.30
SB: $1,000
BB: $276
UTG: $1,067

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (MP2)
3 folds, Hero raises to $30, CO calls $30, BTN calls $30, SB calls $25, BB raises to $276 and is All-In, Hero raises to $1,000 and is All-In, 3 folds

Flop: ($642) 6 A J (2 Players – 1 is All-In)  Read the complete post...

Gah how does this not value bet the river?!?!

Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BB: $3,800
Hero (UTG): $4,340
MP: $4,151
CO: $2,000
BTN: $4,026
SB: $3,853

Pre-Flop: A 8 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $70, 2 folds, BTN calls $70, SB folds, BB calls $50

Flop: ($220) A K 7 (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $100, BB folds, Hero calls $100

Turn: ($420) 8 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $275, Hero calls $275

River: ($970) 2 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Results: $970 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A 8 (a flush, Ace high) and WON $967 (+$522 NET)
BTN showed A 8 (two pair, Aces and Eights) and LOST (-$445 NET)

This was an interesting one:

Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $1,050
UTG: $2,182
BTN: $1,186
SB: $1,018.90

Pre-Flop: T A dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, BTN raises to $20, SB folds, Hero raises to $75, BTN calls $55

Flop: ($155) 6 J 3 (2 Players)
Hero bets $111, BTN calls $111

Turn: ($377) T (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($377) Q (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $404, Hero calls $404

Results: $1,185 Pot ($2 Rake)
Hero showed T A (a pair of Tens) and WON $1,183 (+$593 NET)
BTN showed 7 A (Ace Queen high) and LOST (-$590 NET)

I was looking to check-shove the turn because I think his flop calling range is really wide and my T’s will be good often enough but if I check-call I’ll be in a bad spot on river. Given that the turn checked through and the river was another overcard to my pair (and AK got there), I don’t think I can expect to be called by worse if I bet.  Read the complete post...